Upon entering the 2009-10 season, Scotland coach David Johnson knew that his team was going to be young.

Three girls played a big role in helping the youth movement succeed.

Brittany Dockery, Ariel Ratcliff and Tierra Pate were nominated to this year's all-Southeastern Conference team and what's got Johnson smiling is that both Ratcliff (freshman) and Pate (junior) will be returning next season.

"I have to feel pretty good about going into this summer," said Johnson. "At this point last year, I did not know what I was going to do because I had lost my whole starting five and one of our top bench players to graduation. I feel alot better about planning stuff for the summer and knowing what I have coming back."

Dockery, a senior, played a limited role on last year's squad that featured former Mid-Southeastern conference player of the year Megan Brigman.

When Brigman graduated, Dockery took over her role and filled in nicely, averaging just over 11 points a game, despite missing an early portion of the season with a back injury.

"I thought she had a really good senior year and played through alot of injuries," Johnson said of Dockery. "She played through a deep thigh bruise, a bad back and had to miss some games but managed to work her way back."

Pate, like her teammate, spent some time on the bench with injuries as she sustained a shoulder injury in early December, which limited what she could do on the floor.

Despite the injuries, the junior finished second behind Dockery in scoring at 9.6 points a game. Her toughness was noticed by her coach, who hopes to have her back at 100-percent by the summer.

"We haven't seen the best of Tierra just yet," said Johnson of Pate. "She had little glimpses of time where the shoulder felt fine but she's really been a big part of the success that we had this year. She played hurt, missed some games but despite that, whenever she dressed out, she played big minutes, didn't complain about being tired or hurt. She played through alot of different things for us this year."

Along with the scoring, Pate pulled down 4.5 rebounds a game and shot 73-percent (27-for-37) from the free throw line.

Ratcliff may be just a freshman, but at times during the year, she sure didn't play like one as she averaged 9.5 points per game while dishing out 4.2 assists a game and leading the team in steals with five per game.

Despite the occasional off-game, Johnson had no idea how good she could really be, but knows that her potential has yet to be reached.

"I did not know that she was going to be this good. I knew that we needed a point guard and knew that we needed to develop one and going through the summer, I looked at the girls that came out, she stood out the most," Johnson said. "I said to myself, we got to work with her and develop her. It's always tough coming from middle school, where you're at a level where you pretty much have to do it all, then come to varsity and you're having to teach them a system in which they have to get everyone else involved and it was a big transition for her."

When Dockery and Pate went down early in the season, Johnson had to count of Ratcliff to do more and she more than rose to the challenge despite a little slump during the middle of the season.

"She started off the season well. Had a little bit of a slump during the middle half but when Brittany and Tierra went down, alot of the weight fell on her and I think that may have gotten to her a little bit," said Johnson. "Once she got those teammates back, she picked it up and really finished strong."

Despite the youth on this year's squad Johnson was very pleased to see three Lady Scots named to this year's team.

"I was real proud to see that other coaches in the conference thought highly of them," said Johnson.



Conference champions, Lumberton, matched Scotland with three girls on the squads. Jensine Alvarez, who was also named player of the year, along with Demilia Brooks and Zeandra Oxendine, made the 10-player squad for the Lady Pirates.

Richmond had two players make team in LaShey Brown and Shaquita Covington and interim coach Nellie Harrington took home coach of the years honors.

Candice Seagraves of Pinecrest and Briana Darden from Hoke County rounded out the squad.