Media Day: Sayre Girls

The Eagles sat down at Media Day to discuss the upcoming season.

Thursday, July 28th 2011, 5:55 pm

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Nov 13, 2010 6:3 PM CDT

Layna Dewell
Oklahoma Sports Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY—The Sayre girls basketball team enters class 2A this season and has high hopes of bringing the tradition of Sayre women’s basketball back to the state.

Coach Brian Richardson begins his fifth year with the program and after a 13-12 record last season, he looks to a core group of juniors to fill in the gaps and gain experience together as a team.

The squad’s only senior is Devin Connell, a six-foot post who averaged 5.1 points per game last season, joins junior Macey Colbert as two of the three returning starters for the Eagles.

Macey is looking forward to the team’s ability to run the floor and score more points than normal.

Colbert, who stands five-foot-ten, averaged 6.4 points per game last year for the Eagles. Both Colbert and Connell will carry more of the offensive load this season, but they will be assisted by an athletic freshman, Kassy Easter, who will be the Eagles starting point guard.

Coach Richardson says the team’s reclassification is good because it adds a lot of teams around them which makes Sayre not have to travel as much, but that it also ups the competition when it comes to the state tournament.

Richardson went on to say he is glad they are a part of the Shortgrass Conference because of the other good teams they are surrounded by which helps prepare them for the playoffs.

The main goals for Sayre this year are to get through the regional and area tournaments without hang-up and get to the state tournament.

“We’re going to be able to do some things this year we haven’t been able to in the past,” said Richardson. “We’re going to be a lot quicker and more athletic so that’s going to be fun, and it’s fun for me to coach too.”

Sayre is also a team of tradition and sophomore Carly Johnson is a bit of a legacy in the area. Carly’s grandma was an all-state player basketball player that was a part of the 1970 and 1971 Sayre state championship team.

Through scrapbooks and plaques and old letter jackets from her grandmother’s playing years, the current team has gotten to look back at the rich tradition that precedes them.

Richardson says “it’s really neat for these girls to see the tradition of Sayre basketball?a team that at one time was one of the best in the state of Oklahoma.”