Catching up with the Lady Monarch youth at the Norfolk summer league

Tiffany Minor, Brittany Campbell, Shakeva Richards

Caught the summer league at Maury High School yet? (If not, next game is 2:30 on Saturday.) We took a peek last weekend, and that allowed us to catch up with some of the younger Lady Monarchs: freshman Tiffany Minor, sophomore Brittany Campbell and sophomore Shakeva Richards. Here's some tidbits from our conversation with them:

Brittany: I'm healthy. I'm excited. I think it's going to be a good year for us. A lot of opportunity for everybody. I think everybody has a new attitude this year. I've lost some weight, so I can get up and down the floor better.

Brittany on what her new diet doesn't include:  Fried foods.

Brittany on last season: Last year was difficult. There was talk about me redshirting, and then I couldn't because I played in a few games. Right after that I got hurt. It was a rollercoaster ride last year. I've had two stress fractures before, but when I came off them, I could play. In high school I was a dependent player, so I would try to hurry up and come back and play.

Do you miss Indy (her hometown)? I miss my family and friends.

Like Norfolk? The weather is different than home. Wintertime is freezing cold at home. Summer time it doesn't get that hot. Now I'm burning up. I like the area. It's pretty and nice people.

Favorite Colt: Peyton. But he's not my favorite athlete. Dwyane Wade is my favorite athlete.

Shakeva: LeBron is my favorite player.

Tiffany: I used to like LeBron.

Shakeva on last year: It was OK. I wanted to play more. I wanted to win more. I played passively. I'm going to be more aggressive this year.

Shakeva on her 3-point shot: I had it, but I never took it. I'm going to start taking it this year.

Shakeva on fun: Shopping, shopping, shopping. Clothes, shoes, makeup. We'll shop anywhere. Any mall, any place.

On shoes: (Brittany) and me wear the same size (11 or 12), so we share.

Bet you didn't know about Shakeva: I used to be in drama. (That's not surprising, says Brittany.) I was in plays. A lot of plays. No Shakespeare. Mystery plays, scary stuff and comedies. I love being on stage and just doing improv.

I will sing. I don't know if people want to hear it.

Bet you didn't know about Brittany: I was on the swim team in middle school, elementary school. I used to do ballet. I played soccer. I played volleyball. I was a cheerleader.

Bet you didn't know about Tiffany: I'm not as quiet as I seem.

Shakeva on KB (new coach Karen Barefoot): She's brought a lot of energy. I felt like that's what we were lacking on the bench last year.

Majors:

Brittany: I recently changed to exercise science. I want to do rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Shakeva: I'm doing education. I want to be a middle school teacher and a coach. And maybe one day be a principal.

During the offseason .....

Shakeva: I want to work on my ballhandling. I want to make my shot consistent. And get stronger.

Brittany: I want to continue to get stronger. Rebounding, rebounding. You can never have enough rebounding. And finishing strong in the post. That's definitely what we need this year.

Tiffany: I need to get stronger and be more vocal and get more confident.

Why will this team do well?

Shakeva: We all have positive attitudes and everybody is going to work hard. We're going to be good. Come watch us play and support us.