By Thomas Sellers Jr.
It seems like a long time ago, but the Millington Lady Trojans are the defending District 14-3A regular-season and tournament champions.
But graduating five seniors including college signees Erin Clark, Treasure Redding and UT-Martin’s Tiara Caldwell, many basketball experts are picking Bruce Marshall’s Lady Trojans to be dethroned.
That trio along with Seymon Taylor and Troi Chestnut lodged several minutes for Millington last season. Now Marshall has the challenge of defending a championship with several new faces in the lineup.
“Kendra is the only senior,” he noted. “She’s going to have to provide a lot leadership for us. There are some young kids going to come in and push the older kids for playing time.
”The great thing that I look at is for the next three to five years, there’s going to be a lot of competition in practice,” Marshall added. “If you don’t bring your best, someone is going to pass you by.”
Kendra Richardson was a junior starter last season feeding passes into the post to feature Caldwell and Redding. But this year as a senior Richardson will be counted on for more of a scoring boost.
Richardson’s veteran experience will also be needed in practice to help a program with 10 freshmen. Richardson learned from her days of battling the Class of 2013 in practice.
Marshall is expecting practices these days to be even more competitive.
“There’s going to be a lot of competition,” he said. “That’s one thing I have to keep stressing is that you have to bring it everyday.
”I’m really looking at the junior class with Jhardi Walker, Lindsey Harris and Gabby Knox,” Marshall continued. “They’ve been here since I’ve been here. They’ve gotten a lot of experience in JV. And they’ve got experience in varsity games. They’ve got to help Kendra in the leadership roles showing these younger kids how it is to work everyday.”
Walker will be a true post player for the Lady Trojans. Knox and Harris will help Richardson with the perimeter.
Another athlete who will be featured in the Lady Trojans’ lineup will be sophomore Glenda Garner. With interior size and facing-the-basket skills, Marshall wants to incorporate Garner in many phases of the offense.
Marshall said all his player improved during the summer and through reps in JV basketball. That improvement will need to show in the new-look district. Craigmont has dropped to Class 2A and Kingsbury makes its debut in District 14-3A.
Millington will compete against the Lady Falcons and old foes Arlington, Bolton, Cordova and Bartlett.
“I don’t know a lot about Kingsbury who is the new kid on the block,” Marshall acknowledged. “I look for Arlington to be tough. They didn’t loose a lot as for graduation. I really think Bolton is going to be really tough. They return about four or five senior. They have a heck of a player in Savage.
“Bartlett has picked up a couple of kids,” Marshall concluded. “The league is going to be really competitive. I plan on defending that title. A lot of people aren’t going to have a lot of respect for us going into the season. But by the time we hit district, we’ll be very, very tough. We’ll make some noise.”