By Marc Thaler
Staff Writer

From the moment preseason workouts for the 2005-06 Class S girls basketball campaign began, the squad at The Derryfield School has been hard at work attempting to answer a particular question regarding this year's club.

Derryfield's Diana Maldonado, one of five seniors on the Cougars - 2005-06 12-member roster, calls for the ball while posting up against Hopkinton's 6-foot-5 center Kelley Flynn, a key cog in last year's Trinity of Manchester Class L state title team. The two schools played a five-quarter scrimmage at DS on Friday, Dec. 2. (Marc Thaler Photo)

Can the Cougars, state finalists last season, excel without Kendra Decelle? The former DS standout, now a Division I swimmer as a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh, was the key cog in the Cougars' attack. Graduating last spring, Decelle was one of seven DS athletes since 1981, including both boys and girls, to net 1,000 career points, completing her high school career with 1,094.

"That's a huge hole to fill when you lose the (2004-05 Class S) Player of the Year," said Derryfield's Ed Lemire, entering his 22nd year as head coach of the Cougars. "You can't replace that right away. You hope to get a few people (to fill the void).

"Kendra wasn't that good overnight - she had to work at it," Lemire added of the player who figured in 34 of the Cougars' first 36 points in last year's state semifinals. "She had great court sense, court sight and fire. That's hard to replace."

The odds, however, of finding a new crop of key contributors is in the head coach's favor; the '05-'06 Cougars return nine players from the near-championship team of a year ago. Five of the team's 12 varsity athletes are seniors, including captains Molly Lyford and Rachel Romanowsky, plus Bedford's Stacie and Stephanie Foote, and Hooksett's Diana Maldonado.

"Last year, if we couldn't make something happen on the court, we knew we could just dish the ball to Kendra," Lyford said. "Now, we've all gotta make something happen out there."

Romanowsky said the prospect of being a go-to player is a bit intimidating. But the 6-foot-1 forward added she's excited to meet the challenge, and help prove DS will be extremely competitive this winter.

According to the head coach, Derryfield's size and experience on the front line is a strength of this year's squad. While Romanowsky tops the 6-foot mark, the Foote sisters and sophomore Kathleen Reynolds are all 5-foot-11.

"This year, we'll have more of a lowpost game," said Stacie Foote, who missed the majority of '04-'05 with a right-knee injury. "We have a bunch of post plays under our belts. We're working to perfect those."

Normally, teams with tremendous height are perceived to lack quickness on the court. According to Diana Maldonado and her sister, sophomore Julia, the Cougars hope their competition expects to face a slow-footed squad.

Although Lyford is the lone senior among the team's five guards, the Cougars are quick at that position. All five can run the break and score points from the perimeter, Lemire said.

While the Cougars' combination of height and speed could prove lethal to the rest of Class S, the players realize executing on the court - especially late in games - depends on the ability to sustain endurance.

"Kendra used to say 'You're never as tired as you think you are, so dig deep,'" Diana Maldonado said. "We want to be a fourth-quarter team. When other teams get tired, our conditioning will kick in."

"Coach always says if we go out on the floor and we're tired, other teams should be completely exhausted," Julia Maldonado said.

"This is the hardest working team I've ever had this early in the year," Lemire said. "They're buying into trying to be the best conditioned team in the state. I'm so impressed with their work ethic."

Last winter, DS earned the top seed for the postseason tournament. The Cougars defeated Pittsfield in the Final Four, Derryfield's seventh trip to the state semifinals in the past eight years.

According to the Maldonado sisters, March 3 - the date of this year's scheduled title game - is marked on the Cougars. calendar.

"Every game this season is in preparation for that date," Diana Maldonado said. "Last year was great. But we want to improve. Everything about this season is about improvement."