This time COVID wasn’t to blame for delaying Warren County Middle School basketball games.

Inclement weather on Monday forced games to be postponed. The Pioneers and Lady Pioneers were scheduled to face Tullahoma West in McMinnville.

“It would have been our first game on our home court,” said Lady Pioneer coach Mendy Stotts. “The girls were disappointed. We’ve definitely put in a lot of practice time over the last month not to get to play any more than we have.”

WCMS opened the season in McMinnville, but the games were played at the high school. The next two games were on the road. 

The Lady Pioneers are 2-1 after a pair of one-sided road wins. The WCMS girls pounded Tullahoma West and Shelbyville Harris. The loss was to White County in the season-opener, a game where coach Stotts said the Lady Pioneer shot about 30% from the foul line in a close loss.

Stotts says she’s developed a regular rotation about 7-8 players deep. Bri Taylor is one of the team’s top stars thanks to her all-around ability.

“She can shoot 3-pointers, drive, and she’s a good rebounder,” said Stotts. “If you’ve seen her play volleyball you know she can jump.”

Other key performers include Regin Grissom, Zoie Verge, Alexis Verdel, Valerie Esparza and Elly Bain.

As for scheduling, WCMS is set to play four games next week due to delays that were created by COVID.

“Four teams in our conference have been quarantined and we’ve been in quarantine,” said Stotts. “We’re trying to play games and teams keep getting quarantined so we’ll see what happens and hopefully we can play a lot of basketball next week.”