Falcon Girls Finding “Creative” Answers To Injury Bug

The injury bug is, in fact, not contagious. But for the Severna Park girls basketball team, it might feel like it.

In the last month, the Falcons have seen six players go down: three season-ending knee injuries, one less severe knee injury, and two foot injuries have the team rolling with as few as nine dressed players. The list includes point guard Maria Bragg (foot) and forward Abby Cover (knee), both hoping to return soon.

That’s left coach Kristofer Dean and his staff in a pickle as they try to balance day-to-day competitiveness with keeping the end goal in mind.

“We’ve been lucky to not deal with it the last few years, but it’s a lot. We’re just trying to hang on and build with what we have,” Dean said. “I think they’re handling it pretty well, based on the circumstances we’re at. We’re definitely having to get creative and trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together — maybe one or two pieces a day and work toward the end of season.”

Sometimes taking the long view is a coach’s mantra, and sometimes it’s because the coach has no choice. In either case, it seems to be working out so far for Severna Park.

After the Falcons’ 40-31 loss to Annapolis, they sit at 4-5 on the season. They started 2-1 before the injuries hit, then there was a 19-point scoring effort in a loss to Crofton, in which both teams failed to crack 30 points.

Since then, though, Severna Park has been able to keep scores low and find enough offense to remain competitive, despite slipping below .500.

There was a 54-39 win over Indian Creek in the “All About the Girls” holiday tournament, followed by a 39-35 loss to Frederick. Those came after a 55-14 win over Kenwood, and a 42-33 loss to Severn School.

“To look at that (Crofton) game and to see where we’ve taken these 8-9 girls, and then we took them against a pretty good Annapolis team and we were up 30-29,” Dean said. “They’re going in the right direction, and we’ll keep building. Obviously, you want to be healthy, but where we’re headed is where we’re going to want to be.”

Dean credited senior guard Payton Jeffers and junior forward Naomi Batty as two players who have stepped into new roles: Batty as a post presence that the team sorely needs, collecting offensive rebounds and giving an option in the paint; Jeffers as another ball-handler to complement Bragg and Charley Coward on the perimeter.

“I told the girls, ‘We’re going to coach the living you-know-what out of you; we’re going to get every ounce we can get from now until we get some pieces back, until the end,’” Dean said. “I told Abby and Maria in particular that it kind of did us a favor here, because we were really relying heavily, especially on Maria, to handle the ball and be the point guard. We have pieces around her, but they weren’t going to handle the ball full-time, and now they have to. They’re building that confidence and hopefully when Maria comes back, we’ll have pieces around her to help support her, and that will make us stronger in the end.

“We’ll just keep plugging along. (Winning and losing) matters at the end. Right now, it just matters that we keep putting pieces together.”