New coach readies Chase County girls for opening games this week

    Chase County’s new girls’ basketball coach expects his team to be very competitive, playing an up-tempo offense and using a full court press in every game
    On Monday, with just six days of practice behind them, Head Coach Randy Longoria talked about his varsity team, whose season opens on the road to Cozad tonight (Thursday). The team will be back here Friday for their home opener against Wauneta-Palisade.
    “We’re going to be a team that plays up-tempo,” and that’s one of its strengths, he said Monday.
    Being new to the state (he moved here from Colorado with 26 years of coaching behind him), he’s not up on the area competition yet, but said  a team will have to be pretty good to break their press this season.
    By playing that type of ball, Longoria said there will always be a desire for his team to be better conditioned.
    “Condition is always going to be at the forefront. The way we are going to play depends on being in top-notch condition,” he said.
    The two snow days last week didn’t help that effort. And then in a few weeks, the six- day NSAA-mandated holiday break arrives.
    Because of that, it’s going to be important for the players to do some conditioning and running on their own, he said.
    Since he’s a new coach here, Longoria said a lot of their time since practice started Nov. 18 has been spent on transitioning to his program.
    It’s been a “broad focus,” he said, with a lot of different press looks, and his different offensive and defensive components added.

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