They probably exceeded my expectations. The freshmen had a good squad of eighth-graders last year (16-4 overall). They were an athletic group of girls and I was feeling good before the season started, but you never know. I didn't know about the competition.

They have to play. They need to get that game experience. It's hard to create a tight game situation in practice. Playing is important, but they need to work on ball-handling, too.

I really gained what I needed with Delaney and that was a point guard, a leader on the floor. She was used to doing that as an eighth-grader, and I think it helped, not that we couldn't have used Chelsea Sager, but she was ready. Chelsea was ready to go up. She was big enough and athletic enough to move up, and I'm glad she did. Delaney got into her comfort zone and got a little more confidence, and I think that will help her for next year with the varsity point guard position being open.

They played well together and got along well. They played hard from the beginning to the end. They were aggressive. They got after it on the floor. They never gave up. Many games were up-and-down games, but they never gave in. Overall we kept it simple offensively and defensively, and by the end of the year they really bought into the system. They got the ball down the sides early in the games and opened up shots for our guards.

Having almost all freshmen and starting just one sophomore, I was real happy with how they competed. They played hard.

It's surprising, but a lot of times we've had really talented running backs so once you get down to the goal line, we were able to run it in most of the time.