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Zephyrhills Short, Young, Athletic

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By CRISTINA LEDRA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

The Zephyrhills Bulldogs knew this season was going to be long learning process, but they at least have a .500 record to show for their efforts so far.

This year's Bulldogs don't have the size of previous Zephyrhills teams so they have had to try to learn a whole new style of play that's more conducive to having smaller players.

None of Zephyrhills' starters are taller than 5-foot-7.

The good news is the Bulldogs also don't have a lot of upperclassmen so as long as they can get the system down this year, the coming years will be a lot easier.

"They're having fun," Zephyrhills coach Jerry Stacy said. "We're not big but we're fairly athletic. There's a learning curve and we're going through that right now. We've been streaky with our shooting but that goes back to size. Some of those shots we make, we're having trouble with them against bigger teams."

The Bulldogs are 3-3 after beating Hernando and River Ridge, dropping games to Ridgewood, Gulf and Nature Coast, then topping Pasco on Friday night.
Stacy said that despite being inconsistent, he has been really happy with how hard the girls have played against teams that are bigger.

"We're showing progress and hopefully that's going to build and we'll see where we are at the end of the year," Stacy said.

The Bulldogs have been led by Danielle Williams, who has averaged 11.8 points a game and has 10 3-point goals this season, and by freshman point guard Jennifer Patria, who Stacy believes will be an outstanding with some more experience.

HITS KEEP COMING: Pasco already had to dismiss three players for various reasons and lost G Lucy Schneider to a broken hand until January, but then Jessica Haley dislocated her shoulder in Wesley Chapel's Thanksgiving Shootout.

She was held out of the Pirates' 54-13 loss to Gulf on Nov. 27 and went to the doctor the next day. She came off the bench in Pasco's 53-30 loss to Zephyrhills on Friday and she will continue to see minutes similar to that for the time being until she is healed, Pasco coach John Edwards said.

GAMES TO WATCH: Ridgewood has a big week coming up with Wesley Chapel coming in Friday and Land O' Lakes on Tuesday.

Land O' Lakes will have a whole week off between Tuesday night's clash with Wesley Chapel and the Gators' game against Ridgewood.

Land O' Lakes was undefeated going into the game against Wesley Chapel, and Ridgewood had one loss to Mitchell going into its Tuesday night game at Central.
Wesley Chapel also had one loss going into the Land O' Lakes game.

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