MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When a roster is filled with young players, a season can either end as a rebuilding year or a Cinderella story. Or it can be sung to the catchy tune of “Trust the Climb.” For Morgantown, it doesn’t seem like the former: It looks like the Mohigans may be back in the playoff conversation.
The truth is, though, that Morgantown has never had a lack of talent since its final AAA title came in 2016 – a three-peat that started in 2014 with a 46-39 upset over Parkersburg South. What it comes down to is playing in a region that has seen an exponential rise in talent. Since 2016, it’s been hard to predict who would win Region I between Morgantown, University, Buckhannon-Upshur and Wheeling Park.
“If you’re not ready to play you’re in for a long season, and those are all teams we play twice with the exception of B-U,” Morgantown coach Jason White said. “As a coach, my philosophy has always been: Those are the teams you want to play. You want to know where you are when it comes to the state, and we have the best-of-the-best in our region.”
And this year is no different. Park is returning four seniors highlighted by guard Shanley Woods who averaged 17.6 points per game through 24 games last year. She also shot 41% from the floor and netted 42% of her 3-attempts. The Patriots also have power forward Kieran Johnson who averaged 7.3 rebounds and 4.8 points per game. University sees the return of multiple seniors including guard Ashten Boggs, center Mallory Napolillo and forward Abbie Coen. Buckhannon-Upshur is returning a list of seniors, too, headed by guard Brooklyn Maxwell.
Morgantown, on the other hand, has no seniors on the team. What the Mohigans do have is junior Kaitlyn Ammons and sophomore Kerrington Peasak – both post players – and junior guard Catherine Wassick. If you haven’t heard Ammons’ name yet, you surely will in the coming months if not the next two seasons. The 6-foot-3 forward averaged 12.6 points per game last season and shot 52%. She also averaged five rebounds and posted 34 blocks. She’s already caught the eye of multiple Division I programs including Marshall, Towson and Murray State, and made the Philadelphia Belles 16U team this past summer. While with the Belles, Ammons claimed a national title with the 17U team and earned a spot in tryouts with the Team USA U16 crew.
“You look at the year and you’re playing with house money,” White said. “You don’t have any seniors so it’s no one’s banner year. As a coaching staff, we’re approaching this year as: Whatever we get out of this year, we get out of this year. We’re playing with the same group of girls for consecutive years, so it’s about growing and learning to play together and in the system. We’re building for the future. But we aren’t going to use that as an excuse, we’re going to play hard and give everyone our best shot. I think we have a team that can surprise some people.
Wassick and Peasak are both going to play important roles, too. Predictably, teams will try to put full coverage on Ammons each game, giving the 5-foot-11 Peasak an opening down low and Wassick a chance outside. White knows this, and will teach his team to play in-and-out, as long as Ammons shares the ball with matured guards.
“What other teams aren’t aware of yet are the players surrounding Kaitlyn,” White said. “We’ll put guards on the floor that are quick and athletic with the ability to shoot it and take you off the dribble.”
Aside from Wassick, those guards include Berit Johnson, Mia Henkins and Lindsey Bechtel. Wassick and Johnson bring with them two separate skill sets, while Henkins and Bechtel – both freshmen – will likely be overlooked by opponents.
“[Wassick has] gotten significantly better,” White said. “She’s a slasher and someone who can get to the rim [and] she’s greatly improved her outside shooting. Berit Johnson has made herself better- streaky shooter. No freshman is ready to jump right into varsity basketball, but I think [Henkins and Bechtel] are the most ready of the upcoming group. They aren’t intimidated at all by the situation. I think teams will be shocked by our guard play.”
Other things to look out for in the upcoming season:
Age does not equal leadership ability
With Morgantown losing two of its main leaders in Sydni Clawges and Maddie Seman, it left a huge gap for the upcoming juniors. Luckily, each junior brings with her a special type of leadership according to White.
“Three of our four juniors don’t play a fall sport so they were able to be in the gym,” White said. “[Wassick and Johnson] lead by example. Kaitlyn is more of the vocal leader, [but] obviously her work ethic speaks for itself.
“Reece Moore is new to our program, but I like how hard she plays. She’s obviously a coach’s kid – constantly learning and very respectful. They each bring their own leadership qualities that allow them show the younger kids a different style.”
Moore is daughter of West Virginia co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Matt Moore. He came to the Mountaineer program in January with head coach Neal Brown after spending four years at Troy.
Seven years of title winners and competitors
Since 2013, Region I has had a team in the AAA title game. Also since then, a team from the region has won the state tournament four of the seven times. It started with Parkersburg South in 2013 (South was part of Region I until the 2016 realignment that put them in Region IV), and was followed with Morgantown’s three-peat.
Even with the success, White believes the region is overlooked by most of the state due to that realignment and conference alignment of the state. He’s not upset, though, but challenges people to pay more attention to the talent in Region I – especially on defense.
“Coach Young at Wheeling Park and coach Price at University do a really good job of teaching their teams to play hard,” White said. “Wheeling Park shoots the ball so well, and UHS bangs you on the boards. They do a really good job of making you play. Our focus has been the defensive end of the floor and we have to return to that. We take pride that even if [we’re playing against] a really good team we’re going to limit the ability to score. That’s been a major emphasis of ours in the first nine practices.”
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