Ever since Jeff Dickson introduced himself to Lawrence High’s girls basketball players as the new coach on May 19, you can sense there’s been a change in the program.


The Lions are practicing at a faster pace. They had rigorous summer workouts at very early times in the morning. Players are held more accountable about showing up to practices and workouts.


That’s not to say former coach Nick Wood, who left for a teaching job in Oman, didn’t push his team in practice. But Dickson’s practice have been more rigid and have definitely raised a level of intensity.


How will those changes play out on the court this year? I’m not sure, but it will be interesting to watch them early in the season. They didn’t win many games at team camps over the summer, but that’s when they had just started to learn Dickson’s style of coaching. Dickson earned Sunflower League co-Coach of the Year honors last year, leading Shawnee Mission Northwest to a state tournament berth.

It definitely will be a process, but the Lions have some talented pieces returning from last year’s team that had a 6-15 record. Senior point guard Marissa Pope will be the leader on both ends of the court, while sophomore shooting guard Skylar Drum played well at the end of last season, and senior forward Matia Finley provides good height.


I stopped by practice on Monday and shot some video of them running full-court drills, which can be seen below:


http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/2014/nov/26/36011/
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Some quick notes on some former Lawrence athletes:


•Former Lawrence High basketball star Dorian Green is averaging 13.1 points per game for Swans Gmunden, a professional basketball team in Austria that plays in the Austrian A-League. Twelve games into the year, he’s second on the team in points per game, but has a team-best 4.3 assists per game while also adding 3.4 rebounds per night. His team has a league best 10-2 record.


•As reported on LJWorld.com, former Free State pitcher Cody Kukuk, now a minor leaguer for the Boston Red Sox, was arrested last week in Long Beach, Calif., on outstanding robbery warrants out of Kansas. You can read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2014/nov/19/two-lawrence-men-arrested-california-aggravated-ro/
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Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. As the winter sports season nears, I’ll try to put up a blog post each day. Coming tomorrow night: video from Free State boys swimming team’s practice.


As always, feel free to comment, email me, or find me on Twitter @nightengalejr.