By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
MOUNT ULLA – West Rowan’s 2011-12 season was mostly forgettable.
The season included a break-even 6-6 in the NPC, a blowout loss in the first round of the 3A playoffs, and a final bottom line of 13-14.
The longest losing streak was two. The longest winning streak was three, and that was before Christmas.
West never got on any sort of roll, and while losses to Salisbury, North Iredell and Carson weren’t hard to figure out, a loss to Davie and a 19-point beating from Lexington weren’t easy to explain.
The so-so campaign marked just West’s second losing season since 1994-95, so there was adversity to deal with on and off the court.
Todd McNeely guided the Falcons on last season’s bumpy journey as “rookie coach McNeely” and survived to become “second-year coach McNeely.”
He says lessons, many of them hard, have been learned, and he’s expecting a much smoother ride this time with a talented group that includes Division I signee Shay Steele.
“There were times last season when we not only weren’t on the same page, we weren’t even in the same book,” McNeely said. “Now I think we’re at least on the same chapter. We’re way ahead of where we were at this time last season and everyone who is here knows what I expect. I think it took us a year to figure out the boss was.”
McNeely is the boss. He made that clear in his debut. He sat players over discipline issues even when it meant the Falcons might lose a game they ordinarily would win. Against Statesville, he sat just about everybody. With its normal lineup, West would’ve beaten the Greyhounds by 30, instead of losing by five. In retrospect, that learning-experience night made the difference between a losing or winning season.
It’s time to move on from 2011-2012 now, and there are reasons to be optimistic about West’s present.
The most significant graduation loss was Brittney Barber. She was a tough competitor and contributed 8.0 points per game.
Steele (16.6 points per game) and Nycieko Dixon (12.3) combined for 60 percent of West’s scoring last season and both are expected to shine again.
Steele,6-foot-2, is one of the county’s special athletes. She’s absurdly fast for such a tall player and runs the 400 meters in track in just over a minute. She was second in the Midwest Regional last spring and 13th in the 3A state meet.
A lefty who signed early with Morehead State, Steele is on some lists of the nation’s top forward prospects, and with good reason. Her length and quickness make her the county’s most dangerous shotblocker, and while her offensive game isn’t totally refined yet, she just’s about automatic on lefty layups and bank shots from the left block. Plus, she’s a solid foul shooter.
“She’s really worked hard on some things over the summer and she’ll be better than ever,” McNeely said.
A key for Steele having a stellar season is avoiding first-half foul trouble. Sometimes her desire to block shots leads to fouls, and West needs her on the floor 30 minutes a night. There are also times when Steele will get whistles on clean blocks, simply because referees can’t believe that she can cover as much space as she can as swiftly as she can.
Steele enters her senior season with 977 career points, probably 950 of them left-handed.
Dixon, a 5-4 junior, is an energetic scorer. Her points come in flurries off transition layups and 3-pointers. Quick and explosive, she’s streaky, but when she’s on, there aren’t many better. She poured in 55 points in a two-game stretch last season against East Rowan and Concord. Dixon already has 610 career points.
Senior Alison Sobataka is a returning starter and has the shooting touch to double her 4.9 scoring average. She’s also a capable passer and defender and will be a college signee.
Quanice Miller, a forward who averaged 2.3 points per game, is a probable starter, and she’ll be joined this season by her sister, Shanice, a freshman who was a standout at Southeast Middle School.
McNeely also has kept Khaila Hall on the varsity as a freshman, and that’s no surprise. Hall’s skills received rave reviews last season at West Rowan Middle, and she’s expected to be an impact player for the future and a serious contributor immediately.
Reserves returning from last season include senior guard Niakeya James and senior forward Cierra Cross. James scored 24 points last season, including seven against Statesville. Cross scored in three games.
Anna Edwards and Berkley Alessandrini got a taste of varsity competition late last season.Edwards scored in two of her varsity outings.Sophomores Elizabeth Freeze, a tall post player, and Hunter Gibbons, a very good athlete, round out the squad. Gibbons already is known to county sports fans as a softball standout.
Stir it all together, and the Falcons should have some fun.
“Speed is our biggest asset, and we want to be a very high-intensity team,” McNeely said. “The five we put on the floor won’t necessarily be the best five players. We’ll play whichever five make the puzzle fit.”
Steele and Dixon figure to be two of the county’s top five scorers, and if Sobataka makes shots and Hall is ready, this will be a far more potent offensive team than the group that scored 49 points per game last season. West’s 2011-12 squad was the lowest-scoring bunch of Falcons since 1990.
At the very least, the Falcons should be in for a winning season, and they have dreams and goals well beyond that.
While coaches tend to downplay their chances in the preseason, it’s obvious that McNeely can’t wait to get started.
“I don’t think we can fly under the radar or surprise people,” he said. “We expect to have a really good year.”