Nov 16, 2020

Junction City Lady Blue Jays Basketball Previews Season

Posted Nov 16, 2020 11:52 PM

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Monday marked the first day of practice for winter sports in the state of Kansas, including the Junction City Lady Blue Jay basketball team. 

Head Coach Tim Testa spoke on the challenges surrounding the team this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

"I think our staff has a really good plan for trying to take care of some of the mitigation stuff," said Testa. "The girls are going to wear masks as much as we can throughout the tryout process and through actual basketball practices. I'm going to have a manager specifically in charge of sanitation, spraying the girls' hands with hand sanitizer, keeping the basketballs clean, and then we're just going to do our best to stay spread out."

Coach Testa also said he expects there to be schedule changes throughout the season, but that he is "wide open," on rescheduling and mentioned that he's just hopeful that his team gets a season. 

But even with the concerns and uncertainty of this season, Testa was adamant that their positive finish to last season provided a boost heading into this year. To end the 2019-20 season, the Lady Blue Jays won three of their final five contests, including a sweep of Topeka West. 

The team also returns four starters from a season ago, in Dorian Robinson, Andrea Davis, Mellana Davis, and Lucy Rivera, all of whom are seniors, which is yet another reason for positivity heading into this season.

Coach Testa also cited Jayda Harris as another key returner who started several contests as a sophomore a year ago. 

"We've got some experience coming back," said Testa. "we're going to have to match those up with a whole lot of sophomores. Our freshman group was pretty dang good last year, so between our senior class, just a couple of juniors and our sophomores, that'll be kind of how the team's built."

The Junction City Lady Blue Jays are scheduled to open up the 2020-2021 season on the road at Seaman High School in Topeka on December 4th.