If you ask head coach Dobee Plaisance, her Wolfpack’s Gulf Coast Athletic Championship win last season is ancient history.
The upcoming women’s basketball season, which tips off against McNeese State University in Lake Charles on Oct. 27, started off on a high note for the squad. At the beginning of October, the GCAC ranked the women’s basketball team first in its preseason poll. Jessica Barber was named assistant coach, and the team signed three new players for the season: general studies freshman Rachel Nolan, biology freshman forward Ndia Hall and general studies guard Laine Woodruff.
“We savored the moment. Mission accomplished. Now we need to push for bigger and better things,” Plaisance said.
Last season, the Lady ‘Pack went 25-9, winning the program’s first GCAC title.
It started slow, however, as the team had eight of its nine losses prior to mid-January. But after losing to Southern University of New Orleans and Xavier University, the ‘Pack took off on a 17-game winning streak.
“It was slow, really slow,” said forward Trenese Smith, management sophomore. “But somewhere in the middle … we clicked and, our chemistry came together.
Sophomores Trenese and Trenell Smith led the team to take the title last March with a 73-68 win over Xavier University. Trenese went on to win the Freshman Player of the Year award and joined her twin sister Trenell and teammate Kiely Schork, mass communication senior, on the all-conference team.
“Last season was a good time – a lot of our dreams came true,” said Schork. “And winning gave us a lot of drive for this season to continue working harder.”
Assistant coach Alton Clivens said the win last year gave him a different perspective on this season now that other teams are after them, not the other way around.
“It’s different being the hunted, instead of the hunter,” Clivens said.
The current line up for this year’s team are veterans like the Smith twins, Schork, history senior Rachel Kovach, management senior Christine Mangui, psychology pre-med senior Kimberly Rigg and newcomers Hall and Nolan.Plaisance is excited to “have the central nucleus back with the same look as last year” because the team is preparing for upcoming exhibition games against Division I schools University of California Berklee and St. Mary’s University.
“How do you prepare?” said Plaisance, laughing, about the upcoming exhibition games. “I’m preparing the team based on their strengths. We don’t make adjustments based on our opponents.”
Clivens said, “We prepare as though we can beat any team we play. We compete as hard as we possibly can, and we never think we don’t have the ability to win against those Division I teams. I hope they don’t take us too lightly, because we play hard.”
Trenell Smith said, “We don’t mind playing big Division I schools. We just go out, play strong and have fun.”
Smith’s twin sister, Trenese, also plays guard. She agreed and added, “[Since Division I teams] are bigger, stronger and faster players, it really strengthens us and gives us a lot of experience.”
But one player is especially excited to be playing UC Berklee because it’s close to home.
“My family will be able to come to the game … And a lot of my friends back home can come see me play along with my old teammates and coaches,” said shooting guard Schork.
Rigg and Schork added that another tough team to beat will be Xavier University.
“I think they have it out for us,” Schork said.
In practice, the ladies constantly run to increase their speed, learn new drills and practice shooting. “We stepped up our intensity because obviously we have something to defend,” Rigg said about the Wolfpack’s practice routine.
Plaisance believes the team needs to improve on its consistency and intensity, and Clivens thinks the team needs to “stay focused, because we’re playing from the position of being on top.” He also thinks they need to work on getting the new players synched up with the rest of the team’s flow.
“We’re definitely not perfect,” said Trenell Smith. “We need to focus on little things like throwing and catching.” Schork agrees and adds, “We need to focus on our defense … We need to practice on doing every little thing right and doing it every time.”
Plaisance has high expectations for this season and wants the team to “live up to [their] own standards and not anybody else’s.”
“We can go undefeated if we do what we have to do and stay focused,” Trenese Smith said.
Clivens believes their “journey will never be complete until we win nationals. We need to [establish] a winning tradition, and we would love for everyone to be a part of the journey with us.”
“These women are awesome,” Plaisance said. “They’re the most special group of women in the entire country. They really give it their all. And hopefully, we can make this university proud of us once again.”
Briana Prevost can be reached at [email protected]. Jaune Jackson can be reached at [email protected].
