By Laura Amato
The Christ the King girls’ basketball team is in the middle of a youth movement.
Although they lost six seniors from last year’s Brooklyn/Queens championship squad, the Lady Royals aren’t lacking in confidence this season.
In fact, this group is having a bit of fun experimenting with lineups and fresh faces and, most importantly, brand-new talent.
“We’re really young and it’s just going to take a little bit of work to get everybody on the right page,” said Christ the King coach Bob Mackey. “But we’ve got a lot of potential to be really good.”
The only senior returning from last year’s squad is Saundra Cleckley, who saw solid minutes with the Lady Royals late last season, and the team boasts just five upperclassmen on the roster.
Mackey, however, isn’t worried.
He has watched his squad hit its stride early this season, bolstered by an enthusiasm that rarely fails—even at 5:30 a.m. practices. And there have been a good chunk of those.
“They’re really great practices,” Mackey said. “The inside of my eyeballs would have liked to see some sleep, but it frees everybody up. It’s a lot of fun.”
Cleckley may be the only senior, but that doesn’t mean the Lady Royals are lacking for talent. In fact, most of the underclassmen on this squad have championship experience already, notching a JV city title.
Junior guard Jae’onna Sutton will likely begin the season handling point guard duties, while 6-foot-4 freshman Natalija Marshall adds some serious size and, even more importantly, a soft shooting touch that has Mackey excited to see what she can do against BQCHSAA talent.
“We’re kind of hoping that she’ll help everybody look good,” Mackey said of Marshall. “She can step out and shoot it and she can hit. There’s some good looks.”
Christ the King opens up the season at the Art Turner Memorial Tip Off in Virginia before league play gets underway at Bishop Loughlin Dec. 7. The Lady Royals are also slated to compete in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona from Dec. 19 to Dec. 22. It’s not an easy schedule—particularly with a roster full of young players—but the squad is anxious to prove itself.
After all, it’s kind of fun to build something from scratch.
“I don’t make the girls play together in the offseason, which I think helps because now they’re fresh and it’s all new,” Mackey said. “It’s a brand-new lump of clay you get to work with instead of everybody coming in and being like, well I hate them and I hate that one. There’s none of that. It’s a really nice group.”
It’s been a different preseason experience for Mackey—there aren’t Division I coaches lining the gym floor to see his players—and he’s enjoying the quiet a bit.
This is a chance to start a new legacy and the Lady Royals, young as they may be, are determined to seize that opportunity.
“We’ve got a bunch of depth and ability, a lot of moving parts,” Mackey said. “Everybody can really play a lot of positions. So it’s been fun, but it’s been really different because when you lose six starters, six seniors, you’ve got to revamp, retool and rebuild.”
