Despite some early season struggles and a host of fresh young talent on the roster, the Newberry High girls basketball team is still hopeful for a return to the Regional playoffs in 2008. The Class 3A-District 5 Panthers boasted a 1-3 record at our press time (1-2 in District 3A-5).

The Panthers earned a victory in the first game of the season against District rival Dixie County. However, Newberry dropped its next three games, including two consecutive road losses at P.K. Yonge and The Rock School. Newberry will have a shot at both of those teams on its home court in January.

Even with the losing skid, Newberry head coach Scott Frisina says he’s confident his team can turn things around in the near future. “We’re playing four freshmen, three or four sophomores and we only have two players who were on varsity last season,” says the second-year coach. In addition, Newberry has only one senior on its roster — forward Joquinta Wiggins. “Twelve of our 13 players will be back next year,”?Frisina explains. “As long as we’re learning and making progress this year, that’s all I can ask for.”

The other player who has varsity experience is point guard Lavarsha Nattiel, who leads the team in scoring. “Lavarsha is playing great and shooting and passing well,” says Frisina. “She’s making a lot of really good passes. We’re just not finishing for her.”

Frisina says his focus through the early part of the season will be to help his team improve. “Our biggest thing is focus and concentration,” he says. “We have all the physical tools. We just need to improve the mental aspects of the game. We can put them where we want them to go and we can give them the out-of-bounds plays and everything else. But, they have to have the heart and desire to improve.”

To reach that goal, Frisina says he’ll go to the video tape. “We have video of some of these games that we’ve been playing,” he explains. “That’s going to be a valuable teaching tool to help us improve.”

In addition, Frisina says the Panthers have faced a pretty tough schedule through their first couple of weeks. “We want to play good teams,” says the coach. “Taking our licks is really not that bad, if the players come out and learn from it.”

The Panthers will face Dixie County on the road on Tuesday, December 11, 7 p.m. The Panthers’ next home game will be against Hawthorne on Wednesday, December 19, 7 p.m.