LAURINBURG — After experience coaching basketball at the 2A level, Mallarie Snow says she is ready for the adjustment moving up to the 4A basketball in North Carolina as the new girl’s basketball coach at Scotland High School.
Snow officially began her new job on July 1 after board approval on June 13, and will also join the staff as a ninth grade health and physical education teacher at Scotland High School.
“I’m very excited,” said Snow. “Its something new coming into a bigger school. They have a big tradition that upholds both athletics and academics and I am very excited for the opportunity.”
Snow comes in to Laurinburg from St. Paul’s High School in Robeson County, where she coached for most of two seasons improving the teams record. Snow took over the program at St. Paul’s in the middle of the 2014-15 season and inherited an abysmal 2-19 record.
But in her first full season at the helm, she improved the team’s record to 9-16 — seven more wins than the year before.
Snow will take over at Scotland High School for former coach Janie Hodges, who coached the team to a 17-10 finish with a 9-1 record in the conference last year — which was good enough for a share of the Southeastern Conference title with Lumberton and a trip to the NCHSAA playoffs. The Lady Scots season ended after they were ousted in the first round by R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston Salem, 56-65.
Hodges was set to take another coaching job out of state after the season, according to Scotland High School Athletic Director Richard Bailey, but she was later unable to accept the position. Hodges decided to remain at Scotland High School as a teacher this coming school year, but will not return as the girl’s basketball coach.
In the new era of Lady Scots basketball, Snow will be looking to add new faces to the team after the program graduated four seniors, including three time all-conference guard Ashlyn Dial. She has already met with several returning players on the squad but hopes to advertise to the larger female student body in order to drum up new talent that might not be rising up from the Junior Varsity squad.
“When women play one sport, they usually play another,” said Snow. “I have met a few girls and I’m hoping to me a lot more in the coming weeks.”
The team will return two solid pieces of the puzzle in three-time all-conference performers, 6-foot-2 center Khasiya Sellers, and last years SEC co-player of the year 5-foot-6 point guard ShanQaylia Stanton.
Sellers averaged 10.7 points per game last season and lead the team in rebounds (10.6) and blocks (1.9) and Stanton wrapped up her junior campaign averaging 13.6 points, just over three rebounds, 4.2 assists, and three steals per game.
In the coming season, Snow hopes to pick up where last season ended, and continue to lead her new team to another top finish in the conference for the sixth year in a row.
“Knowing that we were tied for first in the conference, and returning some players, my sights are very high,” said Snow. “Being a new coach in a new school I want to push them and make sure they are learning, and I want to come in and do the best job I can.”