Hampton-Dumont-CAL Girls Basketball Season Preview

Winter sports have begun at Hampton-Dumont-CAL, and the Bulldogs girls basketball team is ready to begin the season. The Bulldogs are coming off a very successful season last year, as they finished 21-3 and made it to the regional finals. The Bulldogs will be losing a lot of key pieces from last season's team, including four starters who have since graduated. The Bulldogs will only have nine players this season, with six of them being either a freshman or sophomore. Head coach of the Bulldogs, Miranda Stafford, spoke on the challenges of having a smaller, younger team this season.

"We're very, very young and very, very inexperienced," Stafford said. "MacKenzie Valley is really our only returning player with varsity experience."

The Bulldogs had a scrimmage game versus Garner-Hayfield-Ventura on Tuesday, Nov. 18. In the scrimmage, the Bulldogs offense struggled to get a real rhythm until about the second quarter, and as the game went on they looked more comfortable on that side of the ball. Stafford attributed the slow offensive start to the lack of the ability to play five on five in practice.

"This is actually the first time we have played five on five together," she said. "We've only got nine kids in the program. They are young and inexperienced, and they're going to grow and learn every game, and you saw that tonight from the first quarter to the fourth quarter."

Stafford said the Bulldogs will be relying on MacKenzie Valley, but that even she is only a sophomore and is still learning and growing. While repeating the dominance of last season will be hard to replicate with such a new and young team, the Bulldogs will look to improve as the season goes on and be playing their best basketball near the end of the season.

The Bulldogs first regular season game was on Monday, Nov. 24 versus Aplington-Parkersburg and their next game is Tuesday, Dec. 2 at home at 6 p.m.