By: Alex Northcut, Sports 731 Network Reporter
Sometimes the success from the fall athletic season overlaps with the beginning of basketball season. For the Madison Academic girls program, that has been the case heading into the 2023-2024 campaign. Due to a good majority of her players competing in cross country, volleyball, and soccer, 3rd year head coach Jen Hicks is just now getting her whole roster into the gym throughout the first few days of November.
“My big push early on is skill work,” said Hicks. “Let’s get back to the fundamentals, let’s make sure we’re starting right with our season from the ground up, focusing on doing things the right way.”
Despite the limited time with her full unit during the preseason, Hicks does in fact return all but one player from last year’s team. Senior guard Grace Chouinard has been tasked with a leadership role this season. After missing her sophomore year with a torn ACL, Chouinard put together a quality junior season, now expected to take on more responsibilities in her final year. Juniors Makayla McClanahan and Mary Kinsley Nye are two other individuals to keep an eye on this season. McClanahan is expected to lead the Lady Mustangs in several statistical categories, while Nye will be the primary ball handler.
“This team is an incredibly close-knit type of family environment, which is very unique,” said Hicks. “I’ve coached girls for a couple of years, and you don’t always get that. It makes coaching fun when you know they’re enjoying competing with one another every day.”
The Madison boys team returns quite a bit of experience as well. The Mustangs earned a spot in last year’s region tournament and now have their sights set on making another postseason run with the new district and region alignments.
“We lost three starters, so we graduated quite a bit of our scoring, ball handling, and leadership,” said 3rd year head coach Andrew Hicks. “But as far as minutes played, we bring back quite a bit. I expect us to hit the ground running a lot earlier this year, as opposed to the last few years for sure.”
Led by seniors Carter Noble, Marshall Mize, and Xavier Freemen, the Mustangs are set to face some tough competition early in the regular season. According to Coach Hicks, it’s a philosophy that will only prepare his team for dealing with challenges later in the year in crucial games.
“I want our kids to experience adversity early, so we can see exactly where we are and how we need to get through that come tournament time,” said Hicks. “I’ve always been one to front-load schedules against bigger schools and bigger competition to really challenge our guys with different styles.”
Madison is scheduled to begin the regular season at Lexington next Tuesday night, November 14. The girls will tip-off at 6:00 p.m. with the boys game to follow.
