MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As the Gilmer County girls basketball team begins their defense of the Class A state championship, a mix of new guards and veteran frontcourt players comprise the rotation for the Lady Titans. Veteran head coach Amy Chapman likes the makeup of the group.
“Day one coming into practice, obviously we knew we had a new lineup here. Some kids are stepping into bigger roles,” said Chapman. “We just really emphasized to the girls to trust the process. We just needed to get in the gym and work hard, grow, critique and get a little cleaner basketball going on.”
A trio of six-footers return this season for Gilmer County. Sophomore Kenley Hartshorn is in her second season and 6-foot-4 seniors Ava and Blair Dobbins provide the Lady Titans with tremendous size and skill at the forward and center positions.
“They have really come a long way. They have worked really hard and they are so dialed in. They understand the process, obviously for being here for four years. They want to win and they want to do anything it takes to win. They are great kids to coach. They are real intense players, both offensively and defensively. They just make a huge impact defensively. It allows us to do a lot of other things around the perimeter.”
Gilmer won 23 games last season, culminating with a win in the Class A final against Tug Valley. Chapman has laid out a challenging regular season schedule for her team. In addition to Little Kanawha Conference contests, Gilmer has a home-and-home series with Tug Valley and upper-classification opponents late in the month of February. The Lady Titans are 5-0 after defeating Wirt County on Friday evening.
“Ritchie County is a really good program and they are well-coached. They’ve got a nice ball club, so we knew we wanted to get them on the schedule. Obviously, [Parkersburg] Catholic is a good basketball team. We were happy to get them on the schedule a couple of times, and Wirt County. The schedule is, I think, perfect this year. We have the top single-A’s that we need to face and look at. Lewis County is going to be a great end-of-season opponent for us. That will get us ready for our postseason run. Lincoln is well-coached and they play in a [Big 10] Conference that they just play good basketball in that conference.”
Chapman reached a significant career milestone on December 27th. With a victory over Robert C. Byrd, Chapman collected her 300th victory leading her alma mater.
“It is super-humbling. I didn’t even know about it until a couple of days before that game. I am not on social media but I started getting some messages. I didn’t even know about it. But I did have a chance to reflect and just really appreciate my assistant coaches. That was probably my first thought on how lucky the girls and I have it with that staff. They bring so much to the table. I just really appreciate them. Almost all of the credit goes to the players that have come through the program.”
Guard Allie Ellyson led Gilmer County to the state title from the point guard spot a year ago and she has made a speedy transition to the college level. Ellyson is averaging just over 13 points per game at the University of Rio Grande, where she is an every-game starter.
“She has already stepped in the gym a couple of times when she has been home and said hey to everybody. I didn’t get a chance to go down there, but my girls when we practiced early, they could get down to watch one of her home games and support her. We have watched her online all year. We are just real tickled to death. We are not shocked at all with how she is doing at Rio. We are real proud of her.”