WEST SUNBURY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — When the Moniteau girls basketball team needs a shot in the arm, coach Dee Arblaster doesn’t have far to look.
She peers to her bench to the first one ready and chomping at the bit to enter.
(Photo by Kathy Sutton)
Sophomore guard Allie Pry.
“She’s my little spark plug,” Arblaster said after a recent game. “I know starting is a big thing for a lot of kids, but for me, that sixth-man off the bench is a big part of my game plan. I think she’d rather start, but it fires her up to not, and she understands her role.”
And she carries it out with aplomb.
Pry’s numbers don’t pop off the stat sheet, but she’s gritty and feisty and a thorn in the side of most opponents.
She’s averaging 5.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.4 steals and 20.9 minutes per game off the bench.
“I enjoy it a lot,” Pry said. “It’s fun knowing that if my teammates need help, I can go in and help them out.”
Perhaps Pry’s biggest impact has been firing up her teammates.
It’s something the diminutive Pry has excelled at since she first dribbled a basketball at a very young age. She has a knack of motivating those around her. She also has knack of frustrating the opposition.
“I don’t know where that comes from,” Pry said, trying to explain the genesis if those intangibles. “I’ve just always been that way.”
Growing up with a large extended family — her sister, Victoria, is a senior and her cousin, Davina, is a sophomore on the team — toughened her up for the hoop trials that were ahead.
There’s a lot of branches on the Pry family tree and each one is sprouts ultra-competitive leaves.
“They’ve all helped,” Pry said. “If I needed help with something, they’d play defense to help me shoot or do anything to get me prepared. They’ve always done it. We’ve always just played pickup games and challenged each other.”
Pry’s cousins have their own basketball court in their back yard, complete with lights. She could be found there most days during the summer while growing up, playing with her big family of basketball stars such as Aslyn Pry, her cousin who completed a very successful basketball career at Moniteau last year and who has excelled this winter at Butler County Community College.
Her teammates — non-relative division — have also helped her grow, as she has aided them in their development.
Moniteau starts four sophomore and a senior — Victoria. Allie Pry is first off the bench and freshman Sophia Fleeger has also made an impact as a reserve.
“I think we’ve all grown as the year has gone on,” Pry said. “We all grew up together playing basketball and in travel leagues and that type of stuff. Definitely playing varsity with them all has been fun with the faster pace, and we all work well together.”
That hasn’t come by accident. Pry said the biggest thing this young team needed to do was communicate better.
Pry and her teammates went through some growing pains at the beginning of the season, but rebounded and are now in the District 9 Class 2A semifinals.
The Warriors will play top-seed Punxutawney at 7 p.m. Monday at DuBois High School. That game was originally scheduled for Friday, but the game was postponed because Moniteau canceled school due to inclement weather Thursday night.
“It was very upsetting because we were all practicing and we were really ready for this game,” Pry said. “We woke up and found out school was canceled and it really upset us.”
It has given the Warriors a few extra days to hype themselves up even more.
Moniteau is entering this game with the attitude it has nothing to lose.
Pry said she plays her best as an underdog. She’s been playing with a chip on her shoulder and an edge since she can remember.
“Everyone thinking we’re not going to win is really helping us play more confident,” Pry said.
Pry, who is also looking forward to a breakout season on the track — she runs the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, as well as a leg on the 400-meter relay and “whatever else the coaches need me to do,” she says — has a simple goal when it comes to her basketball future.
“Do well,” she says, “and make Dee proud.”
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