The key to any successful sports team are players and coaches who all have the same end goal in sight. A skilled bunch that collectively strive for success is the essential piece to a rewarding season. The women’s basketball team is no exception.
Work ethic and stable communication are going to bring success to the team this year as they work on achieving their lofty goals: to win the conference championship, the regional championship and finally the national championship.
“We collectively are working towards the same goal and we all plan on accomplishing our goals,” said junior guard Juliana Cavallaro. “Good team chemistry is what will lead to our success.”
In order to accomplish their target victories, the team uses their group of experienced players to lead the newcomers by example.
The team has started to prepare for the season intensely and as the majority of the basketball team consists of returning players from last year’s conference champion team the Spartans are looking to compete better than ever.
“We’ve brought back a lot of last year’s conference championship team. That was the most successful team that we’ve had here in the history of women’s basketball,” said Head Coach Tom Jessee. “Bringing back that experience is our ultimate success story. So this preseason has been dedicated to getting our bodies back in shape and blending in our new pieces.”
Additions to the roster this season include four freshmen and two transfers, all of whom must adapt to Tampa’s style of play in order to create a cohesive team.
However, that usually poses the biggest challenge, especially when a team has their sights set as high as a national championship. Freshmen guards Karmen Jermie and Katie Rienas, along with transfers Shanika Baker and Vanessa Sylvain, pose hopeful additions to the team and are expected to keep up with the returning players.
“They’ve got to step in and be ready early. When you’ve got these kind of goals, you can’t have a lot of down time,” Jessee said. “Those four have got to learn our system, how we play offensive and defensively, that will be the challenge or them. The faster we pick it up, the faster we are going to get started with our goals.”
While the players and coaches are hopeful for another successful season, as reigning conference champions they know their competitors are going to want to strip them of their title. Furthermore, Jessee notes the difficulty of the Sunshine State Conference in particular, as the nine teams are all highly-skilled and competitive.
“Our conference is the best conference in the country right now in regards to women’s basketball depth wise,” Jessee said. “We will have a bullseye on our back because we are the reigning conference champions. So anytime you walk into a gym with the tradition we have, we are going to get their best game.”
Despite the challenges that the Spartans are expecting to face with every team in the conference, there are a few stand-out rivals that they are hoping to upset in particular.
“We’ve got our traditional rivalries, us and Rollins have been banging heads for years,” Jessee said. “Nova is a team that upset us last year in the regionals to get to the Elite Eight, so that has created a rivalry between the two of us as well.”
While the team is looking to achieve the conference, regional and national titles as their main goals, they also intend to carry out more specific team accomplishments to keep their focus in the right place.
“We plan to have a team GPA of 3.2 and lead to be the best defensive team in the conference,” Cavallaro said.
The team will commence their season on Nov. 14 and 15, where they will be hosting the Spartan Challenge Tournament. Teams attending the tournament will include Florida Southern, Flagler and Georgia College.
Tess Sheets can be reached at tess.sheets@theminaretonline.com