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New season, new coach for Lady Devils

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Leake wins debut as West Memphis girls basketball coach

WM School District Erica Leake woke up last Monday morning with a surge of energy.

The West Memphis girls basketball coach was set to make her debut tonight as her team traveled to take on Little Rock Parkview in a game that was originally scheduled for Friday night, but was moved.

'I woke up this morning and I said, 'Wow, it's game day!'', said Leake. 'I posted our group text. It was a basketball with fire. The girls were super excited.'

Leake, the former Palestine-Wheatley and Louisiana Tech super star player, has brought a lot of enthusiasm to the program this year as she replaces 28-year head coach Shelia Burns, who led the Lady Devils to a 22-7 record a year ago.

Leake said her team will be young, but very athletic this season.

'We can run and jump,' she said. 'As a coach, you have a style that you prefer to play, but sometimes you just don't have the personnel to do that. Well, for the first time in my coaching career I have the personnel to play the style I love to play, and that's fast, trapping, denying the ball…that's the way I like to play.'

Leading the way for the Lady Devils this season will be sophomore Janiyah Tucker, who started every game for the team a year ago and led the squad in scoring.

'She's special,' Leake said of Tucker. 'Now, that's not something you hear me say about a player. But sometimes in practice she does things that make you go 'Whew!'' Tucker will once again play the lead guard position. She is a proven scorer, both from long-range and midrange. Tucker is also a high-level ball-handler and defender.

Also returning with starter minutes from a year ago is Terika Inmon, who will play inside along with sophomore Clemisha Prackett, who was moved up to the varsity last year after her junior high season at Wonder was completed.

Prackett, at 6-foot-1, is long and has good hands in the post area.

Continued on Page 7 LADY DEVILS (cont.)

Back on the team this season is senior Ta'Nya Burnett, who is a four-sport letterman at West Memphis. Burnett took time off the basketball court last year to focus more on her other sports, including her best sport, volleyball, where she helped the Lady Devils to a quarterfinal appearance in the state tournament recently.

Burnett will add stability to the Lady Devil frontcourt this season.

Other players vying for starting positions include junior Jermesha Clark, ninth-grader Aniya Price, who has impressed Leake in preseason drills with her ability to slash through the defense.

Twin sisters Jayla and Kayla Hudson will also provide high-leverage roles within the team as will back-up point guard Harmony Buckingham.

'We're young this year, but we expect to be competitive right away,' said Leake. 'Our best years are ahead of us, though. We're going to get to the point where we don't rebuild here, we just reload. That's the legacy here anyway.

I've been talking to our kids about us being the new '03. That's the last year the program won a state championship. That's the track we want to be on.'

Oh, and as for the game, the Lady Devils won. Then on Tuesday, they did it again. West Memphis will be in action again tomorrow night on the road as they travel across the river to take on Bartlett High School. Tip-off is at 6 p.m.

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