Vikings Hope For More This Postseason

BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Tennessee High Vikings girls basketball team was running stairs. And as the Vikings ran up and down the aisles along the top section of Viking Hall before practice last Wednesday, coach Barry Wade’s point was made.

This year is different, Wade told his team, without saying a word. This year, the regular season isn’t enough.

There is no settling and there is no half-done for the Vikings (23-2, 15-1 Big Nine Conference), who want more than a heartbreak as the 2008-09 postseason begins.

Tennessee High flatlined in the district tournament last season after winning the 2007-08 Big Nine regular-season title. The Vikings then fell to Greeneville, 53-44, in the first round of Class AAA regional tournament Feb. 22, 2008 in Greeneville, Tenn.

The loss to the Greene Devils, which featured a late collapse by Tennessee High, marked Kim Bright’s final game as the Vikings’ coach. It also signified the start of the Wade regime.

Wade said he changed little in the Vikings’ overall approach this season, and he praised Bright’s work and the team she left him. Wade compared his coaching style to “waxing a Cadillac,” stating that Tennessee High’s success can be traced back to its middle school and junior varsity programs.

“I wasn’t concerned about messing things up,” Wade said. “What I was concerned about was these kids having confidence.

“It’s getting these kids to really believe in themselves. And realize, even though we lost a lot to graduation last year, that we were really still going to be very good.”

Tennessee High gets its first chance to make amends for the disappointing end to last season when the No. 1-seed Vikings take on ninth-seeded Daniel Boone at 6 tonight in the first round of the Class AAA district tournament at Dobyns-Bennett High School.

Tennessee High is once again the Big Nine regular-season champion, and the Vikings appear to have the best chance of any Big Nine team to make a strong postseason run.

Tennessee High seniors Danielle Montgomery, Cheyenne Thornseberry, Sarah Baker and Sara Wysor were all part of the 2007-08 Vikings squad whose final game ended in tears. This year, Tennessee High is in search of a new postseason fate.

“Our motto is to do things we’ve never done before,” Wade said.

Thornsberry’s inside play has been a key factor for a Vikings team that dominated the Big Nine this season. The 6-foot-1 senior post has paired with sophomore Rachel Huneycutt to give Tennessee High one of the premier interior games in the conference. The duo’s team-first approach has also taken the burden off Montgomery, while drawing defenders away from the Vikings’ perimeter shooters like Wysor and sophomore guard Blakeley Burleson.

“Used to, all I could do was get [the ball] in the paint and throw it back out,” Thornsberry said. “Now, I try to actually go in for a shot and use moves.”

In an effort to push Tennessee High farther, Wade said the Vikings began the season running a strict player rotation that never changed, no matter the score or state of a game. The idea: Allow Tennessee High’s roleplayers and unproven bench to develop, while forcing the team to realize it could not rely solely on Montgomery in crunch time.

The strategy paid off. The Vikings have won 13 straight contests, while former roleplayers such as Thornsberry, Huneycutt and Burleson have all carried the team at times.

“We’ve got chemistry,” Thornsberry said. “Our chemistry has been better than any [team] in the past that I can remember. … We all get along and there’s hardly any fighting at all. We all just mesh real well together.”

btsmith@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2569

Big Nine girls district tournament
At Dobyns-Bennett High School
Today: Daniel Boone vs. Tennessee High, 6 p.m.
Volunteer vs. Science Hill, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday: Sullivan South vs. Dobyns-Bennett, 6 p.m.
David Crockett vs. Sullivan Central, 7:30 p.m.