The Pratt Community College women’s basketball team tips off their season this coming Monday, November 4 against the Kansas Wesleyan (JV) Coyotes at 5:30 p.m. in the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena. For fans following the program they might notice a few changes this season. The first is new head coach Christopher Jefferson, who served as the assistant coach last season. Coach Jefferson will be joined on the sidelines by assistant coach Jason Deel who makes his second appearance on the coaching staff in recent years. In addition, the team returns four sophomores and has plenty of new faces.  

We had the chance to sit down with coach Jefferson and address all of this and more as we prepare for the start of basketball season in Beaver nation.  

You took over at the helm back in early August and are getting ready to kick this thing off next week. What has your adjustment been like from assistant to head and what are you most excited about as we get this season started?  

The first adjustment has been the overall relationships with returners. I thought last year as an assistant I had a pretty good relationship with them. When I got the job, I had to call and recruit them back because a couple were thinking about going somewhere else. As far as being in that spot, I have been a head coach before at the high school level for several years. That is nothing new to me. But at the college level, recruiting and things like that, getting kids on campus and looking ahead are different.  

You are forced to look ahead especially at a junior college, you are constantly looking ahead and recruiting for the future. Whereas at the high school level, you know the hand that you are dealt and the kids you have, and you do not really look too far ahead. You try and develop the kids you have.  

That is what we have been doing with our kids in practice. We have been developing them and want to get a little bit better every day and that is what we talk about most days. So, it has not been too big of an adjustment, just the logistics of it was being thrown into the fire, trying to figure it out quickly.  

You have traveled to two jamborees and hosted scrimmages with Neosho County Community College and Life Prep Academy. What have you seen from your team in those games? In addition, what are you looking for as you play some JV teams and some other non-conference opponents over the next couple of weeks? 

The biggest thing I have seen throughout the scrimmage games, is energy. Just playing at a high level of energy and making people match that energy is tough for some teams, but our kids seem to really support each other. I have put a big emphasis this year on doing well in the classroom, which has forced me to for the first couple of jamborees that we went to leave some kids behind because they needed to work on their grades instead of play basketball. It was a few of the kids that we are going to be relying on for the season, which makes other kids that are new step up into those roles and really get some playing time and try to figure things out 

Let us talk about your sophomores here a little bit. Obviously, you did lose a big sophomore class last season. You bring back Dana Imankulova, Paisley Smith, Tyriana Stanford, and Dejaunee Jackson is back from injury. What are you expecting from your sophomores and what leadership role do they play on the team? 

I think having Dana back has given us some leadership, even though she did not really play too much last year. Paisley Smith is back as well and Paisley's is also a rodeo kid, so she splits time. But she is a pretty good leader as well. Tyriana is probably one of best athletes I have ever coached. If she could get everything else outside of basketball together, she will be special this year. We also have Sophia Bermejo, who transferred in from Frank Phillips, she has been a big shooter so far. She has been a good addition to what we are doing. 

As far as Deja, she is still coming back from that ACL injury from last year. She has been cleared, but I think with younger kids going through an injury like that it can really affect you mentally. And that is what she has been battling and just getting through that, that mental aspect of really giving everything she has got and going after what she wants. She is a really good athlete. She is fast and has a great athletic body and we could really use her help this year, but she is about two steps behind just because of the mental aspect. So, she is working through that, and I am helping her work through that, coach Deel is helping her work through that. And, you know, hopefully she will be good to go for the season.  

When people look at your roster this year, they will still see Kansas kids, but they are going to see players from Indiana, Kentucky, Spain, and Arkansas. Talk about your freshmen class and what difference they are going to make this season? 

I am originally from Louisville, Ken. area so I took that route and when I went back home over the Christmas break last year, I really hit quite a few tournaments to recruit some kids. We have a few kids from that area, Kalani Brock and MaKaya Humphries. They are both from the same high school in Louisville and they are good basketball players, good kids. Just the kind of character that we want on the team. They are both very personable, outgoing, and work hard doing what they do. Then there is the kid from Jeffersonville, IN La’Kyra Johnson who is actually from a neighboring town from where I grew up. She could be a special kid being here for a couple of years. She was an all-state honorable mention pick and was all conference a couple of years in the Hoosier Hills conference, which is the highest level in Indiana at the 4A level. She just gets after it every day and wants to win. Her leadership is going to help us out with the younger group itself.  

So again, with Sophia coming in, she has really sparked something with some of our kids because we can rely on her as a shooter. She is a pretty good little ball handler, and she has some experience with playing at this level. So, we were lucky to get her. We have a few other kids like the Wichita kids, Makayla McClellan, we call her Mac, is just a spark plug of a kid. She is not very tall, but she plays like she is six foot tall because of her energy. And then we have Jasani Jackson, who is really starting to figure things out for us and is a very athletic kid.  

We also have another Kansas kid who plays volleyball and basketball, Kambry Adams. We also got a kid from Parrington, Texas Analia Loera who can really help us off the bench this year. She has a chance to help us out in certain spots with matchups and things like that. Overall, we are just looking forward to getting them out there to see what they can do this next week. 

Not to overlook your non-conference schedule, but in about 20 days you will host Cowley College to start Jayhawk conference play. You went through the conference last season as an assistant and so you have seen firsthand the teams you play night in and night out in conference play. What are your realistic expectations for your team in terms of conference play? In addition, have you talked to your athletes about being picked next to last in the preseason conference standings?  

I did not. I have not talked about that with the kids because that does not make a difference. I mean you can rate teams where you want them, but at the end of the season when it shakes out, it is where you are supposed to be at. But the kids know, they have made it known that they know, so they are practicing with a chip on their shoulder, which is a good thing for a coach. That motivation is already built in, so we do not really talk too much about that. We talk about just getting one percent better every day and coming in to work hard and letting the chips fall where they may.  

The Jayhawks, brutal. I have talked about that and told them that night in and night out they are playing the best junior college competition in the nation as far as I am concerned. And it is brutal, it is physical, it is fast. There are a lot of kids out there that are high level division one kids. They will find out quickly if you can guard someone. They will find out quickly what it is all about here in about a month. Cowley’s a team that people are not really looking at, but they have some talent. Coach Clark gets kids, and it is going to be a challenge. We must keep taking steps in the right direction to compete at that level. And that is what we talk about every day, competing at a high level, bringing energy, and making people match our energy.  

If we can do that day in, day out we are going to be successful whether we are winning games or losing games, because improving daily is what carries over into your life. You got to be able to carry that energy and that passion over into whatever you are doing the rest of your life. It has more to do with just them being present and being present for each other every day than worrying about the wins and losses. That stuff will come and go. Yes, you want to compete. When it comes down to it you want to win losing sucks. We must get them to compete at a high-level night in and night out to be able to compete in the Jayhawk. It is the battle that we are trying to wage with them every day.