Women’s Basketball poised for success under new coach

By Sofia Montoya-Deck

Women’s basketball is looking forward to a strong season under the leadership of new head coach DeRonte Polite.

The team ended last year’s run with a losing record of 4-21 but has high hopes for the upcoming season.

Senior Tiffany Manning is excited for the team’s new chapter with Polite. “I like him a lot and what he brings to our team,” she said.

Before coming to Hood, Polite spent 4 years as a D1 assistant at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “It is a definite partnership when you consider D3 women’s basketball versus D1 women’s basketball,” he said of the transition. “I am not allowed to coach and train my team as much as I was able to at the D1 level. So, here, the student-athletes must take a lot of ownership in their own success and development.”

Polite began practices with the team in early September, placing a focus on conditioning, organizing the offense and honing fundamental skills, such as communication. He typically dedicates the third hour of practice to shooting. Polite explained that this is “so those shots can feel second nature to us once we get into the game.”

Polite praised the team for their coachability. “As a new coach with new philosophies, it’s a process for everyone to kind of understand the language and understand the system,” he said. “[Coachability] goes beyond some of those physical attributes or skillsets.”

This year’s team consists of a 12-person roster. Of the team’s four new players, three are transfers and one is a returning Hood student. The team has no freshmen this season.

At the start of the year, the team posted flyers advertising open tryouts for students interested in joining the team. “If it’s the right fit, we could possibly take on a few new players,” Polite said. “But it’s a commitment. It’s not easy. We practice a lot of mornings at 5:30. If anyone is considering it, they probably need to hustle up, but don’t make the decision lightly.”

The team is going into their season under the experienced leadership of upperclassmen Manning, Tam Stanford, Chanelle Lee and Nikki Etchison.

“I am looking forward to everything that comes with a basketball season: ups and downs, building bonds, playing, traveling, everything.” Manning said. “I think we can make some noise in the conference this year and have a vast improvement from last year’s results.”

Polite emphasized the team’s focus on being process-oriented each day. “My hope is that we play good basketball, that when people come to see us play, they see us playing hard, diving on the floor for loose balls, really competing,” he said.  

“Come out and support us,” Polite added. “They work really really hard, so it’d be awesome to get that support from our hometown fans to kind of give us an advantage when we’re playing in BB&T Arena.”