Fofana, top KF girls honored
Published 3:43 pm Saturday, March 12, 2016
It was only fitting that the King’s Fork High School’s girls’ basketball team got some All-Conference 17 spoils.
After all, though the Lady Bulldogs did not claim the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, they fended off both Lake Taylor High School and Woodrow Wilson High School to win the tourney.
King’s Fork coach Maurice Fofana was named the Conference 17 girls’ basketball Coach of the Year.
Junior forward Amesha Miller and sophomore point guard Camary Harris made the all-conference first team, junior guard Cydney Nichols made the second team and senior guard Jac’Quazja Council received honorable mention.
Fofana helped the Lady Bulldogs get off to a 20-0 start this season — their best start in his seven years as their coach. Then they qualified for the state tournament for the first time in school history and secured a win in the state quarterfinals.
“It’s always an honor any time you can receive an award like that, as far as Coach of the Year, and especially when the other coaches in your conference have to vote on it,” Fofana said. “It speaks volumes about the work that you’re putting in with the kids.”
He wished his players had received more honors, though.
“I was OK with the first two, Amesha and Camary,” Fofana said. However, “I felt like Amesha should have been Player of the Year. There was nobody in our conference that had the numbers that she had — consistently, night-in and night-out, a double-double.”
Miller, who was the Ironclad Conference Player of the Year last year, continued to produce impressive statistics this season, averaging 18.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, three blocks and three steals per game through the state tourney.
“I don’t see how you couldn’t vote for her,” given her stats, he said. “To see a kid with a double-double every night, something is going on good.”
Camary Harris earned the first all-conference honor of her high school career after averaging 11.6 points, seven assists, six rebounds and 5.3 steals through the conference tournament this season.
Harris’ honor, Fofana said, was another simple one to figure — “just numbers, from top to bottom.”
Cydney Nichols failed to make the first team, but Fofana believes her statistics should have earned her a spot.
“I was very upset with Cydney making second team, wasn’t happy at all,” Fofana said.
Nichols had a slow start to the year, but she picked up her game later and ended the year averaging 14.5 points, five boards, four steals and three assists per game.
Nichols was an all-conference second team selection as a freshman before making the jump to the first team last year.