Small Is Beautiful

DAYTON - The Lady Bulldogs, many riding high on enthusiasm from their success on the volleyball court this fall, are uneasy going into this basketball season. "We're not a real solid varsity this year," said Shelby Smith, a junior and the tallest girl, at 5-foot-eight, on the squad. "We're going to have to work hard and play bigger than we are." But head coach Scott Hudson has faith in the girls. "We're young, and we're not real tall," he said. "But we certainly have quickness, we have people who can shoot."

And they believe in them­selves, he said. Sometimes attitude counts for every­thing, and Hudson believes his squad has the right at­titude. A majority of the players, including Smith, just finished up a league-champi­onship volleyball season.

"They are absolutely in­spiring," he said. "I have been coaching for 12-plus years, and I've never seen a more enthusiastic and supportive group of girls."

During a recent practice, a group of the girls who were not involved in the drill be­gan to sing the fight song for those drilling, Hudson said. "I've never seen anything like it," he said. This will be Hudson's fourth year as head coach for the Dayton girls' basketball team. The squad is also short on players. Girls' basketball usually gets less of a turn-out than volleyball, Hudson said, but just 15 young ladies have remained on the squad since try-outs, and none of those are seniors.

"But we only lost two seniors last year, and we brought up four freshman," Hudson said. "So we essen­tially

get to start up where we left off last year."

This should give the Bull­dogs at bit of a boost in a year they may need it more than usual. "I feel that if we can just improve on something ev­ery game, by the end of the season, with these gals' attitudes and their efforts in practice, we have just as good a chance as anybody at vying for a post-season spot," Hudson said.

This would be an im­provement from last year, when for the first half of the season, "We got our tails handed to us," Hudson said.

Though the team is young, with four juniors, four sopho­mores and one freshman on varsity, most have at least a year's worth of varsity expe­rience. "We're hoping the five returning varsity from last year will meld with the four new ones, and we'll be able to take off," Hudson said.

The Lady Bulldogs play their first game of the season Tuesday, Nov. 30, at home against Tekoa-Oakesdale. The girls' varsity game is scheduled for 6 p.m., JV at 3 p.m. The boys' varsity plays at 7:30.