Lady Yoe basketball looks to continue improvement

The Cameron Lady Yoe girls basketball team showed improvement from last season, finishing with a record of 14-16 and a district record of 2-12. 

This year, under Coach Jeff Evans second season, the Lady Yoe plan to build off of last season’s moment and have a better year than expected. 

“We’re so much further along than we were last year,” Coach Jeff Evans said. “I really feel like we’re going to surprise some people. I really feel like we’re on the road back and we’re getting ready to shock a lot of people. Lady Yoe basketball is about to start winning some games, so I’m excited about that.” 

Cameron has already started on the right track with a successful scrimmage against Rosebud-Lott. The Lady Yoe won the scrimmage 42-31 and Coach Evans was very impressed with his new squad. 

He really liked how the young players stepped up. He will have two freshmen on varsity and they’re all expected to play big minutes. Evans really likes the balance that he has with the upperclassmen and young kids. So not only does he feel Cameron will be good this year, but that they will be good for the next several years. 

They will be a veteran led group as they have five seniors and two juniors. 

The seniors are Amija Johnson, MykayLa Scott, Ava Magre, Reagan Akin, and Amani Fields. The two juniors are Zaniaya Burton and Kinzie Williford. That balance will come with the talent from their two sophomores (Samantha Flores and Natlaynn Freeman) and two freshmen (Da’Vajha Johnson and Aireana Knight).

The journey will be tough as this year is the year of the district realignment. 

The Lady Yoe will not be switching regions or districts and will remain in region 3 district 19. They will also have many familiar opponents in Lexington, Little River Academy, Rogers, and Rockdale. They will also be losing Lorena to 4A and in their place they are getting two new teams. Those new opponents will be Franklin and Thrall while also losing McGregor and Troy. 

“I think the key for our district is being ready every day,” Evans said. “There’s no easy games and if you don’t come in with the right mindset and work hard, then you’re going to get beat. Franklin is really good. Franklin and Academy are both ranked top 20 in the state. So they’re really good and hopefully we can close that gap. Our goal this year is not just to play with them, but to beat Franklin and to beat Academy.” 

It will not be easy as three of their district opponents (Little River Academy, Franklin, and Thrall) made deep playoff runs last year. Evans feels the biggest challenge they have is that they have to believe that they can do it. 

He feels the first step to getting where teams like Academy, Thrall, and Franklin are is belief that you can do it. Evans is making sure the whole mindset this fall has been changed to that they believe they can win.

The Lady Yoe will be flying under the radar this year as they are picked to finish near the bottom of the district standings. 

However, Coach Evans likes that because he believes his team is getting ready to shock some people and prove a lot of people wrong. 

The Lady Yoe began their season on Tuesday, Nov. 5 on the road against the Trinity Lady Tigers. 

The team is looking forward to this season and the city of Cameron is behind them as they will come into this season ready to surprise a lot of people this year.