Holbrook girls see progress, a bright future

The Holbrook Lady Roadrunner found a place in the competitive 3A North family.

It took them about two years but they did it. They bought into second-year head coach Greg Perkins' concept that defense wins games.

They had a rough start but peaked when they needed to. At the 3A North Region tournament on Feb. 9, they upset the 2009 state champions, Monument Valley, 48-47 in the first round.

Then they lost to Winslow by nine points and went on to win third place and the No. 15 seed in the state tournament.

On Feb. 16 they fell in the first round to No. 2 Window Rock, 57-27.

"We struggled the last two weeks of the season because the 3A North is so tough," Perkins said after the region tournament, "and we're getting there. The program the last two years has turned around. (The victory over Monument Valley) helped our program a lot. Not just this year, it will help us the next couple years."

Holbrook's season was more the result of what happened over the two years when Perkins stepped in.

Holbrook senior Mallory Martin, who played on the varsity since her sophomore year, said last year was a feeling out experience because of their new coach.

The Lady Roadrunners became a defensive team. They worked on it practice after practice.

"We just really improved from last year," Martin said. "Over the summer we worked on our game. We just worked really hard."

Another senior, Samantha Yazzie, who has also been on the varsity since her sophomore year, said the team needed a little push.

"The big difference this year is there's a lot of seniors on our team. Almost all of us have been playing together since sixth grade," she said. "Every year we took a step higher."

Martin and Yazzie were just two of what Perkins thought was a talented group of girls.

Two others were April Lester, a powerful post player, and Nicole Baldwin.

"April Lester is tremendously talented," Perkins said. "She has to come out and realize she's more talented than most girls on the floor.

"Nicole Baldwin comes in as a shooter but today she got down on defense," he said. "There's so many of them they all have roles to do. Every girl has a lot of different jobs but our main focus is defense."

For the eight seniors, their high school basketball careers have ended. But for the rest of the Lady Roadrunners and those yet to come the road has just begun.

Perkins said this season has laid the way for the many seasons to come.

"We're a good team," he said, "and we already knew the best teams in girls basketball are in the North. Everybody kind of knows that."

The region tournament showed that maybe Holbrook belongs, he said.

"Maybe we're OK. We've turned it around. We're competitive. One got away from us but this showed us we can play with these girls. It's just a matter of building confidence.

"With these young girls, it's coming, it's coming around," he said, "and the girls, they get a sense that they belong."

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