Public school coaches are not allowed to recruit players from other schools. In the last year, however, Damascus girls coach Steve Pisarski had to recruit players from his own school.
One battle Pisarski lost was for Morgan Wrightson, Montgomery County’s top player, who departed for Middleburg (Va.) powerhouse Notre Dame Academy.
But one battle Pisarski won was for Jaquelyn Adcock. A key varsity player for three seasons, Adcock won the state discus title in the spring, accepted a track scholarship to Coastal Carolina and was considering participating on the indoor track team this winter.
But after an offseason of e-mail correspondence and a promise of team captaincy and more shots, Pisarski convinced the versatile, 5-foot-10 Adcock to return.
With Damascus off to a surprising 10-2 start and Adcock (10.8 points per game) playing a bigger role than ever, both are happy with her decision.
“I wanted to play basketball, but I thought I should get on with my track career,” said Adcock. “I called [Coastal] and they said, ‘It’s your senior year, do what you want.’”
After losing its top three scorers from last year’s region final squad that went 20-5, this was to be a rebuilding season. But the Hornets have one more win than this time last season.
“It’s not one of our more talented teams,” said Pisarski. “We don’t have year-round basketball players. We have a lot of very good athletes who play other sports.”
One of those is 5-11 Kailee May (12.9 points per game), an All-Examiner volleyball standout who transferred this summer from Utah. In a 61-47 victory Wednesday at Richard Montgomery, May did a reasonable impersonation of Wrightson, registering 22 points, 19 rebounds and eight steals. May will play volleyball at Fordham.
“Kailee’s been a big key for us,” said Adcock. “She’s like me. Basketball isn’t our main sport. But we love it and we’re having fun.”
Busy bees
» Raquel Villacarlos has excelled in her first year as the Hornets point guard.
» Six-foot junior Jamie Kaufman (11.8 points per game) has missed the last two games with a concussion and her status is day-to-day.
» Damascus has been to six region title games in the last seven years.
