Entering her 18th season as Bakersfield College’s head coach and coming off a 16-8 winning season, Paula Dahl and the Bakersfield College Renegades look to defend their Western State Conference championship with bigger expectations in terms of competing.
“My biggest expectation is that we’ll be competitive in all the games that we’re playing,” said Dahl.
“I want the teams that we’ve competed against to know that they’ve had a hard game against us,” Dahl said about her expectations from the team.
She also talked about her team’s aggressiveness and how they compete hard against each other in practice.
She talked about how she’s very anxious to see them play because she’s been very pleased with how they’ve played in practice, and wants to see how they can generate their hard work against opposing teams.
“We don’t have as much height as we had last year, but we got some really aggressive kids that are willing to get after it,” said Dahl.
BC has four key returning players from last year, who helped lead the team win its first conference championship last season.
Guard Haley Huntington averaged 8.9 points and 1.3 steals per game. Also, guard Emilee Parks was the team’s fourth leading scorer with 10.7 points and 2.0 steals per game.
Forward Brittney Smith was the team’s second leading scorer with 12.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and she was also an all conference player.
Guard Andrea Harris averaged 3.1 points and 3.5 rebounds for BC last year.
Dahl also talked about two freshmen players who she was really impressed with for this upcoming season.
“Khiylah Dean, who is a feisty point guard, she’s really quick and makes a lot of different things happen,” she said about Dean’s ability.
Dahl also mentioned freshman forward Mackenzie Odle, who is a North High School graduate and an inside player who has played very well in practice.
“She’s aggressive, great nose for the ball and in practice she’s leading our team. As far as we do stats based on positive things versus negative, she’s leading the team there,” Dahl said.
Dahl is seeking a second straight conference championship and is very confident in her team’s ability to build off their championship run from last year.
BC is scheduled to open its season at home on Nov. 8 against Cabrillo College. The Renegades are scheduled to play in several tournaments throughout the state in November and December.