Our 10 biggest questions entering the Springfield area high school girls basketball season
Girls' basketball in the Ozarks is back and the area will again feature a handful of teams that are capable of winning state championships and making deep postseason runs.
There are a few storylines that we're tracking going into the season with successful coaches now on sidelines elsewhere, a team trying to repeat and a few trying to climb back to the top.
Here are the 10 biggest questions we have about the area's basketbal l season heading into the season.
Which of the new coaches will have the most success in their first year?
There was seemingly a game of musical chairs over the offseason that saw successful head coaches moving from one school to the other. Kickapoo, Nixa and Fair Grove are three of the best programs in the area entering the season and all have new names in charge of their sidelines.
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Kickapoo's Jim Pendergrass departed which opened the door for assistant and former Lady Chiefs player Leslie Hanchey to step into the role. Nixa's Jennifer Perryman stepped down which opened the door for Fair Grove coach Jenny Talbert, coming off a state championship win, from one Lady Eagles program to another. Meanwhile, Gary Greene, who spent the last 22 years coaching at Mansfield and Licking, moves into one of the best situations in the Ozarks at Fair Grove with a team with plenty of talent back after winning a Class 3 state championship.
All of these programs are going to win. They're proud programs that have been great in the area over the last several seasons. Seeing which one finds the most success this season is going to be fun to watch.
Can Fair Grove run it back and win another title?
Speaking of Greene's loaded roster, he has a Lady Eagles team that went 28-4 last year en route to the school's first state championship.
Fair Grove lost one of its best players to graduation in Kameron Green but it returns the likes of Ashton Bell and Brooke Daniels, two all-state caliber players who are just juniors. Add junior Camdyn Hart to the mix and it might be the best Class 3 backcourt in the entire state.
Figuring out how to fill Green's void will be crucial. She averaged 16 points and seven rebounds per game and served as the team's lone senior.
Will Marshfield take its place as one of the area's elite teams?
One of the best programs in the area's history, Marshfield has a team talented enough to make a run at a state title. It hasn't won one since 1999 and hasn't been to the state semifinals since a third-place finish in 2014.
What Katie Pritchard has done with this team has been fun to watch. It's gone from an 8-18 team in 2019 to one that's won 20 games or more in each of the last three years. It has a bonafide star in senior Lauren Luebbert with senior Abigail McBride and sophomore Quinn Aldridge being a pair that can take this team to another level.
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What kind of sophomore leap will Strafford's Elsie Larsen take?
If you've seen Larsen play, you know how good she was as a freshman. She's only going to get better and Strafford appears to have another big-time player on its hands.
Strafford has one of the best players in the area entering the season. It's been three years since Strafford won its latest state title following one of the greatest runs the state ever saw when it won five consecutive titles and achieved the longest winning streak in state history.
As long as the Strafford girls' program is around, it's going to be in contention at the end of the year. Larsen has a handful of others returning around her to try and elevate this program that will likely need to get past Fair Grove to return to the top.
With another year of Allyssa Joyner, will West Plains continue its impressive run?
West Plains has made it to the state semifinals in each of the last three seasons while winning it all in 2022. The Lady Zizzers program is alive and well and should be in contention again this year.
Joyner is back and could be seen as the best player in the area going into the year. She's a winner and has other standouts alongside with Olivia Lawson and Lucy Hafer. Head coach Scott Womack seems to always have the next great West Plains player waiting to take over, too.
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How will Republic look in the post-Kaemyn Bekemeier era?
Republic is going to have the challenge of replacing maybe the best player in the school's history after she started the last four seasons and averaged 23 points and 10 boards a year ago.
The post-Bekemeier era is here for Republic and we'll see how Kris Flood's program responds. This was a great program before Bekemeier started as a freshman and it's bound to be a great program long after she's departed.
Republic has talent returning with the likes of Misora Nambara, Alaina Norman and Molly Blades being recognizable faces in that locker room. The Lady Tigers are very senior-led and we're likely to learn a few names of players as this season goes on. Don't count them out.
Walnut Grove is loaded. Will it return to the top of Class 1?
The Lady Tigers have been to the state semifinals in each of the last four years and 10 of the last 11 seasons. They haven't won a championship since going back-to-back in 2019 and 2020 and have a three-peat sprinkled in that stretch as well. It's one of the premier small-school programs in the state.
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Darin Archer takes over the proud program and has a heck of a roster ready to make another deep postseason run. There might not be a better junior duo in the state than Ellie Smith and Jacie Gavisk. You'll see others step up throughout the season as well and Walnut Grove will remain in the championship mix.
Who are the candidates for this year's surprise team?
Waynesville — Waynesville hasn't had a winning record when it has one of the best prospects in the state on its roster. Bre Hurd should be able to lead this team to a few more dubs before she heads off to Virginia.
Glendale — A surprise team from a year ago can further surprise heading into this season. The Lady Falcons went from a four-win team to one that won 20 last season. With teams like Lebanon and others losing star players to graduation, the Lady Falcons can take another step in the Ozark Conference before joining the Central Ozark Conference next year.
Logan-Rogersville — LogRog isn't going to be a .500 team for long. It has a trio of top-tier sophomores who took the Wildcats and helped turn an eight-win program into a 14 as freshmen.
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How will we talk about conference realignment with girls' basketball after the season?
We know the Central Ozark Conference will be incredibly strong when it adds Kickapoo and Glendale to the mix.
The new Ozark Mountain Conference is going to look great with the likes of established teams like Carl Junction, West Plains and Marshfield and with the up-and-coming programs like Logan-Rogersville and Bolivar.
The Mid-Lakes might still look top-heavy with Fair Grove, Strafford and Skyline being three that have dominated the league in recent years.
Who will separate themselves as the News-Leader's player of the year?
Unlike Sparta's Jacob Lafferty on the boys' side, there's no overwhelming favorite to be the News-Leader's player of the year honor on the girls' side.
Joyner is an obvious favorite on a West Plains team that can win a state title. Luebbert is a candidate with Marshfield's rise and you could see one of the Walnut Grove stars win it upon another deep postseason run.
Keep an eye on Larsen out of Strafford. If she's able to lead her team past Fair Grove and get Strafford back in a state semifinal, it will be quite an accomplishment and difficult to ignore.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Southwest Missouri girls high school basketball biggest questions
