Sports2C   Midlothian Mirror,   Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Alex Riley, Sports Writer469-517-1456 | alex.riley@wninews.com

Year of unprecedented successMirror sports writer Alex Riley sits down with boys basketball coach Glenn Hartson to talk about the success of the 2009-10 team, the future of Midlothian basketball and the memories of a district championship season

Photo by Alex Riley/The Mirror

Members of the Midlothian boys basketball team hoist the bi-district trophy after beating Mesquite Poteet. The Panthers overcame a tough district slate to reach the playoffs and advance.

Q. At the beginning of the season, you

talked about how your teams have never missed the play-offs two seasons in a row. You knew you were a playoff caliber team, but did a dis-trict championship kind of catch you by surprise?

A. I don’t know if it surprised me but I

think it surprised a lot of people. As a coach you al-ways have confidence in your players coming in and ultimately that’s one of your ultimate goals as a team is district champs, bi-district champs and ultimately it’s a state championship too but you have to set realistic goals as well. I wasn’t surprised, I don’t know if that’s the word for it but I was pleased with it, especially with a group of kids that hasn’t had a lot of success throughout the years and being ranked anywhere from fourth to fifth or sixth (in the district) preseason rankings. I wouldn’t say I was surprised.

Q. How far ahead of your expectations did they this group come this season? Or was this about

what you thought they could do?

A. Expectation wise, I don’t want to say they ex-ceeded my expectations because I don’t think

as a coach that’s good but I think they surprised them-selves. And I think they surprised a lot of people about what they could accomplish and what they did accom-plish.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Mirror

District MVP Eddie Johnson played a major role in the team’s success this year by averag-ing a double-double.

Q. With the jump to 5A looming at the end of the school year, how important was it to have this

kind of season to build on?

A. I think it’s important going into the offsea-son. These kids, we have a tradition here at

Midlothian. We’ve been good over the last 10 years. I think the program is well respected out in the metro-plex and I think it’s good to keep that respect going es-pecially since we’re going to 5A. The other basketball coaches in the other districts are telling me, ‘You know it’s going to be a good district. Six of the eight teams made the playoffs and you were one of them.’ So that makes me feel pretty good that they know that we’re going to step out on the court and compete every night.

Q. Your starting line-up relied heavily on those four all-district seniors. How big

was their impact on the success this season?

A. They were very crucial. I wanted to play more kids than I did. I was playing to win

and were playing six or seven kids sometimes but those seniors that we’re losing were big key play-ers in the success that we had. Not only in win-ning but showing the younger kids what it takes to win and I think that’s important. I don’t think you always take from the program, it’s what the kids give back that makes them so special. When I say give back I mean showing those younger kids to be here, what they need to do to be successful and I think this group has done that hopefully. Hope-fully the younger players will learn from it.

Photos by Gary Puckett/Special to the Mirror

Seniors Cameron Lowman, left, and Trent Morgan, right, were two of the leaders the Panthers relied on heavily this season. Replacing them will be a top priority.

Q. Has some of their work ethic begun to rub off on

some of the younger players? Do you think the attitude will be there next year?

A. It needs to but I don’t know right now. The

season hasn’t been over that long but hopefully it will rub off and it will help in the offseason. Being tough and how hard you have to work to be successful.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Mirror

Zach Hofstad gives the fist pump which became a mantra for the team this season. Continuing chem-istry and a winning atti-tude will be crucial.

Q. You do return some guys, each with a different level of experience. Are they capable of continuing the success this team established?

A. I think they’re capable it just depends on how much time, how much effort and how much commitment they’re going to have to do that.

Are they going to be here after school? Are they going to be here in the morning to shoot like the group before them? Are they going to be here ev-ery day in the summer? Are they going to play spring league? Are they going to play summer league? You’ve got all these verbals and if you do all that then our chances are a lot great of being successful and if they don’t we’re not going to be as successful. Especially the people we play against.

Photos by Lezley Norris (left) and Alex Riley (right)/The Mirror/www.photosbylezley.com

The Panthers return a mix of players including potential scor-ing leader Derrick Agbaroji, left, and probable starter Brandon Mundie. Both players saw limited but valuable time last year.

Q. Your home success was crucial to the win-

ning. That crowd was phe-nomenal, especially in the dis-trict race and playoff stretch. What do you say to them about next year?

A. It’s going to be im-portant next year. Def-

initely. We’re going to have to have backing and people there because it just gives you that much more motivation. Even when you’re tired and need to dig deeper and grab a little bit more, when you’ve got people behind you it’s a little bit eas-ier to do.

See PANTHERS, Page 3B

Photo by Chad Wilson/The Mirror

The Midlothian Blue Crew provided a huge emotional boost to the team throughout the season.

