CARIBOU, Maine — Coming off a 4-14 season, the Caribou Viking girls varsity welcomes Kayla Richards as the new head coach.
Richards served as the assistant coach last season under Ryan Deprey, who stepped down after seven seasons on the sidelines for Caribou. Richards, who also coaches soccer and softball for the Vikings and was a standout player at Presque Isle High School earlier in the decade, is excited to step into her first basketball head coaching job.
The team Richards inherits graduated four players from last year’s team: starters Maddie Doucette and Rachel Soucy, both of whom were four-year varsity players, and reserves Megan Thornton and Katie Clark.
Returning as starters are senior Gabrielle Marquis, junior Alexis Rodriguez and sophomore Paige Espling. Also back after sitting out the 2016-17 season due to injury is senior Searra Herbert, who had started for the Vikings as both a freshman and sophomore. The fifth starter will be Taylor LaBreck, who comes to the Vikings after playing for the Limestone/MSSM Eagles last year.
Expected to play important minutes off the bench will be sophomores Abbi Robbins, Taylor Skidgel and Kimmy Susi. Also looking to contribute off the bench will be seniors Abby Parks and Kaytlin Waldemarson and freshman Emily Collins.
Marc Weeks returns as the JV coach and student managers are Jessica Limary, Olivia Picard, and Taylor Devoe.
An early focus for Richards has been to play at a faster pace.
“We have a group of girls with a strong work ethic that want to improve,” Richards said. “I want them to work hard in games and work even harder at practices. We need to have the mentality to do all the little things right. We need to have the attitude that we expect to win games.”
Defensively, Richards hopes to use a more aggressive man-to-man defense and preseason drills have worked on defensive positioning and the mindset of a team defense.
“We have spent a lot of time on the principles of defense, and working together on defense. Things like when to help, how to rotate, and spacing on the court,” she said.
Offensively, the team does have a good blend of offensive styles, including the ability for some outside shooting, dribble penetration and inside post play. The challenge is being more consistent, and again doing the little things to be successful.
“Like we have stressed on defense, we need to get our spacing on the court to be better offensively. I think that would open us up quite a bit,” Richards said. “We also need to be smarter about making the right pass at the right time.”
Richards commented that the Vikings’ schedule includes a lot of talented teams, but she is looking forward to the challenge.
“If we can work on our fundamentals, we will improve and have a chance to win games,” she said.
The Vikings have missed out on the postseason for the last four years and Richards’ goal is to qualify this year.
“It is a good group, and if we continue to work hard and we improve our knowledge of the game, we will see the results on the court,” she said.
