Lady Kahok Basketball Back in Action

Lillie Cuddeback, Staff Writer

Collinsville Lady’s basketball is back in action for the 2022-2023 season. 

Last year the Lady Kahoks went 15-17. They advanced to the regional finals but ended up losing. 

“It went pretty okay. We weren’t as successful as we hoped for,” said senior captain Jenna Scheller.  

The Kahoks are ready to rumble for this new season. 

“Our goals this season are to get better every day,” said Coach Colin Moore. “We have the chance to have a great record. We would love to make it back to play in the regional championship again.”

The Kahoks placed 7th in their first tournament in Nashville. Besides the tournament they have won six regular season games. Their first win was against Cahokia High School, 70-31.

“We’re having a lot of injuries and illnesses so that’s affecting the number we have on the court,” said Scheller when talking about the struggles this team has been facing at the beginning of their season.

When asked about her team’s strengths Scheller said, “Last year we had basically the same team as this year. We have good team chemistry.” 

Along with chemistry, the team has experience. 

“Our strengths are that we have four returning starters from last year”, said Coach Moore. “We are overall a pretty young team and have some learning to do, but we are hoping we can surprise some teams this year. We have great senior leaders that have left their mark on the program.”

“As a team we have very skilled tall players and ball handlers,” said senior captain Megan Janson. “Another strength is that we force teams to shoot from the outside instead of giving easy inside shots.” 

The players on the sideline are absolutely electric when it comes to cheering their team on. 

“We’re playing more as a team and focusing on doing all the little things correctly instead of focusing on how many points we score,” said Janson. 

The Lady Kahoks will have a competitive season, but overall should be successful.

“The biggest challenge is just staying together,” said Coach Moore. “We compete in a long and tough season.” 

“I think our biggest challenge is going to be competing with teams we know we are better than and making sure we don’t play down to their level,” said Janson. “We want to be able to dominate teams instead of letting them linger around and make easy shots.”

The Lady Kahoks look like a different team this season. 

“We’re playing a lot more girls,” said Scheller. “We don’t just restrict it to the same seven or eight girls playing. We normally play with all ten girls.” 

The Lady Kahoks are just at the start of their long season. Plan to come watch a game! You don’t want to miss them in action. 

James Gurley