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Youth Stepping Up To Contribute At Plant

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By GREGG BECNEL Tribune correspondent

Published: December 6, 2007

TAMPA - Considering she has such a young team, Plant girls basketball coach Carrie Mahon has to be pleased her Panthers are off to a 7-0 start.

In Tuesday's 77-49 win against district rival Blake, Plant used nine players. Here is the breakdown of those players' classes and combined points scored: two seniors (33 points), three juniors (8), two sophomores (28) and two freshmen (8).

"We have a relatively young team that gets better daily in practice," Mahon said. "This is a fun group of girls. We have worked so hard and had so much fun. I hate to say family, but we are so much like a family. We can get after each other in practice and then walk off the court buddies."

Mahon knows a successful team has plenty of parts.

"I am so incredibly blessed," she said. "I have kids that work hard, a knowledgeable and giving group of assistant coaches, players' parents that are supportive of the program, a great administration and great family at home."

And while Mahon would never credit herself, make no mistake that any short list of the county's top girls basketball coaches has to include Mahon near the top.

Sophomore Michelle Taylor leads the team with 14.5 points per game, while averaging 6.8 rebounds, 5.5 steals and 4.3 assists.

"Michelle is growing up. For the first time, I saw her get emotionally charged in a recent game at Hillsborough," Mahon said. "She is just as fundamentally sound as you can find."

Mahon is getting a big boost from 6-foot senior Kaitlyn Ostroski, who has battled knee problems the past two years.

"Kaitlyn is one tough young lady. She plays in pain every day and you rarely ever hear a peep about it," Mahon said. "She is special. She is our coach on the floor. She provides incredible energy and focus, and she is the same way at practice. 'O' is a great rebounder, jumper and actually has real post moves, which is hard to find in a high school post player."

Other key contributors are senior Morgan Langlo, sophomore Ann Lowry Brown and freshman Ganice Macho.

"It would be nice to still be playing basketball several weeks into February," Mahon said. "This team could be very special if we all pull in the same direction."

Mahon hopes Plant's selflessness continues and becomes contagious.

"Athletics has gotten to be so 'me' oriented. I see players grab the scorebook to see how many they scored as soon as the game is over," Mahon said. "We want our players to grab a teammates' hand instead and tell them what a great game they played. Then check our team free-throw percentage and team assist-turnover ratio."

NO BIG DEAL: Academy of the Holy Names coach Casey Higgins, in her fifth season with the Jaguars, picked up her 100th career win Tuesday.

"To be honest, it doesn't mean a whole lot to me personally," Higgins said. "But it's a nice accomplishment that's more of a credit to all of the great people that have been involved in our basketball program over the last five seasons."

Higgins, who has guided AHN to a 6-1 start, won 20, 25, 22 and 27 games in her first four seasons.

Correspondent Gregg Becnel can be reached at gbecnel@pop.

tampatrib.com.

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