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Preston High School
School Info
Conference: 4A District 5-6 Conference
Classification: 4A
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Head Coach: Robert Donaldson
Years as Head Coach: 1st season
Previous Experience: Extensive years in AAU, Boys, and College Girls level
Record Last Year: 6-16
State Titles: 1986
Assistant Coaches:
Sabrina Gay
Hannah Roberts
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Team Preview
Written by: Sven Alskog
Since a trip to the state tournament in 2011, the Preston Indians have won just 11 games in the last three seasons, including a 6-16 mark last year.
Preston will have new leadership on the sidelines this time around with Robert Donaldson taking over as the head coach.
The Indians play in a strong conference which features Century, arguably the best 4A team in the state entering the season with every player returning from last year. Pocatello should also be a contender again, a team which advanced to the state tournament under interim coach Brock Gunter last season. All combined, it means the task in front of the new coaching staff is a large one.
Lillie Swainston, Megan Porter and Shania Carlisle will be tasked with leading the returners for Preston, all of which received plenty of experience last season.
There is no question as to what style the squad will be playing, with Donaldson planning to run a high-intensity style of play on both ends of the floor.
Defensively the Indians will be pushing to force turnovers for their opposition, hoping to lead to easy baskets in transition towards the other end.
Plenty of experience has returned from last year, something which Preston will need to have mesh with the new players early in the season to build a rapport, especially in set plays on offense.
Last season the squad was only able to muster one win against 4A competition, a 46-37 victory in early January against Rigby at home. The other wins all came against 2A and 3A teams.
It won’t get much easier this time around in the 4A District 5/6 conference with nearly every team returning its core for the new year.
High defensive intensity for 32 minutes will be needed for Preston to become more competitive in early season action as well as once conference play begins.
In the previous campaign the Indians gave up over 60 points multiple times, with the majority of these occurrences coming late in the season, including four in a row at the end.
Preston will start with four non-conference games at the beginning of the season prior to beginning the conference slate on Dec. 2 at home against Pocatello.
It will be important for the unit to gain some confidence in those non-league games to head into the matchups that matter with a new mindset under the new head coach in Donaldson.
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