Family feel part of the first-half fun for Alm, Wolverines

For first-year Polk County girls basketball coach Brandy Alm, the opening half of the 2014-15 season has felt like a family affair.

Not just because her husband, Billy, is serving as her assistant coach. And not just because her two kids, Gunnar and Kenzie, are common sights at practices and games.

For Alm, who has guided the Wolverines to a 7-5 record entering Monday’s home matchup with North Henderson, perhaps the best part of the season to date has been the closeness the team has developed.

“It’s been fun watching them grow and coming together on and off the court. It’s been amazing,” Alm said. “They’re fun to watch and they’re fun to coach. Every day in practice they come in and do what I want them to do. They’re a special group of girls who will do whatever it takes to work on their game, to improve and to better themselves.”

The Wolverines raced to a 6-2 start this season before dropping three of their past four games, albeit those losses to Mountain Heritage and Avery, two of the top three teams in the Western Highlands Conference, and 3A A.C. Reynolds. Polk County has been without senior center Sarah Phipps, out of the country on a trip to China, for its past three games and sophomore guard India Godlock for its past two, Godlock likely out until February with a high ankle sprain.

Phipps will be back for Monday’s game and will rejoin a starting lineup that has been led thus far by guards Hayley Kropp and Kara Overholt. Rejoining the team after a year’s absence, Overholt is averaging 10.5 points and four assists per game. Kropp, who quietly battled nagging injuries and illness earlier this season, leads the team with 15.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

“Kara Overholt, Billy and I call her the general,” Alm said. “She is such a leader on the court, always calm. Hayley is the playmaker. She is finally healthy, 100 percent, knock on wood.

“Autumn Owen has really surprised me (Owen, a freshmen, is averaging 7.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game). She is so tenacious. Offensively and defensively, she is all over the place.”

Polk County still has WHC games with Owen and Hendersonville remaining before making a second trip through the conference. Alm is optimistic about the Wolverines’ chances in the second half of the season.

“I think, hopefully, we’ll be peaking around the second round of the conference,” she said. “These girls play so hard and work so hard. We’re going to keep making adjustments to little things we do, and hopefully as we make those adjustments it will all come together on the scoreboard.”