Van Meter continues to build Lady Raiders
The Waynesburg Central Raiders are looking to improve upon a season in which their record didn’t prove it, but they became a more competitive team.
Although the wins didn’t exactly pile up (the team was just 1-21, 0-12 in the section), this team is returning four starters and lost just three seniors and one starter.
Coach John Van Meter expressed just a couple of weaknesses, including an inability to pull out wins in close games.
“Our weakness would be overall numbers,” he said. “Here’s our problem: we are better as a team, but are struggling with situations where we are up by two or down by four with a minute to go.
“We lost a couple games over the summer that we were in to the end. Missing free throws and turning the ball over at the end of games due to the overall inexperience of our team. Overall, that’s our weakness.”
Van Meter hopes to overcome those weaknesses with what he perceived as strengths.
“Our strengths would be our quickness and our heart,” he said. “We play as hard as or harder than any team I’ve ever coached and I’ve been coaching in some capacity for 25 years now.”
There should be some natural improvement in the Lady Raiders, based on the fact they have the same coach in place and know what he expects.
“Our biggest area of improvement from last year to this year is better shooting and familiarity with the system,” he said. “The players have a better understanding of what we are trying to do and how we teach the game.”
While talking about the team’s improvements from last year, he mentioned the goals he has for the players during the upcoming season.
“Our goals for the season would be trying to improve their knowledge of the game, as well as their skill level, their strength, our ability to execute and our team speed,” he said.
The Lady Raiders open their season on Dec. 9 at Jefferson-Morgan in the Lady Rockets’ season-opening tip-off tournament. The Lady Raiders play the host team in the second game of a doubleheader. Waynesburg hosts Albert Gallatin Dec. 12 before opening Section 4-AA action at home against Brownsville on Dec. 15.