{"id":75780,"date":"2017-11-30T13:58:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T20:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lady-panthers-looking-to-improve\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:14:22","slug":"lady-panthers-looking-to-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lady-panthers-looking-to-improve\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Panthers looking to improve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"John
John McHenry: \u201cWe're shooting to be .500 and with the RPI rankings, anything is possible.\u201d<\/span>The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls basketball team takes the court this season, it will do so with several players with little or no varsity experience.<\/p>\n

The Lady Panthers\u2019 lack of familiarity with high school\u2019s highest level doesn\u2019t worry head coach John McHenry however, who believes that this year\u2019s squad is more than capable of improving on last season\u2019s 1-19 record.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, I have two seniors and a great bunch of sophomores,\u201d said the fifth-year head coach. \u201cOur freshman had a great season playing (junior varsity) last season, and now they\u2019re all varsity ball players. We\u2019re shooting to be .500 and with the RPI rankings, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because this year\u2019s team features several skilled players at every position, identifying key contributors is somewhat difficult. At the guard positions however, the Lady Panthers figure to be led by sophomore Hayden Leggit and junior Ayanna Silas, who is back in Cortez after spending last year at Fruita Monument High School.<\/p>\n

Senior Payton Keith, who averaged 5.5 points during last season\u2019s games for which statistics were available will also see time at the guard position, as will senior Allie Martinez, who has not played basketball in a few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of ball handlers and a lot of shooters,\u201d McHenry explained, when asked about his backcourt. \u201cWe saw a lot of teams last year that pressed us and we\u2019re concentrating on being able to break that press. We need to be secure with the (ball) and we want our players to get a little nasty with each other in practice, so that they can used to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While M-CHS\u2019 backcourt will look to provide stability, several talented front court players will look to provide the Lady Panthers with rebounding, defense, and points in the paint. Among those figuring to play a significant role down low are freshman center Paige Yarbrough, sophomore forward Priestley Frost and junior forward Kaily Case.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Yarbrough) is about 6 feet tall, and she has good range,\u201d said McHenry. \u201cI have a lot of posts who will be taking up space. Teams will have to respect our inside game and that should free up our guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming off a winless season in Intermountain League play, the Lady Panthers are all too familiar with the difficulties associated with facing off against perennial league powerhouses such as Centauri, Alamosa, Pagosa Springs, Monte Vista and Bayfield.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his team\u2019s league opponents, McHenry pointed out that Centauri is currently the No. 2 ranked team in CHSAA\u2019s Class 3A preseason poll and Pagosa is ranked fifth overall. The Lady Panthers coach believes that his team can be competitive however, and hopes that players can gain confidence during early season, non-conference games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some \u2018feel good games\u2019 early in the season that will get us some experience and hopefully build our confidence,\u201d McHenry said. \u201cI would like to do well in our early season games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lady Panthers will open their season with a home game against Mancos on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS girls basketball enters year with young talent and positive outlook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,21,13,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75806,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75780\/revisions\/75806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75780"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}