June wrapup by Adrian curry
June is a month where high school teams are blue to practice and get better while starting to prepare for next upcoming season. It is the first game action for talented incoming freshman while it is the first time for some teams have gotten together since a bitter end to last season. Elite teams like Dublin Coffman, reynoldsburg, pick central and Gahanna use this time to build chemistry and get ready for the long grind of the upcoming season. Other teams use this to incorporate new players and to replace superstars they lost from last season. This has been a month that has seen me travel to Newark, Ohio Dominican, teays valley and africentric to see teams in action. With Covid-19 taking away June, this is the first summer in 2 years where teams have been able to play in different shootouts and elite camps to face great competition and get noticed by college coaches. Dublin Coffman was one of the teams that really made a statement this month by defeating Newark at their shootout and also competing very hard at the Westerville north summer league and making a great impression with their chemistry and ball movement. They will be the team to beat this upcoming season as they return all of the starters from their regional runner-up team from last season and seemed to only get better. Cassidy lafler and Tessa Grady continue to improve from their breakout seasons from last year and with the many weapons that Coffman has makes them tough to stop. Also was impressed with gahanna as I was able to see them play against defending d3 champs Berlin hiland and were able to play great defense with their guards led by Laila Marshall and juju grubich. If Gahanna plays great defense this season they will be a force to be reckoned with along with Xavier commit Bella ward. Pick central had a down year by their standards with the toughest schedule in the area but with a deep roster despite the graduation of Jocelyn Tate and skye Williams was impressed by their guard play especially from rylee Bess who has come into her own after playing this spring for all-Ohio black. Was very impressed with Olivia cooper and berry Wallace, who have come into their own and will be tough to stop in the post . Pick central along with reynoldsburg to win the occ-buckeye. Reynoldsburg will be one of the teams that best matches up with Coffman this season. They return a core group including seniors mya perry and Mari russell both committed to Ohio state and West Virginia respectively. They did lose Alexia Mobley who average a double-double last season so they will need to replace her effort on the boards but they also return trinity Ramos who has the potential to be a deadly 3rd scorer for the raiders this season. Was also impressed with Granville as I took in their tri-scrimmage last week with bexley and new Albany. They are very talented and return most of their starters back including the talented backcourt of Ella wigal and cate schieber. They return role players in Ava gossman and Harper Annarino that will make impact on a team that made the sweet 16 a year ago and won the lcl for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. Expect big things from the blue aces this season as they look to improve on their best season in school history last year.