First Motlow Girls' Team

First Motlow Girls' Team

Motlow Sports

Newspaper article featuring Motlow's first girls' basketball team. Images of players include: Cheryl McKill, Gina Speck, and Debbie Galligan.

Bob Hammers

1974

No restrictions. Open for research.

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English

Newspaper Clipping

First Motlow’s Girls’ Cage Team Drills for Opener

By Bob Hammers

“I think we’ll have a good offensive team, but the defense is a little questionable.” says Pat Sarver, coach of the Motlow State College girls’ basketball squad.
Miss Saver has the chore of getting the squad ready for Motlow’s first girls’ basketball team to compete on an inter-collegiate level. Their first game will be against Columbia State on Nov. 18.
“We have five girls who played high school basketball,” Miss Sarver said. “They give us a good nucleus to work with. We will lack depth, but out girls are showing more progress each week. We’ll need more than just five players to carry us this season, so some of the others will have to learn a lot in a hurry.”
Those five included Karen and Linda Carter of Decherd, Sherry Honey of Fayetteville, Ametrice Davis of Lewisburg and Carla Tart of Manchester. All but Karen are freshmen.
Those out for their first year of basketball are Lisa Kissling, Gina Speck, Cheryl McKill and Deborah Galligan of Tullahoma; Sherry Smith and Kay Langford of Manchester and Joellan Hitt of Shelbyville.
“I’m excited about the season,” Coach Sarver said. “I think we’ll play a good brand of basketball that fans will enjoy watching.”
The girls will play five-man basketball with a 30-second time limit to shoot. The five will play at both ends of the court as opposed to the half-court style of play used in Tennessee high schools. High schools also have six players to a team.
Coach Sarver says that Tennessee is one of the few states left that uses six-man style in girls’ basketball. She says that most states now use the same style as Motlow will employ this season.
Girls’ basketball hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the Tennessee Junior College Athletic Association of which Motlow is a member, but Coach Sarver says it is possible the program will be added by the TJCAA next spring.
“There are several schools in the conference that have had girls’ basketball for some time, Coach Sarver said.
“Hiwassee has had it for 12 years. Cleveland State has had a program for the last eight years, and Volunteer State for the past three. It’s obvious our girls will have their work cut out for them since they will be playing against established teams.”
Before coming to Motlow, Coach Sarver was head coach at Fairfax Hall School for Girls in Waynesboro, Va. for three and one-half years. She played high school ball at both Lafayette and Sparta.
The games will start at 5;45 PM and with the exception of the Feb. 1 game against Roanne State, the rest of the regular schedule will preceed a Motlow boys’ game.

The schedule:

Nov. 18, Columbia State; Nov. 27, at Volunteer State; Dec. 2, ay Columbia State; Jan. 9, at Cleveland State; Jan. 11, Roane State; Jan. 20, Volunteer State; Jan. 25 Hiwassee; Jan. 25, Hiwassee; Jan. 30, Cleveland State. Feb. 7-8 at Hiwassee Invitational Tournament Feb. 15, at Hiwassee.