Lady Broncos off and running under new coach

By Stan Moss
Contributing Writer

The Mustang High School Athletics department has held so many new coach press conferences this year that they put Ted’s Escondido on their speed dial. Katie Bass is one of those new coaches, taking the reins of the Lady Broncos basketball team when Kevin Korstjens took the boys’ head coaching job in Bridge Creek. It’s been a fast ride for Coach Bass, she hit the ground running with camps and summer league when she got here and finally gets a break with the summer ‘dead’ period in effect for all of July.

The Lady Broncos had a busy June, playing in a summer league, hosting the young girls’ camp in Mustang, and attending team camp at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa last week. With only nine days spent together as a coaching staff and team, Mustang won their summer league with an 8-0 record. Their clean sweep included victories over some good 6A teams, including Edmond Memorial, Edmond North, and Putnam City West.  Last season, top-ranked Putnam City West fell to the Lady Broncos in the state semifinals on a great defensive stop. History repeated itself in their summer league rematch as sophomore Kate Niehues blocked a Putnam City West shot attempt in the final seconds to seal the victory.

In the middle of summer league, the Lady Broncos worked at the young girls’ camp for a full day, then went out and won two summer league games later that night. Bass is a huge proponent of the camp and wants to get the word out to all the young girls in Mustang who want to be Lady Broncos someday.

“We had 52 girls at the camp, and that is good,” said Bass. “Next year I’d love to see more of the girls in our community be a part of it. I just want to impact as many young future Broncos as I can, so they are ready and excited to work with me and my coaching staff in the future.”

At the Oral Roberts team camp, the Lady Broncos played an ankle-smoking nine games in two and a half days, compiling a 6-3 record for the camp. Coach Bass felt like the camp was a good experience for the team. “I feel like we really bonded while we were there,” said the coach. “It took us to a different level of getting to know each other. It was really good.” The games played at the camp pushed the Lady Broncos’ summer record to a sparkling 14-3.

Bass gave a shout out to a few players for their success in the summer activities, including a couple of newcomers with names you may have heard before.

“I have a great freshmen group coming in, but two have really stood out, and that is Jordan Rollins and London Foreman.  Jordan Rollins, a 6’1” guard, is the younger sister of sophomore returning starter Jaki Rollins. “She does great things when she has the basketball, and also defensively.” said Bass.

London Foreman, who’s older sister Ellise Foreman was a senior starter last year, is a guard who has skills on both ends of the floor. “London is a knock down three-point shooter, and has always been known as a shooter, but what she does defensively is amazing,” Bass continued. “At the ORU camp, London led the entire camp in steals per game as a freshman. The game really seemed to slow down for them both at ORU.”

Bass also mentioned the solid play of 6’3” senior post player Kyra Misuraca.

“Kyra really stepped up and did great things for us. Defensively, rebounding and scoring, so that was exciting for us.”

Jaki Rollins and Talia Pogi were credited with helping provide leadership and being instrumental in the bonding process.

The Lady Broncos and their coaches will now take a well-deserved rest, and will meet up again when school starts.