Cheesman takes reigns of St. Regis girls basketball

A scrappy, never quit attitude was the hallmark of last year’s young St. Regis High School girls basketball team.

New head coach Tyler Cheesman is counting on that never-quit characteristic and another year of experience among key players as a reason to be confident the Lady Tigers will improve on their 4-15 record from last season.

Returning for the 2021 campaign are a flock of promising young players, including Baylee Pruitt, Macy Hill, Rylie Burnham and Taylor Hurd and senior Grace King

Gone from last year’s squad are 5-10 post Sunny Shoupe and Kylee Thompson, the lone senior from the 2019-20 squad. Shoupe transferred out of the area over the summer.

Returning starter King will be counted on to continue her solid play from last year underneath the basket.

Cheesman, who takes over the head coaching position from last year’s coach, Brooks Sanford, said she is counting on team speed to be a major positive factor this year.

“We have a lot of overall team speed,” Cheesman said. “And we have more experience this year with a large number of returning players. We also have some promising young talent coming up.”

Last year’s team finished with a 1-6 record in 14C play. They picked up a pair of victories during the year against Victor and Lincoln twice.

The returnees include some sharpshooters in Hill and Hurd, while all the returning starters were energetic defenders who kept battling despite the score.

“This year we are working to set a foundation of what we want for Lady Tiger basketball,” Cheesman said. “We have a large number of players who have had success when they were younger and we plan to utilize that to improve throughout the season.”

Like most teams preparing for the upcoming, Covid-altered season, keeping players healthy is of prime concern to Cheesman.

“Our biggest concern right now is to stay healthy and keep all of our girls on the floor the whole season,” she said.

The school has been plagued by virus concerns throughout the fall, as have most schools in the area.

The Lady Tigers will be looking to get things going when they open their season with a home game Friday, Jan. 7 against perennial conference powerhouse Hot Springs.

Things don’t get much easier the next night, Saturday when they travel to nearby Superior for a game against Clark Fork (Superior/Alberton co-op), which also advanced to Divisional play.

However, with another year under the belts and a return of their scrappy, game-long hustle, the Lady Tigers will be a team to reckoned with.