Classes may have been dismissed for the holidays, but Cleveland girls’ basketball coach Rachel Moore continues to teach. Fervently.
During Monday’s Best of Preps tournament opener against Chattanooga Christian – whether it was during a timeout, a stoppage in play or even while CCS shot free throws at one end – Moore never missed an opportunity to call her players aside for a few extra seconds of teaching.
And for good reason. She has no seniors or juniors on her roster and will get no sympathy from any opponents.
In 12 seasons as the Lady Blue Raiders coach, Moore never has had a team quite like this year’s edition. Cleveland has won 20-plus games 10 times under Moore, claimed six region championships, advanced to the state tournament four times and even were nationally ranked twice. But high school athletics run in cycles, and even the best programs struggle at times.
The lack of varsity experience for Cleveland means all those teams that have taken whippings from the Lady Raiders for the last decade are licking their chops at the thought of revenge this year.
But a word to the wise: Anybody who wants to get payback against the Lady Raiders had better move quickly. They may be young, and mostly knees and elbows currently, but this bunch is plenty athletic and proved how talented they are by taking a CCS team with six seniors to the wire. The Lady Raiders lost by two, but only after a 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out.
“I’ve had to remind myself and our staff to not take anything for granted,” Moore said. “There is so much more teaching going on, and it’s all the simple basics.
“All these girls played together in middle school and had a lot of success, so we hear it constantly to be patient because we’re going to be really good. But I don’t want them to fall back on that: I want them to be the best they can be today. You can see there’s obvious talent, but it gets frustrating sometimes.”
Moore found out just how basic some of her teachings must be during a recent team meeting. As she explained the importance of each district game and how those would affect postseason seeding, one player raised her hand and asked, “Coach, who is in our district?”
“I’m trying to figure out who our go-to players are going to be and how we need to be stronger physically and mentally, and that really brought it back home just how much these kids don’t know,” said Moore, who has used four variations of starting lineups. “We can’t take anything for granted with this group. Every game, every practice is a chance to teach them to get better.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.