Head coach: Emily Hernandez (2nd season)
2019-20 record: 14-16
After taking over the program in Oct. 2019, Trinity coach Emily Hernandez is entering the second season of her second stint at the helm of the Lady Raiders.
When taking over before last season, Hernandez said she forgot how much she loved to coach but with Covid, there are obviously a few more differences this time around.
“There’s a lot of changes,obviously,” she said. “It’s been more work rescheduling everything but I’ve tried to put my flexibility hat on this year because, honestly, whether I’m being the principal or this, everybody has to be ready for changes all the time and sometimes it does it discouraging.”
Like all teams throughout the state, the Lady Raiders were hit in the gut when practices were canceled. Hernandez said that’s what hurt her the most during this process.
“The hardest part was whenever we got shut down,” she said. “We had been practicing and we thought we had been about to start and the girls were like ‘what, what do you mean, we’ve been doing everything we were supposed to do?’ They were super disappointed and I felt bad for them so we just told them we’d be back together soon. That was hard.”
Like the boys’ team, Trinity doesn’t have a senior on their roster as its led by junior Cassidy Morris (20.5 ppg, 10 rpg, 3.6 apg) and sophomore Josie Aull (13 pg, 2.4 rpg, 1.7 apg).
“Cassidy is a slasher and has developed her jump shot as well,” Hernandez said. “She is a great competitor and we expect great things from her this year …
“Josie is a great shooter for us and she loves to compete. Although she seems young as a sophomore, she really is an experienced player with several years of Varsity experience so we expect her to lead the floor.”
Hadley Hatfield is another player Hernandez expects to play a key role this season.
“(Hatfield) has been a defensive great defender for us, but she has worked all summer on the offensive end and we are expecting her to really step up offensively as well as a junior and help lead these young girls,” she said.
Kenzie McDowell, Kaitlin Wilson and Maddie Logsdon will also contribute for the Lady Raiders.
For Hernandez, she said she’s changed since she coached the first time around and while winning is always on her mind, the way she gets those wins has changed a little bit.
“I do see the bigger picture now of helping develop people,” she said. “I do think I helped people develop then too but I do have a different frame of mind with it. I still love to win. I tell them winning is a result of doing everything else right.”
Trinity will kick its season off Tuesday in the 3rd Region All “A” Classic Tournament with the Lady Raiders home opener coming Jan. 15 against Edmonson County.
