Onaway girls hope to finally break through, win district title
ONAWAY — John George's program has been knocking on the door at a district title for a while now.
Heading into his fifth season as Onaway's varsity girls basketball coach, George hopes this will finally be the year for the Lady Cardinals, who are coming off a solid 2021 campaign in which they reached the district final before falling to a talented Posen team.
"We just haven't gotten over that hump yet," said George, who guided the Lady Cardinals to a 12-11 record last season. "Obviously we set season goals and weekly goals and daily goals, but I think ultimately all those kids are going to be a lot happier going out of this place with a district title and a date on that banner, where they can say that they contributed to that. That's what we're shooting for."
What George will have on his side is experience, as four of his five starters from last season's team return.
Among those is standout senior point guard Taylor Larson, who earned All-Ski Valley Conference and All-Area honors as a junior.
Larson will thankfully compete for the Lady Cardinals after suffering a season-ending leg injury during her softball campaign last spring.
"Taylor is going to be our leader for us no matter what," George said. "We did a scrimmage the other day, and I thought she looked good. When you see her in practice she seems to be favoring (her leg) still, but then when she got in the scrimmage and when she played — I don't know if it was adrenaline or whatever else took over — but you don't really notice that she had a leg injury. We hope she remains the same, obviously, because we're a lot better off with her on the court."
Taylor Larson will be joined by fellow seniors Nicole Larson, a shooting guard, Cloe Ehrke, a small forward, and Macie Decker, a forward.
Also returning are juniors Madilyn Crull, Aubrey Benson and Gavi Woiderski, who should each be solid contributors.
Rounding out the Lady Cardinals are freshmen Kailyn George and Charlotte Box.
"I've got seven returners, which is nice because they're all plug-and-play-type kids, so they're used to the system and everything we've done for the most part," George said. "It should be a pretty easy transition for them, and so far it's shown to be easier than what it was in the past."
In addition to experience, speed will also be a strength for the Lady Cardinals, who hope to have a solid Ski Valley Conference campaign.
"I think that our speed is going to be a big part of (how we'll play), we should be quick," George said. "Even with the young kids, the freshmen that are coming in, I'm not going to say they're going to be green but they're definitely polished as far as playing a lot of basketball. That group has been traveling a lot from the younger ages all the way through. They're going to help us out, but I think the biggest positive we're going to have is experience. We've basically got our returning starting five back, so that's always helpful. We've got two others that we added that got minutes on the varsity last year as well. Seven strong with experience — and seven good ones at that.
"I will certainly take that any day. Whatever we get out of the freshmen that do help us, that's a bonus."
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Onaway girls basketball seeking district title
