There are areas of the team that she is pleased with as well. The players are spending the summer working out and facing live action against opponents.
“We do have a lot of growing up to do,” Medley said. “We lack the scoring ability. I think our hustle, our defensive IQ, and stuff like that are there. It’s a really just going to be a team effort,” she added. “I don’t really have anyone that will outshine the others.”
There are some players Medley will be counting on when play starts for real in November. Treasure Bond will need to do big things in the paint for Baker. Addison Cadenhead and McKenzie McGraw will be the scoring threats from outside.
Defense, though, will lead the way for Baker.
“The strength of the team is definitely going to be defense,” Medley said. “We’ve struggled a little bit putting the ball in the hole. We are going to have to create offense out of our defense. “All summer, I’ve told them we are not going to play anything other than a man-to-man (defense). If we don’t play it, we’re not going to learn it, and that’s what I want us to be able to do.”
The defensive concepts are simple: playing man, denying the ball to the offense, and forcing turnovers that become instant offense on fast breaks.
The Gators won’t be a one-song defense. Medley understands the need to mix up her defense. When facing a team that is geared to inside play, the Gators will go to a zone defense.
“If they are not a good outside threat, we’ll have to pack (the defense) inside,” she said. “We are going to have to score off defense because these girls aren’t outside threats.”
While the last two seasons have been difficult, the team has kept pressing to get better.
“They get down on themselves,” she said. “It’s hard to keep kids interested with the lack of success. Outside of that, they have great attitude and great effort all year. For a kid to come and keep doing that as much as we have been losing. I can’t ask for any more than that.”
By Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
The greatest published work by celebrated medieval Italian statesman, poet, linguist, and political theorist Dante Alighieri will be — appropriately — celebrated at the Crestview Public Library beginning in mid-February.
A free exhibition of works taken from Dante’s “Divine Comedy” will run Feb. 12 through March 11. It is the second public exhibit of the collection, which debuted locally at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center at Northwest Florida State College’s Niceville campus in November.
Representatives from Stars & Tricolore Col. Daniele Mastroberti and his wife, Nunzia Scialpi, visit the Crestview Public Library with mayor JB Whitten and librarians Heather Nitzel and Annie Whitmore. Photo by Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
Mayor JB Whitten, the Crestview Public Library and the Crestview Cultural Services Division are sponsoring the exhibition, which was curated by the local Stars & Tricolore Italian military and cultural support association with the support of the Consulate of Italy in Miami. It commemorates the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.
“Dante is one of our most famous writers,” exhibit curator Nunzia Scialpi said during a visit to Crestview last week. “He is the founder of the modern Italian language.”
“Before he wrote ‘The Divine Comedy,’ everything was written in Latin,” added Scialpi’s husband, Col. Daniele Mastroberti, who commands the Italian air force contingent at Eglin Air Force Base. “He made his writings available to the common person.”
contingent to Mayor JB Whitten while touring the Crestview Public Library. Photo by Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
“We’re honored that ‘Diving into Comedy’s’ next exhibition is in Crestview,” Whitten said. “The Italian culture is so rich in its beauty and expression. I encourage everyone to come to our library to see this exhibit.”
Whitten chatted almost fluently in Italian with Scialpi and Mastroberti during their visit, seizing the opportunity to test his fluency of the language which he picked up during the 12 years he was stationed in Italy with the U.S. Air Force.
The Italian guests enjoyed lunch at The Wild Olive before touring the Crestview library with librarians Heather Nitzel and Annie Whitmore.
Compared to an early etching of the same topic, “The Structure of Paradise” by Adriana Massagli is a contemporary interpretation in quilting of Dante’s description from his “Divine Comedy.” The panels are part of the “Diving into Comedy” exhibit coming to Crestview. Photo by Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
The library’s new Quiet Café near the front of the main room was quickly identified as a prime location for the exhibit of 44 panels, which depict classic etchings of scenes from “The Divine Comedy.” These are coupled with prints of contemporary interpretations of the same scenes from the “Comedy in Quilt” exhibition.
“The quilts were inspired by the poet’s verses and the American tradition of quilting,” Scialpi explained in her exhibit description. “’The Comedy in Quilt’ invites observers to join in Dante Alighieri’s journey in ‘The Divine Comedy,’ which begins in a dark forest, travels through Dante’s inferno imagery, reaches Lucifer at the center of the Earth, continues through Purgatory, and eventually ends in Paradise.”
Mayor JB Whitten practices his Italian for visitors Col. Daniele Mastroberti and his wife, Nunzia Scialpi, over lunch at The Wild Olive while discussing bringing an exhibit based on Dante’s works to Crestview. Photo by Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
The panels are reproductions of works currently displayed in the world-famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Civic Archives in Milan.
“Your beautiful library is a perfect place to share this exhibition,” Scialpi said. “It is our intent that the ‘Diving into Comedy’ exhibit will offer the opportunity to bring two cultures even closer together through the universal language of art in a unique and cozy setting.”
WANT TO SEE IT?
What: “Diving into Comedy” exhibit inspired by works of Dante Alighieri
When: During regular opening hours, Feb. 12 to March 11
Where: Crestview Public Library, 1445 Commerce Dr. (behind the post office)
Notes: Free exhibit of etchings and interpretations in quilting of scenes from Dante’s “Divine Comedy.
Celebrated Italian statesman, poet, language theorist, and political theorist Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321) is depicted in an excerpt of a mural in the Uffizi Gallery painted by Andrea del Castagno around 1450. Photo by Brian Hughes, Cultural Services Specialist, City of Crestview
