Sidney girls' aim to get on track

Despite some early season struggles, the Sidney Red Raiders girls’ basketball team can take comfort in a not too dissimilar scenario that opened the 2013-14 season.

At the conclusion of the Cabela’s Holiday Tournament last season, the eventual Class B-6 champions were just a game over .500. They eked out a three-point victory against Gothenburg in the tournament’s final game. Sidney enters the 2015 tournament at 3-4 after giving up a fourth-quarter lead against Fort Morgan in its last game before the break. A win over Alliance earlier in the season has the Raiders at 1-0 in the district.

“Yeah, it’s kind of a similar situation to last year’s start,” said Raiders head coach Tyler Shaw. “I think they’re trying to figure out what works and doesn’t work for them. As of now we need to find our way and see what combination of players can do what we want them to do.”

The Raiders first test is against the Swedes of Gothenburg on Friday at 5:30 p.m. Wheatland and Chase County will play first at 2 p.m. The winners will square off for the championship on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The consolation matchup is set for 10 a.m.

The Swedes team Sidney will face Friday is not exactly the team they met in 2014. Gothenburg has lost six seniors to graduation including top scorer Regan Geiken. As a result they have struggled to a 1-5 season playing in Class C1, District 10.

The Swedes biggest inisde threat is junior Mady Vogel. The 6-0 junior leads Gothenburg in scoring. Senior guard Makaela Franzen, a 5-5 guard, is the Swedes most experienced player. She, however, has been fighting to regain her form after off-season knee surgery.

Much of the responsibility in guarding Vogel will fall on senior Savanna Rosenbaum. At 5-11, she is the Raiders tallest player. Even more useful is that Rosenbaum is among the most experienced players on the roster.

Experience, however, is not in abundant supply for Sidney. Senior Maddie Stafford started many games last year at point while twin sister Ashley saw action as well. Vanessa Riley and Erin Brown are the only other seniors who played varsity last season.

“We remembered when we struggled some last year,” Rosenbaum said. “But we improved as the year went along. So we’re not going to let a few early season losses define us.”

Chase County is a team the Raiders are already familiar with. Sidney got off to a very slow start at Imperial when it dropped a 48-29 decision.

The Wheatland Bulldogs, who play out of Wyoming’s Class 3A Southeast, have won state championships as recently as 2011 and 2012. Though they have lost much of their punch from the championship seasons, they are still a formidable opponent at 4-2.