Moniteau revives the fun
CHERRY TWP— Maura McCaslin, Jenna McCorry and Alex Guercio sit around a small television in the coaches room at Moniteau High.
The trio, who have accounted for 42 points per game for the Warriors this season, are digesting game film of their next opponent.
McCaslin is paying particular attention. As the point guard, she'll make the offensive calls.
"We give her the keys to the car," says Moniteau coach Mark Yeager. "She calls all the plays — the offense, our out-of-bounds plays."
The Warriors are having fun again and are enjoying life in rarified air these days as they sit atop the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference South standings with a 14-5 overall record and a 11-3 league mark following a win over Keystone Friday night.
For the first time in a long time, Moniteau is looking down at teams like Union, Keystone and Karns City instead of up at them.
"We're having a blast," Yeager said. "It's not just the winning. It's everything. These kids are best friends and you can tell. They are unselfish and just a joy."Winning is certainly helping the mood around Cherry Township as the cold winter months yield to the promise of spring.It's the promise that had been absent the last two years for the Warriors' Big Three.Moniteau was 14-33 over that span before its breakout 2008-09 campaign."It was really hard because we always put in the effort," said Guercio, a 5-foot-9 junior who is leading the team at 15.2 points per game. "We always practiced hard and played so hard, 100 percent every time, and we kept falling short. And we had played together for so long, it was heartbreaking."The trio complement each other well:• McCaslin, a 5-6 senior, is the slasher, throwing her body into the fray with a relentless style.She also can shoot from the outside and handles the ball extremely well."Maura is capable of breaking down two or three people," Yeager said. "At Union, there was a play where she looked like a ping-pong ball in there, bouncing off of this person and that person."Her pre-game ritual is second to none.Well before the junior varsity game begins, McCaslin can be found at an isolated hoop, shooting jumpers. Then she grabs two basketballs and dribbles both from one end of the court to the other like a player on loan from the Globetrotters."I tell my younger girls, 'Watch Maura,'" Yeager said. "'Watch what she does.'"
• McCorry, a 5-4 junior guard, is the Warriors' sniper, capable of scoring from anywhere on the floor.McCorry spent her early days in the program keeping stats and watching players like Alyssa Deal enjoy success and playoff appearances."I really looked atAlyssa Deal as a great role model," McCorry said. "She was the one I always watched, and I took a lot from her."McCorry struggled last season finding consistency with her shooting.She spent the offseason playing as much basketball as she could — and succeeded. McCorry played on two AAU teams and was a mainstay at open gyms."My confidence was really low before this year, but getting confidence in the summer that I could shoot the ball helped me out a lot," she said.• And then there is Guercio, the X-factor and muscle inside.Guercio is averaging 6.7 rebounds per game and has been the key to Moniteau's success."Where Alex really thrives is if teams play zone against us, we kick it in there and she is really good at feeling the double team and kicking it back out."The Big Three really is the Big Four, as far as Moniteau is concerned.They'd rather be referred to as the Beatles than the Jonas Brothers.Kathleen Harding, a 5-6 junior swing player, is the team's top defender. She shuts down the opponent's top scorer as a matter of routine."If we didn't have her, we wouldn't be where we are today," McCorry said."She is a mad defensive player," Guercio added. "Mad."With these four horsemen, the Warriors are expecting to go far.To a player, they relish their success, but believe there is much more to be done."I'd be happy with our season at the end of it," McCaslin said. "But I think there is a lot more we can accomplish."
