Absegami Girls' Basketball Team Gets Defensive

Despite missing several key players from last year’s girls' basketball team,
Absegami High School doesn’t plan on changing much.

Braves coach Meghan Tracey still demands strong defense, and wants that
defense to lead to offense.

"We are very young,” Tracey said. “We rely on our defense to generate
offense for us. We want to be aggressive going to the basket and be aggressive on defense. We have to get in the passing lanes and create turnovers to try to get easy baskets.”

The Braves won’t have the services of Mackezie Wimberg, arguably the Braves' best offensive weapon last season. She is out for the season with a torn ACL.

The Braves also don’t have Jameena Coleman, who provided a solid frontcourt presence alongside Wimberg last season. Coleman transferred schools.

However, the Braves do return senior guards Rebecca Sartorio, Christina Lee and Ty Jones-Harris, and juniors Jenna Seddon and Jenna Adams.

“Christina and Jenna Adams will both bring the ball up,” Tracey said. “It
depends on the situation and who is guarding them. They are all interchangeable.”

Also expected to contribute is junior Miranda Romesburg, who at 5-feet,
7-inches tall is the tallest Braves player. Absegami will be smaller than most
teams it faces, but the Braves will have to use their quickness on both ends of the court, and crash the boards as a team.

“We will try to press more. We will see what happens,” Tracey said.

Freshmen Eva Sodaitis and Brielle Clarke will also see some time at the
varsity level.

“They have a good feel for the game,” Tracey said about her ninth graders. “They already have a good understanding on how to play the game, they are learning quickly and have good fundamental basketball skills. You can tell they have been well coached.”

The lack of height may be a problem, but the Braves have some experience
and talent on the perimeter. The Cape-Atlantic League is loaded with quality
teams, and while the Braves may not be expected to be elite, they expect to be competitive.

“I would like us to make the playoffs and I would like us to have a winning
record, that would be a success,” Tracey said. “But as long as we play hard
every game and have fun, that’s a success, too.”