Free State High's Taylor Manning, left, and Ashli Hill will be counted on to grow into their long frames this winter for the Firebirds. Standing 6-foot-1 and 6-4, respectively, the duo should give Free State a decided height advantage during the 2007-08 basketball season.

Oh, to be a teenager again. Driving down the road, windows rolled down, not a care in the world. That’s what it was like for Ashli Hill one morning last week on her way to girls basketball camp at Free State High. And then her day took an unexpected turn.

“A skunk ran out in the middle of the road and it sprayed my car,” she said. “I smelled like a skunk all day. I thought I was going to puke. My eyes were burning. My bag smells, and my necklaces smell like skunk.”

Other than that morning, nobody had ever accused her of stinking on the basketball court. A 6-foot-4 sophomore-to-be at Free State, Hill, 15, gives the Firebirds something of a rarity in high girls basketball. For the next two seasons, Free State will have a pair of 6-footers in the starting lineup. Rising junior Taylor Manning, who will be the team’s lone returning starter, has grown to 6-1.

Time will show whether they are done growing vertically. Watching their growth as teammates should be one of the more compelling storylines on the Lawrence sports scene over the next couple of years. Hill has soft hands, catches just about everything thrown her way. Manning is a gifted passer, from the perimeter and especially on the interior. Hill is so long, Manning so strong.

“They’re buddies, but they really get after each other on the court,” Free State coach Bryan Duncan said. “They’re both so competitive.”

Not to mention fortunate to have each other to play against in practice.

“It’s going to make me play a lot better because I’m not used to playing against people who are way bigger than me,” Manning said. “That’s going to really push me. That’s going to help. I’m excited to learn how to play against Ashli. Also, Ashli’s going to come against big girls because we play in the Sunflower League, so I’m hoping I can defend her and make her better also.”

Watching Manning running drills and scrimmaging, it’s obvious she has an understanding of all the positions on the floor. If a teammate is out of position, she isn’t afraid to let her know. Even as seriously as she takes the game, she said she focuses more on volleyball than basketball.

Hill’s future is on the basketball court, as her mailman well knows. She said she has received mail from Tennessee, UConn, Duke, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and others. She added that Kansas and Kansas State sent her birthday cards.

“They can write to you, they just can’t offer you scholarships in them,” Hill said. “They’re persuasion letters and questionnaires and camp stuff. How great the university is, they’d love to have you, stuff like that. They’re fun. It’s exciting. I like getting them.”

She called the home-made birthday cards, “funny. They wrote happy birthday, be safe, think about basketball, things like that.”

Both girls exhibit ballhandling skills normally reserved for guards. They are way ahead of the game in that regard. Closer to the basket is where the most improvement will come during their time together.

“One of the most difficult things for players who are tall in high school is to learn how to use their height,” Duncan said. “Just as important is for teammates to learn how to use the height of Ashli and Taylor as well, as far as spacing and preventing double teams, etc., and that’s very difficult.”

It’s not as easy as the San Antonio Spurs make it look, Duncan said.

“They both are tremendous athletes,” Duncan said. “They’re really both going to need to learn to keep the ball up high. They pass very well. They recognize double teams, etc. Now the biggest thing is learning how to use their power that comes with the height as far as being really aggressive, making a quick, quick move and getting to the basket before double teams can get there. I think that’s going to be their next challenge, but they do pass out of double teams very well.”

As a scorer, Manning deferred to upperclassmen last season. A little too much even?

“Sometimes I think that, but I don’t know,” Manning said. “It’s a tough question.”

Next season, she will be counted on to shoot more often.

“It’s a much different role because now Sarah (Craft) and I and everyone else who played last year will really have to step up because we lost five seniors,” Manning said. “We have to work really hard to get where we can be and we will be a good team if we work through everything and keep practicing.”

Unlike in some sports, basketball practice can be very enjoyable, especially with Duncan running it. At the camp, when rap boomed out of the speakers, Hill’s shoulders moved to the beat and she danced with her arms. When the coach changed the music and played country, Hill let him know he had goofed.

“You trying to put us to sleep, Dunc?” she asked.

Shortly thereafter, Duncan kidded her about getting sprayed by a skunk.

“That’s a good way to get wide open,” Duncan said.

That’s about the only way a 6-4 high school girl with soft hands and a touch to match is going to get wide open.

The jovial moments at the basketball camp are mixed in here and there, but for the most part, the camp serves the purpose of what summer basketball is all about. Working hard and getting better.