Plains girls prepare for 2015-16 basketball season

PLAINS – The Plains Trotters basketball team began their winter season last week as they began practice sessions for their first year as a Class C team.

There are 17 girls on the team this year. Head Coach Richard Griffin said this was a good number and noted it gave them enough players to field a full varsity team as well as a junior varsity team. It also means they have enough players to have substitutions if anyone is unable to make a game or gets injured.

“This way everybody’s going to get pretty good play time,” he said.

The team is fairly spread out for years and experience level, though they are a relatively young team. There are only a few sophomores and juniors this year with everyone else either freshmen or seniors.

Griffin was looking forward to the new season, but noted there would be some challenges since Plains was just moved to Class C. As a result, they will be facing teams they have never played before. The coach felt they were ready, though, and just needed to play right.

“Just take one practice at a time, one game at a time and learn these other teams and conferences,” he said. “Take those challenges as they arise.”

The Trotters’ first games of the year will be on December 4 and 5 at a tournament in Frenchtown. The close date means they do not get much time for practices, so they will be working hard to get ready quickly. Griffin was pretty happy with the overall situation, though.

“There’s always a couple surprises out there,” he said. “So, you come in ready to go … the next week or two is gonna be fun times.”