Valley's courts now in session

If there's a young one in your life who aspires to play girls basketball, do that child a favor and take her to a high school game this season.
There are some bright talents shining in the Mahoning Valley.
Take Amber Bland, who just might be the best player in the state, for example. The four-year varsity starter will play for Penn State next year and there aren't many teams on Boardman's schedule that have the personnel to slow her on the way to the basket.
Another super talent who is also Big Ten-bound is Ursuline point guard Courtney Davidson. And if you want to show someone what team concept is all about, go to Salem.
Steve Stewart's Quakers were good last year, sharing the Metro Athletic Conference crown with Poland and then winning the Division II district title.
They're probably better this year.
Team make-up
Unlike Boardman and Ursuline, Salem doesn't have a dominating star surrounded by a good supporting cast. The Quakers start five skilled players and have excellent depth on the bench.
Stewart has been starting seniors Lizzie Jesko, Alyson Cotter and Renee Farina at guard and senior Lauren Teal and junior Sarah Hamilton in the post. First off the bench are guard Vanessa Kelly and post player Katherine McGarry.
Cotter, Teal and Hamilton started on last year's team. Jesko would have except she missed the season recovering from ACL surgery.
"But in the first open gym, she could hardly move. She planted and it gave out," Stewart said of his point guard's injury after her sophomore season.
Losing your point guard who set the school record for assists as a sophomore is not usually the first step to a successful season. But Abby Markovich took over the role and helped the Quakers earn a trip to the Barberton regional.
Jesko could only watch.
A show of support
"I missed Lizzie a lot and I know it was tough for her to have to sit and watch, but she was there with us," said Cotter, who is being scouted by Division I and II schools. "She came to all the practices and she was just as much a part of the team as if she had been out there with us."
Teal, a superb volleyball player who most likely will play that sport collegiately, said Jesko "has come back stronger and she really wants to be out there to make up for lost time.
"We're a lot stronger on the outside, and she's good at getting the ball inside and getting the defense to collapse a little bit."
Jesko said not playing "was so hard that I can't even describe it. I felt that we just had to be as good [this] year."
Stepping into the mix are Farina (a West Liberty State recruit) and McGarry, transfer students from Boardman and Poland, respectively. Adding two outsiders to a defending district champion calls to mind what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
So far, the soup is stewing fine.
"Between Teal, McGarry and Hamilton, we have a rotation of three posts that we want to wear people down with," Stewart said. "They are a great trio to have down in there -- they complement each other [because] they all play a different style."
The Quakers' main weakness? Height, specifically a lack of it. Teal and Cotter are the only 6-footers on the roster.
Targeted
Just as Salem's volleyball team has been expected to win just about every match, the Quakers' hoops team is wearing targets on its uniforms.
"It's been pretty much the same situation," Teal said. "My sophomore year and then again this year, we let down and lost one game.
"We ended up sharing the MAC [with Poland]," said Teal of Don Conser's volleyball team.
"We were still up there, but there was disappointment because we didn't come out and play our best," said Teal of the volleyball losses to Canfield in 2001 and Poland in September. "We made some teams' seasons by letting them beat us."
This season, the Quakers are hoping to keep the magic to themselves.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at williams@vindy.com.