Nationally Ranked Lady Cougars Cagers will Open Season with a Shootout

They shoot their layups with their left hand when attacking the hoop from the left side, and then shoot with their right hands when attacking from the right. It's the kind of discipline rarely seen in the NBA, let alone high school girls basketball. But its the kind of basketball that you have to expect from a team coached by Paul Romig, now in his eleventh year at Del Campo.

The Lady Cougars start their season tonight, Thursday, December 5, by hosting the Capital City Shootout Gold Division tournament. The tournament continues through Saturday, December 7. Del Campo plays in the third game of the first round, at 7:00 p.m. against Santa Barbara. If they win, the Lady Cougars will advance to the second round to play game six, Friday December 6 at 7:00 p.m. If they lose, the girls will play Friday, at 5:30. All games of the tournament will be played at Del Campo.

Almost two weeks after the Shootout, the Lady Cougars will begin regular season play by hosting Fairfield, on Tuesday, December 17, at 7:30. The girls then play two more tournaments through Christmas break, traveling to Newark, New Jersey December 27 to 30. After a January 7 game against St. Francis at Arco Arena, the girls begin play in the Capital Athletic League, January 9.

"We have four returning starters and nine who returned from last year's team," said Romig. "We're ranked 19th in the country, so it should be an outstanding race. We're kind of looking down the road a little bit. We just want to get better as each week comes along. And then we'd like to win our last game of the season in the playoffs."

Two of the four returning starters for the Lady Cougars are twins Jerkisha (6'3") and Jermisha (6'2") Dosty. Jerkisha will run the court as a forward, and Jermisha will post-up at center. Both were named All-State during their freshman and sophomore years. They are juniors this season. Forward Mikki Elftmann (5'11") and guard Jennifer Smith (5'4") are also returning starters. Guard Tracey Kenyon (5'9") is the fifth starter for the Lady Cougars.

"I've been real happy with our practices," Romig said. "I think our players have worked really hard. I saw a lot of focus and determination, so from a coaching standpoint I'm pretty happy. But I'd like to get a couple of games under our belt so we have something to measure ourselves against."

The games begin this weekend, and Romig predicts that the season will be determined by the Division II rivalry between Del Campo and El Camino on January 28 and February 20.