Girls' Basketball: Tigers ready to build on solid foundation

Ask any coach, any player, and they'll tell you the same thing.

Rebuilding years are tough.

For the younger players, it's the frustration of having to learn on the fly at the bigger and faster varsity level.

For the older players, it's knowing where you were before isn't a place you can likely get again during your high school career.

From the time the final seconds ticked off the clock of the 2008-09 season, it was a given there were going to be some huge holes to fill in the Tigers' lineup along with some large gaps in continuity.

Douglas went from having 14 combined years of varsity experience to just five, split between five players. Only one starter returned, six of 12 players were new to the varsity level and half of the roster was underclassmen.

Needless to say, expectations didn't exactly soar heading into the year.

But two things became readily apparent about the squad: They work extremely hard and they learn extremely fast.

Through the first month of the season, the Tigers handled a tough non-conference schedule, keeping all but three games within 10 to 15 points and grinding out a couple of valuable wins.

In the final game of the first round of league play, Douglas came up with what would be their best game of the year - a 54-51 upset win over rival Carson in overtime.

From there, Douglas won four of its next six to get into playoff position - something that seemed a far reach just a few weeks prior.

A 44-33 loss to Carson in the regular-season finale, though, set up a play-in game against Fallon the following week, which Fallon took to advance to the playoffs.

"It was really kind of a tale of two seasons," Douglas coach Werner Christen said.

"At the beginning of the year, we just were trying to see how everyone fit together and maybe try to string some wins together.

"As the season went on, we got better and better and our expectations got a little higher. Looking at it as a whole, we finished higher than people out there were picking us to finish, and that is a credit to the girls."

Christen said he got excellent leadership from his two seniors, Ne'Jae Jackson and Susie White.

"It's really tough being a senior on a rebuilding team," Christen said. "They both did a great job. They were good leaders and they did good things on the court.

"I was really happy with how Ne'Jae stepped up this year. She contributed incredible numbers at the post. She held her own against bigger kids in there. We won a lot of close games late and she was a huge factor in that. Whenever we needed a big basket, she seemed to come up with it, or play a part in us getting it.

"Susie didn't get a lot of minutes as a junior, but she put in the work and stepped into a larger role for us this year. She did a good job. This team will be successful down the road and they'll both be a big part of that. They won't be forgotten when good things start to happen. They handled this year amazingly."

Next year's club could potentially return a combined 15 years of varsity experience, along with five players who started at least one game for the Tigers this season.

"With these kids, even the play-in game against Fallon was a nice playoff atmosphere," Christen said. "They learned a little bit about the playoffs with that game and I think by the end of the game, they were upset and bummed and that will leave a taste in their mouth and we'll see how they come back."

A lot of the team's success, Christen said, will depend on how the offseason goes.

"We've always had good athletes, and this group is one of our best in that respect," he said. "But we we don't so much have basketball players.

"We've had success, but we have to become better basketball players. It's a tough balance, because for the majority of our kids, basketball is not their No. 1 sport. It we want to get better and improve, we're going to have to have a great offseason and spend a lot of time in the gym. It's a tough juggling act for these kids, but they work so hard and they are just a great group to be around. They play hard on the court and they are good citizens off the court. You can't ask for much more."

Christen said he regretted some of his decisions during the season and felt he could've given his team some more complex gameplans.

"I don't think I did a very good job this year," he said. "At times, I was too patient with them. There's things I would've changed up and tried with other groups that I didn't this year, because it was such a young group. I wanted to bring them along slowly, but that held them back at times I think.

"Looking back, I think they could've handled it. I was too cautious with them at times and that is on me. That's something we can fix next year though."