New Kent-Meridian High girls basketball coach Amanda Phelps takes a more conservative approach than the aggressive style of Royals boys coach Brian Lockhart as she hopes to wear her competition down with solid defense.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Phelps has moved up the ranks in the Royals coaching staff, taking over the top spot from her husband, DeForrest. Before becoming head coach she was an assistant coach for several years at Kent-Meridian and Juanita High School in Kirkland.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a really smooth transition, a lot of them knew what style basketball I play,\u201d Phelps says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n So far this season, the Royals beat Mountain View, of Vancouver, and lost to Hazen and Tahoma.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n K-M comes off a difficult prior season, with a 1-13 record in the South Puget Sound League and a 2-16 record overall. Phelps hopes that a defensive play style and new talent will change that streak.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n She sees sophomore center Savannah Lackey and junior guard Shanaya Baladad as good front-running players on the team this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s (Baladad) that girl that will create plays, she\u2019ll drive through the hole and create a shot,\u201d Phelps says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n One of the key aspects that Phelps expects to work on will be the team\u2019s endurance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll play really great in spurts, half a quarter here or a full quarter. They just don\u2019t play that well consistently,\u201d Phelps says. \u201cIt\u2019s an issue of both physical and mental endurance.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n She\u2019s trying to encourage the girls to focus more on the game than the scoreboard.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHave a 0-0 mentality,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re not behind, you\u2019re not ahead, you\u2019re just playing a game of basketball.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n =====<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kentridge Chargers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Coach<\/strong>: Bob Sandall<\/p>\n<\/p>\n League record last year<\/strong>: 12-4, qualified state<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Overall record<\/strong>: 18-9<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Starting returners<\/strong>: Alicia Dugan, Sr., 5-9; Bobbi Westendorf, Sr., 5-11; Jazmin Caliman, Sr., 5-7; Kiki Gilbert, Sr., 5-6; Natalie Clifton, Sr., 5-9<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Top Newcomers<\/strong>: LaDrea Ford, Jr. 5-11; Morgan Gary, Fr., 5-9; Taylor Jenkins, So., 5-11<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Team strengths<\/strong>: Experience. Return 8 seniors with lots of playoff experience.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Team outlook<\/strong>: Beamer is at the top of the league, followed by Kentlake, Tahoma and Kentridge<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note<\/strong>: Look for a feature next week on the Kentridge girls team<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kent-Meridian Royals<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Coach<\/strong>: Amanda Phelps, first year<\/p>\n<\/p>\n League record last year<\/strong>: 1-13<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Overall record<\/strong>: 2-16<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Team outlook<\/strong>: Royals look to turn around last year\u2019s losing season led by center Savannah Lackey and guard Shanaya Baladad <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New Kent-Meridian High girls basketball coach Amanda Phelps takes a more conservative approach than the aggressive style of Royals boys coach Brian Lockhart as she hopes to wear her competition down with solid defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":9008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9007"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}