Small women’s hoops roster might just work for WSU

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer Updated 1:29 AM Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Even though the Wright State women’s basketball team is lacking players, with a roster of just nine, coach Bridgett Williams said that shouldn’t make much of a difference in the way the team practices.

“We still practice with a rotation of about 10 guys,” said Williams, who uses male practice players, the way most women’s teams do. “I’m starting to see it at the high school level, too. Our players develop quickness playing against males.”

Williams is in a short-handed situation after she and her staff decided to concentrate on recruiting players for next season, which she deemed a stronger class. She also had a nearly full roster of 12 players.

But from last season to this, three players left the team — including All-Horizon League guard Shey Peddy — and there are no freshmen. In a way, that’s good.

“We like to think we’re ahead of where we were a year ago,” said Williams, who noted she doesn’t have to teach freshmen what’s going on. “We have three seniors (Kanisha Ward, Charne Dixon and Erica Richardson) and two others who are academic seniors (transfer Ta-myra Davis and redshirt Tanni Scott).”

And Williams secured that class for next season, getting verbals from seven players, four of them from Ohio.

The Raiders on Tuesday were picked to finish seventh in the Horizon League preseason poll.

Call for ball girls

Anyone wanting to be a ball girl for the women’s basketball team should call Erin Anderson at (937) 775-3754.

High finish means travel

Finishing second in the Horizon League was a good thing for the Raiders in women’s soccer, but it also meant not being able to host a quarterfinal game in the HL tournament.

Instead, the Raiders go directly to the semifinals next Friday at UW-Milwaukee, which is the  No. 1 seed. Wright State plays the winner of one of this weekend’s quarterfinal matches.

“We thought about playing an exhibition game this week to stay in rhythm,” WSU coach Pat Ferguson said, “and if you win, you’re a genius. But if you play and lose and someone gets injured, you’re a moron and have to go into another line of work.”

Gold medalist

Jessie Zamichow, who played on the women’s soccer team for a year but didn’t appear in a game, helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the recent Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan.

Zamichow, from Holland (near Toledo), was the goalie for the winning American team that allowed one goal in four games.

She is a junior at Wright State.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157  or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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