By Michael Minnich
Tribune Sports Editor
mminnich@newstribune.info
KEYSER—Monday marked the first day of the three-week summer window for high school athletics—and the beginning of Josh Blowe’s tenure as head coach of the Keyser Lady Tornado basketball team.
Blowe, who had served as a member of Gary Liston’s boys’ staff last year, is tasked with breathing life into a program that was 2-21 last year.
“4 and 40-something over the last two years just doesn’t cut it,” Blowe said after workouts Monday morning at KHS.
He literally got a rude awakening to the team’s reputation this week.
Blowe e-mailed various organizations, trying to find summer tournaments and leagues to get KHS in.
One response made his jaw drop.
It read: “If KHS stands for Keyser...try the Cumberland YMCA youth league. I think the elementary [school] division would be quite challenging for you.”
Blowe doesn’t see his team that way.
“The first day was good. If they work as hard as they did today, they’ll really improve,” he said.
“The summer’s where you can mold yourself as a player, working on your shooting or your opposite hand.”
Blowe, who was an all-state pick as a senior member of KHS’ 2003 state semifinalist team, believes he is one of—if not the—youngest coach in Golden Tornado history.
The team is young, too; only two seniors (Alicia Cuthbertson and Danielle Kesner) were among the eleven players on the hardwood Monday, with another, Julia Ludwick, joining the fold later in the week.
Blowe called the play of his freshmen and sophomores on Day 1 “excellent” and says he will emphasize the fundamentals during this session.
“We’ll scrimmage maybe eight minutes a day and work on the basics the rest of the time.”
Blowe says he will emphasize defense and overall toughness.
“Effort’s the biggest thing for me. We like to play man-to-man defense in the Pitt style, where they bump you every time you come through screens.”
With just two players currently 6 feet or taller, Blowe knows that an up-tempo game is Keyser’s best bet offensively.
“We’re small and quick. We’ll try to create havoc and get all over the ball.”
Blowe’s tentative staff for the season is his wife Sheri (a former guard at Keyser from 2001 through 2004), ever-energetic coaching veteran Chuck Taylor, and possibly Mark Zinn as an auxiliary coach while Zinn continues his studies at West Virginia University.
One of the things the new coach had his charges do Monday morning was fill out goals for the team and for themselves.
Almost without exception, each girl’s team goal was to have a winning season.
With some hard work, they may be able to do it.
