Ward Sutlive, sports editor

As of October, the Berry College women’s basketball team is officially back in action. With a great deal of new blood being added into the mix, and a new goal for the season, expectations are high this year.

Senior power forward Briaiah Lewis is looking forward the new season and is interested to see how the new players fit into the overall team dynamic.

“I’m really excited,” Lewis said. “We have a lot of new players which is always a learning curve because there are seven new people who need to learn the new material. We have a lot of talent coming in and I’m really excited for them.”

According to Coach Thomas Johnson, the Berry women’s basketball team has not won a conference game yet. Because of this, Johnson is determined to change that and lead his team to that victory that they crave.

“There have been a lot of conference winners here and we’re just trying to duplicate what they do to make sure that we represent Berry the right way,” Johnson said. “[We] want to make sure that we give a lot of publicity to the program and to
the institution.”

Hopes are high for this season’s team, as the preseason polls indicate. The women’s basketball team came in third in the conference rankings. According to  Johnson, however, this is more ceremonial than anything else. He said that his team should have been ranked higher, and that the only way to make that happen is through grit and hard work.

“We have been preseason picked as being number three in the conference but that’s just on paper,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to get up every day and work to get better.”

The team has spent a great deal of time preparing for this season, according to sophomore combo guard Isabella Ramirez. One particular method of training that has been very helpful have been the two scrimmages that the team held. One was against Georgia State University while the other was against the College of Charleston. Ramirez believes that these scrimmages were very beneficial to the entire team.

“We obviously learned a lot of things from the scrimmage and I think that’s the whole point of doing these types of games is to improve on things that we need to work on as a team,” Ramirez said. “I also think it will be good film to go back and watch and highlight some things that we are doing really well as a team.”

The team has also put more of a focus on weight training than they have done in previous seasons, according to Lewis. While it’s always been an aspect of preseason practice, this year the team asked Johnson to let them do weight training for the entire season. He agreed, and Lewis said this new strategy will be an excellent benefit for the team as a whole.

“We’re still lifting even though we’re out of preseason officially,” Lewis said. “But it’s been really great for us to be working on things, strengthening ourselves and doing things that will prevent injury.”

The new players added to the team this year consist of six freshmen and one transfer student. Ramirez believes that these new players have adjusted well to playing basketball at a colligiate level. Ramirez and her teammates have also worked to instill the core player values of the team within the new players, such as their key focus on defense. According to Ramirez, the freshmen and transfer student are fast learners and have been challenging their new teammates in a healthy way.

“We have a good amount of chemistry, and the new players bring a lot of energy and competitive spirit,” Ramirez said. “They really push us but we try and push back and I think that’s really helping us in the long run.”

Lewis said that she and her teammates are trying to emphasize is their team has a player led dynamic. This means that the players can be self-sufficient, not needing their coach to also act as their life guard. Lewis in particular takes this mentality very seriously and works it into every practice.

“I do so by correcting those around me but also by being encouraging and showing up every day in practice to play really hard,” Lewis said. “It sets a standard for everyone else and it rises people to that occasion.” 

Johnson has also been helping the new players get adjusted. He is very optimistic about the new blood that has the joined the team and considers them to already be in a good position as players. He also said that they will manage to rise above any possible challenges that they might face in
the future.

“[I’m] trying to get them acclimated to how we do things here with our program and family, making sure that they are getting off to a good start,” Johnson said. “But  basketball will be the basketball and they’ll learn it and pick it up because they’re good players.”

According to Johnson, the team has a big year ahead of them. They have an intense schedule, which is mainly because they will be having a non-conference schedule for the
current season.

Despite this complicated schedule Johnson believes that everything will work out in the end. He also took the time to explain what a non-conference schedule was.

“We get to play 25 games, and we have nine teams in our conference, so we’ll play the nine conference schools later in the year and play everybody twice,” Johnson said. “Then we get to play some extra games to get to 25 and so that’s what we call non-conference.”

The team had their first official game against Huntingdon College last Friday. They won with a final score of 48-46. In the days leading up to the game, the team continued to practice and prepare, just as they had already been doing. Many players such as Lewis were very excited for the new season to officially begin and were looking forward to the match. Lewis was also happy to not have to compete against a Division one team like they previously did in their last scrimmage.

“We played College of Charleston in an exhibition game and they’re obviously a higher division and are extremely competitive,” Lewis said. “So I’m really excited to play against someone who’s in our division and to be able to still compete at a very similar level.”

The team’s next game will be against LaGrange College. It will take place this Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and will be held in the Cage Center. It will be their first Southern Sports Association Classic game of the season.