ORANGE PARK - The Orange Park High School Raiderdome gymnasium is usually packed and very loud during rivalry games and playoff contests, but they don't usually start until after January.
On Tuesday, the Raiderdome was chock full of girl's basketball action; preseason girls basketball action that, if you were casually dropping by to watch, you might think a regional playoff tournament was ongoing as, first, St. Johns Country Day School rocked Westside High by a 63-18 score with point guard Sophia Mejias and forward Ashanti Williams, then Oakleaf, with a whole team of fresh faces for coach Fred Cole, energized to take out St. Augustine High, an 18-4 record last year and a region playoff finisher last year, then, to top off the action, the Lady Raiders got a hefty boost of confidence from junior guard Mariah Young and sophomore brawler Jayde Brant to take down Nease High 51-46; Nease being a historical region playoff finisher under Hall of Fame coach Sherri Anthony, now retired.
"I started three freshmen and they scrapped all night against a Nease team that is historically top-ranked in girls basketball," said Orange Park High girls basketball coach Michael Nesmith, after his Lady Raiders broke open a neck and neck battle with the visiting Panthers in the Orange Park Preseason Invitational Day one action Tuesday night to win a hard-fought battle 51-46 with a few second-half heroics. "I tell them all the time that our energy is what is going to carry us. They were a little tentative in the first half just because I think they thought they were playing Nease. Once we got out of the halftime locker, it was a total 180-degree shift in energy."
Nesmith graduated a ton of talent from last year's team; nine seniors including top scorer Piera Alexander, top rebounder Mychaela Parker, and top three-point shooter Hailey Revak, was not expecting what he saw Tuesday night.
"These young kids wanted to set the tone for the season and didn't care that the game was preseason," said Nesmith.
For Oakleaf coach Fred Cole, who lamented through the past two seasons with less than Fred Cole results (Two Final Fours) and was starting from ground zero on Tuesday with a whole team of fresh faces.
"They are athletes because that's what we do at Oakleaf," said Cole, who had his speed and conditioning coach Ronald Jefferson next to him on the Knights bench. "We started a little slow in the first half, but then I saw a big jump in energy and we started playing like Oakleaf plays; aggressive, fast, and attacking."
The Knights got fast play from junior guard Roslyn Weston up front with
The action continues Thursday with a second round of games at Orange Park High School before regular season games open next week, November 19.