Lady Dragons hit the sand as official practice start looms

Just a few weeks before the official start of Missouri State High School Activities Association practice, the Cameron High School Lady Dragons received a bit of variety for their usual open court sessions.

After graduating six of its core players from 2018 the Lady Dragons come into 2019 restocked with young talent, which has first-year coach Addie Floyd excited to officially open practice and get to work.

“I’m really excited about the year. We have some good talent coming up and I feel confident we’ll have a good year,” Floyd said. “We’re doing good right now, but we’re really working on the fundamentals and going back to the basics. We’re drilling them and working at team positivity. My big thing is making sure we’re being positive throughout the year.”

Another aspect of the offseason exciting Floyd is the implementation of the experimental strength and injury prevention program through Cameron Regional Medical Center. Throughout the summer athletes underwent a program CRMC athletic trainers consider on par with DI college programs and professional athletic organizations.

“I’m excited about it. I hope to see a lot of improvement in the girls jumps and movement on the court - the capability to move quickly and get faster to the posts,” Floyd said.

The Lady Dragons will have a fresh start under Floyd, coming off a brief 2018 postseason run. With only two seniors returning from 2018, Floyd said much of the roster will be from 2018’s JV. Entering her third year with the program, and coaching the junior varsity last year, she believes the players coming up are more than capable of the task. 

“We lost six seniors so a lot of my JV are going to be stepping up to varsity. I’ve already worked with them a lot so I know what to expect and what to work on,” Floyd said.

For the players, the 2019 season cannot come soon enough. Junior Aly Yates is one of the athletes participating in the experimental program and has become a fixture during at the open court sessions. Although playing at the varsity level since a freshman, Yates said she has plenty of court experience with the incoming freshmen and sophomores. 

“They’re really athletic and working really hard to make this a really good season,” Yates said. “We weren’t as much of a family as we are this year. We’re already really close. We’re ready to show what that does on that court. Everybody is showing up to open gyms, we’ve had bonding events and camp really helped too. I’m ready to get started. I’m ready to see what this team can do.”