Winter 2011-12 Preview: Division Girls Basketball

The Division girls basketball team made a run to the Nassau County Class A finals last season before falling to eventual Long Island champion Garden City. Many of the girls from that team have since graduated, but the 2011-12 team is looking to get back there once again.

The Lady Blue Dragons, who won the Long Island Class A title in 2009 under head coach Steve Kissane, finished with an impressive 19-2 overall record and an 11-1 clip in Conference A-I. However, this upcoming season must have some rebuilding in store to return to prominence.

“We are trying to rebuild and everybody has to learn new plays. If we make the playoffs this year, I’d be happy,” Kissane said. “Susan [Ballantyne] is going to be great defensively and good on the boards. With Taylor [Calabrese] and Laura [Stuart], I will be looking for a lot out of them. Gina Fader is a tough shooting guard as well.

Division graduated its entire starting lineup and its first player off of the bench, including a trio of All-State caliber players in Julie Ballantyne, Kristen Stuart and Taylor Malings. In the upcoming season, senior Susan Ballantyne, sister of Julie, and sophomore Laura Stuart, sister of Kristen, will look to lead the team on the court.

“We have some girls that are equally as good, so we shouldn’t be missing out,” Ballantyne said. “We are going to go into every game trying to win and hope that it works out for us.”

Junior Gina Fader and sophomore Taylor Calabrese will be called upon to be the staples of the Division backcourt. Both players are currently competing in their second varsity seasons.

“It is a whole new team, but we just need to play together and I think we will be fine,” Fader said. “I know if we keep practicing, we will be good because both strings of players are good on the court.”

Sewanhaka, Plainedge and Bethpage, in addition to Hewlett and Lawrence, will challenge Division in its league. Non-league games include Seaford, Wantagh and Cold Spring Harbor. The Lady Blue Dragons will also compete in the Freeport Tournament, where they will match up with Sacred Heart in the opening round on Dec. 28.

“Last year, the girls ran themselves and the system was in place and we didn’t have to make many changes. This year I am looking to do a lot more teaching, but it is a good thing,” Kissane added.

The girls opened their season with a 41-38 win at Uniondale in non-league. Ballantyne led with 17 points and 10 rebounds and Stuart added 10 points, eight of which came from the free throw line.

Division will play another road game at Seaford on Thursday with a start time of 5:30 p.m.

For complete schedule information, visit the Nassau Boces Athletics page.