BY BRITTNI MCCOY
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The Cardinal faithful were introduced to the Martin County basketball teams on Saturday at the annual Cardinal Madness held at the high school.
The day started off with the county elementary teams taking on Burch and Louisa, followed by Martin County Middle up against Lenore.
At 7 p.m. Coach Robin Newsome took the floor with the 2024-2025 Lady Cardinals. After some fun antics and player introductions the Lady Cards ran through drills before taking the floor for the red-white game.
“The kids are working hard. We are very young and have a few key players out right now. Chloe May suffered a broken foot during volleyball season and has been out for a month. Sophie Harless had dental surgery and has missed some practices,” Coach Newsome said.
“We’re just working on a lot of fundamentals and trying to back up and cover some things that were missed in preseason due to kids being in other sports.”
The Lady Cards are coming off a District runner-up title.
“This is always a fun day. It’s the fans’ first look at our team and the talent coming up. It’s still early, and we have a way to get to where we need to be. Kids are going hard,” she said.
Floor general Brooke Marcum is ready for the games to begin. “We’ve been working on defense a lot in practice and getting in shape. We’ve got to work on ball handling to get ready for some good competition.”
She is looking forward to big things for the upcoming season.
The team will be taking their now annual trip to Disney World. The girls believe it provides some motivation to work hard and get ready for the district tournament.
The boys capped off the night with high-flying dunks and a glimpse into why they’re a favorite to win games this year.
Peyton Davis should be putting up a bunch of shots for the Cardinals on the hardwood.
“We’ve been working on playing as a team and shooting the ball. Hopefully we’ll be a defense-heavy team this year,” he told the Mountain Citizen.
He and a few other Cardinal players have been training with weightlifting stud Corey Hayes weekly.
“All the top prospects are working out with Hayes training and we’re getting a lot stronger,” he continued. “As long as we keep each other in the gym and work at it, our team chemistry should build off of that.”
Coach Jason “JJ” James knows he has some talent but that nothing is proven until they take the court.
“Sometimes preseason ranking doesn’t mean a whole lot. I think we have a lot to work on. We have a lot of talent; I’m excited about them. Hopefully we keep improving,” he said.
“We’ve had some of them playing football. We’ve been doing a lot of skill development, trying to get these younger guys ready to help us.”
Coach James is prepping for the Zip Zone Classic on Nov. 30 in Inez.
“We’re going to get some practices in. We play Scott County next Saturday and that’s going to be tough. It’s a 6A school; they will be a handful. We’re going to go over and try to get better and see what happens,” he concluded.
The Lady Cards will test their abilities tomorrow when they host Pikeville at 6 p.m.
Their regular season will begin when they host East Carter on Dec. 5 in Inez.
The boys will participate in the Johnson Central Shootout on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. They will kick off their regular season Dec. 3 versus Huntington Prep.
