From a brand new head coach, to the youth-heavy lineup, the girls’ basketball team faced their fair share of challenges this season. Even with the hurdles that they faced, they still managed to clear them and find success in many different ways.

The girls’ basketball team saw a lot of new faces in the lineup. Freshman center, Laila Jones, was a pleasant surprise for the team. Jones averaged an impressive 10.1 rebounds per game and 1.8 blocks per game, which are fourth and fifth-best in the conference respectively.
“One thing I definitely bring to the team is my rebounding and my defense, rebounding gives my team more chance to score and defense stops the other team from scoring,” Jones said.
Jones wasn’t the only new face in town, however, this year was the first year with head coach Johnathan Gainey at the helm.

While Gainey may be new to West, he is very familiar with coaching in the Winston-Salem Area, having previously coached for Reynolds, Glenn, and Winston-Salem Prep, all of which were successful stints.

The highlight of the girls’ season came in the days following Christmas at the Basketball Christmas Classic at Ledford High School. The Girls put on a show and ended up winning the tournament.

“My favorite moment was winning the Christmas tournament. I got MVP, and it was so much fun to win a tournament with my teammates,” senior captain point guard Emma Staples said.
All this winning was in spite of the depth issues the team had. For a majority of the season, the girls’ team ran a seven-man rotation, and at times, the starters played all 32 minutes.
Unfortunately, the girl’s team finished sixth in the CPC with a conference record of 6-9, just narrowly missing the playoffs.

The team also saw three girls make All-Conference: Staples, Jones and junior center Brooklynn King.

Even though the team did not qualify for the state playoffs, the girls’ basketball team has high hopes for next season and success is in their cards for the future.