The Lady Bears at Little Cypress-Mauriceville have a new head coach. Eddie Michalko brings four decades of coaching girls basketball to LC-M including four state championships in Louisiana.
The last four seasons Michalko has coached at East Chambers and has been living in the Little Cypress-Mauriceville School District community the last three years. Michalko replied, “When the opportunity for the job here came open, I really jumped at it.”
Michalko inherits a lot of Lady of Bears that played on the varsity last season. Two seniors return for LC-M. Shooting is the strength for Danielle Pelt. Karly Rogers provides size and height in the lane.
A whole bunch of juniors fill out the varsity roster. Chelsey Perry and Zaria Johnson lead the junior class of Lady Bears. Coach Michalko analyzed, “Individually they’re pretty good, but if we get to the point where we can play together defensively, we can be very good.”
Early in the season the Lady Bears are showing a positive attribute of never quitting which got LC-M three wins in its first four games. Coach Michalko is working to teach his style of basketball to the girls and is working on fundamentals especially the Lady Bears’ defense. “We have to be able to play team defense. Under my system it’s going to take them a little while, and I really feel like we’re heading in the right direction,” Michalko evaluated.
A new system of running the offense is being taught by Michalko to the Lady Bears. The coach does expect some mistakes by the girls in learning his system. Michalko stated, “It’s what you do after you make that mistake. Do you pout about it, moan about it, or do you something about, and that’s what I look for in my players.”
Coach Michalko predicts a lot from the Lady Bears this season. Right now, the coach rates LC-M pretty good. He hopes by district they will be in that little realm of very good.
Michalko never goes into a season where he did not expect his team to have a great year. His expectations are high, and the Lady Bears need to be willing to put the team first ahead of the individual.
In essence LC-M goes into every game feeling like it can win no matter who the opponent is. Michalko establishes certain goals for each game that if the Lady Bears do this, this, and this they have a shot of winning. “We have some really good teams in our district so we’re really going to have to be mentally and physically ready to go,” Michalko concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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