Folsom girls' basketball will be a much different team

Lynn Wolking knows one thing; he will have a much different varsity girls' basketball team on the court this year than he's had the last four years or so. With the graduation of six seniors, all of which will play basketball in college, Wolking is losing loads of talent, experience and leadership. This summer Wolking had 27 players out for the team's month-long training, which included playing in three tournaments. Folsom High had six seniors in the program: Taylor Fike, Racquel Mauch, Annabell Dotson, Belle Marshall, Lexi Davis and Pavi Aluakh. Only Mauch saw much playing time on the varsity team a year ago. Wolking also had four juniors, seven sophomores and 10 freshmen come out. "I'm happy with the number of kids," Wolking said. "It's hard over the summer since some kids aren't even out of school until the first week of June. We had a lot of youngsters and it gave us a good chance to see what are talent level is. We're excited about the future because there is some good talent." On the varsity team, the top six scorers are all gone and will be playing in college, so it will be a new cast of characters leading the way. Only one player, junior Avery Masters, who saw major minutes on the varsity team returns from last year's team. With that said, Wolking said he still expects to compete for a Sierra Foothill League championship. "Our league ought to be very good next year, very competitive," Wolking said. "I don't expect any team to run away with it. Oak Ridge and St. Francis will be really good. Nobody will get through league undefeated." Folsom played in three tournaments in June; the first one in Folsom followed by tournaments in Roseville and Santa Barbara. They also played at Colfax. The team posted a record of 9-5. Masters, who Wolking said recently committed to the University of Oregon to play volleyball, played well in June. "Avery was fantastic," Wolking said. "On both sides of the ball she was really energetic and competitive. She was playing like there was no pressure and looked really good." Mauch also looked good at point guard, according to Wolking, while he said there were some freshmen who also played well. "Jayden Hill and Mallory Goldsby stood out," Wolking said. "Jayden is a guard, who's really quick, who reminded us of Makayla Rose from a few years ago. Mallory is a wing." Wolking said he expects his team to be competitive and that he's excited to see how the team will play when their talent level is closer to the rest of the league. "I was happy with the effort and the unity of the team," Wolking said. "They seemed to be excited to put a bulldogs' jersey on and that's always important. Sometimes that gets lost in the shuffle in high school, but we've been fortunate that the "Bulldogs" matter. "The area that needs the most work is defense. We're known for pressuring the ball and playing with tempo. In early June, I didn't think with the roster we had that we would be able to play that way, but now that I've seen us play, I believe we will be able to pressure the ball." Wolking said the main goal of the summer program is to introduce the Bulldogs philosophy to the news girls and get everyone to know each other and to get a connection. "I challenge the seniors all the time when they see a freshman basketball player on campus to reach out and welcome them. I know as a military brat who moved around a lot, and I hated it, that I didn't know anyone at my school. It's so much nicer when you get there and you already know 20 people. So I feel we were successful with connecting and introducing our philosophy this summer."