Story By Druw Giamalva
After joining the Boaz Lady Pirate basketball program in August last year, the impact was immediately felt by the arrival of head coach Justin Bowen. In the 2024-2025 season, Bowen led the Pirates to a 17-14 record while making it to the Class 5A, Area 13 championship. Despite falling short in the area championship and the subregional matchup against the Scottsboro Wildcats, the Pirates look to be more prepared in 2025-2026 with Bowen getting a full offseason with his young squad.
“Last year going into the year, I had not had a summer with the girls,” Bowen said. “Now with a year under my belt, I went through a summer with them which was fun. We are a little bit more prepared as we go into the season now. Half of my girls play flag football and the other half play volleyball. We just kind of have to maneuver some stuff around so they can come and practice but our volleyball girls, most of them, have not been in the gym much other than an occasional shootaround. We’ve got a lot stacked up against us for the beginning of the year but luckily basketball is a long season, it is a tournament season. I am not expecting us to be playing super well at the beginning of the season, but I feel like we have the athletic ability and the talent to do pretty well this season. Last year we won seventeen games and we had a lot of freshmen play a majority of those minutes. We have a couple of new girls that I am excited about.”
A key goal in the offseason for Bowen and the Lady Pirates was working on the confidence on and off the court.
“One of the things that we talked about a lot is the word confidence,” Bowen said. “I’ve said the last several years that x factoring female athletics is just having confidence because a lot of young girls struggle in that area of just having confidence in themselves. Going into the season, we want to have that confidence and we are trying to teach them how to be confident in themselves personally and on the floor athletically. It is a big key for us and I think that can help us be successful.”
Some key leaders for Boaz include Addison Bowlin, Arleigh Kate Mitchell, Peyton Hall and McKenzie Garcia.
“Addison Bowlin lives in the gym. She is one of the only upperclassmen that is a part of our 10k Club, which means she made 10,000 or more shots in the offseason,” Bowen said. “We had three eighth graders that did that as well. Addison lives in the gym and she loves basketball. Arleigh Kate Mitchell, she is a leader for us. She hardly ever misses anything and she is one that plays flag football as well. She has really stood out to me. Peyton Hall is one of the faces of our female athletic program. She is a huge leader for us across everything she does. She works hard. Another leader is a senior that we have coming back in McKenzie Garcia. She didn’t play last year due to injury, so we are excited to have her back.”
When asked about what will lead to a successful season, Bowen believes that defense and athleticism will be two major factors for a great season for the Pirates.
“I think we definitely want to hang our hat this year on our defense,” he said. “We are extremely athletic with speed and quickness. I think defensively, we have got a chance to do really well. We played last year with a lot of freshmen and sophomores who hadn’t played much so I think in the summer, we showed a lot more poise in the game of being able to handle coaching, the atmosphere and adversity. I think poise is one thing we have gotten better at.”
The Pirates opening matchup will be on November 8, as they participate in the Snead State Community College Girls Tip Off against Spain Park.
“Our first game we play is at Snead. I have put on this tip-off and we have sixteen teams coming in, eight different games,” Bowen said. “We are playing Spain Park, which is obviously a bigger school. I thought it was a great way to start the season with some adversity and play a bigger school that we don’t normally play. We are going to go into that game not as prepared as we liked to because of other sports going on. I’ve realized to not get caught up in what is going on at the beginning of the season as you want to be playing your best basketball at the end. We have two new big video boards and we are going to try to make game day experiences better. I am excited for everyone to see that.”
The Pirates home opener will be on November 17 as they host the Asbury Rams at 6 p.m.