Photo by Gary Puckett/Special to the Mirror

Midlothian boys basketball coach Glenn Hartson talks strategy with point guard Trent Morgan on the bench during the regional quarterfinal game. The Panthers tied the school record deepest run in the playoffs this season while claiming a district, bi-district and area championship. The team finished with a 21-12 overall record.

Sports4C   Midlothian Mirror,   Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Alex Riley, Sports Writer469-517-1456 | alex.riley@wninews.com

Looking to the future

Mirror sports writer Alex Riley sits down with girls basketball coach Brooke Walthall to talk about the major turnaround in the program, the road ahead next season

and her first year as a varsity head coach.

Q. We’ve talked so much about mov-ing to 5A but with that on the horizon,

what does this type of turnaround mean for the road ahead?

A. I think it’s huge. The harder you work all the time, in practice and the

more games you win and more confidence that you get you start to get that mentality. You just expect to win because of all that hard work you’ve put in to it.

Q. Your sub-varsity teams had pretty solid seasons in their own rights.

What does that mean for the future of Lady Panther basketball?

A. Them getting wins under their belt, the freshman team (being) co-district

champs, I think that’s huge. The JV team, they fought hard and I just think that us win-ning and we need to expect to win when we step out on that court and I think that we’re

starting to get that mentality.

Q. Now that you’ve gotten your first year behind you and your system is

in place across the girls basketball program, what are looking forward to now? How much easier does it get as far as developing a pro-gram?

A. (I’m looking forward to) just teach-ing some more and working some

more and getting those kids to believe in themselves that much more. I want them to feel confident that when it’s a close game we’re going to win every single time. And if one time we don’t win, we’re going to fix that and it’s never going to happen again. We’re going to win those close ones and we’re going to beat some people that maybe other people think we won’t.

Photo by Alex Riley/The Mirror

First-year girls basketball coach Brooke Walthall took the Lady Panthers from a four-win team out of the playoff picture to a 13-win squad that competed for a playoff spot until late in the season. The team will lose four seniors from this season but will look to continue improving.

Q. With this being your first season as the

head coach, what were you thinking when you came in and how do you feel now?

A. I thought that we had some great kids

and they had some talent and they were working hard from the very beginning so I re-ally thought that we could be there.

Q. When you arrived, they were coming off

a four-win season. What is more of a physical or mental thing that needed to change?

A. I just think that every day we knew and they

knew that we were going to work hard. We were going to work hard mentally, we were going to work hard physically and we were going to get bet-ter. I think that’s what it took.

Photo by Chad Wilson/The Mirror

Senior Natalie Ruud became an all-state player this season while helping guide the girls basketball program to a major turnaround.

Q. With the struggles they had the season before you arrived, how did

you address what needed to be taken care of to make the team a winner?

A. Every year, every team has to get better and one of my main focuses

as a coach is always defense and I think that’s something that we really worked on. And we just really worked defense. We worked man-to-man defense and on-the-ball defense and off-the-ball defense. Then on the offensive end we worked on shot selection and things like that just trying to play as a team. Pass the ball, take good shots and work together as a team on both ends of the floor.

Photo by Chad Wilson/The Mirror

Senior leadership helped spark the resurgence of the girls’ program this season. Lauren Daniell, the starting point guard, was a major part of that effort as her leader-ship on the court kept the Lady Panthers moving.

Q. The four seniors you inherited played such a big role in turning this program around. You never know how veterans will react to a new coach but they seemed to take to you

and really worked hard. How nice was that?

A. They were some great kids. And they were great leaders too. We had some that are very vocal and we had some that were just great leaders by what they do so they are going

to be missed. And I think that they just really stepped up to the challenge. It’s hard for seniors for a new coach to come in and for them to have to change everything in that last year which is supposed to be a special year. I hope that it was for them and I’m very proud of them. They’re going to be very missed but you know what we have to move on. We have some great kids com-ing up. Our younger teams had good seasons this year so I’m excited about that.

Photos by Alex Riley/The Mirror

Seniors Sam Jackson, left, and Trisha Dupree, right, were vital to the veteran mindset of the team. All four seniors led the charge to a 13-19 record.

Q. You do get some players back with experience. What do you expect from

them next season with that knowledge of the game?

A. I expect them to step up and be lead-ers, those older ones, I need them to

step up and be leaders and right now they’re already doing that. They’re already taking on this new aura about them. They know that they’re the people that need to step up and they’re working hard in practice right now. Some of them are in other sports, which is great. We want to support everybody and I love that they’re doing some other things. They know that they need to be leaders for our team and they must step up and fill those shoes.

Photo by Alex Riley/The Mirror

From top, Nicole Hulshouser, Hannah Miller and Heather Sides each played a lot of minutes this season. That experience will be called upon to help the team next season.

Photo by Alex Riley/The Mirror

Depth was a major issue for the Lady Panthers this season as just 10 total play-ers comprised the roster. Getting some of the sub-varsity players called up and using the returning players will be key to next season.