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Division II: Coaching, player personnel in flux


First-year coaches at Gettysburg and Northeastern, coupled with a new lineup at West York in girls' YAIAA Division II

A look at top storylines entering the 2015 season in YAIAA Division II girls' basketball:

New coach in Gettysburg: The Warriors will be under new leadership when the season starts. After eight seasons, Casey Thurston stepped down in early October to take an assistant position at Gettysburg College. Longtime assistant coach Max Laing will assume the head coaching job. Laing has been an assistant prior to Thurston joined the program in 2007. The Warriors went 3-18 last season.

Suburban got coach of year: Jess Barley will look to repeat her GameTimePA Coach of the Year accolades from last season at York Suburban. The Trojans had their first winning season (19-9) since 2009 and qualified for their first District 3 tournament since 2009. The Trojans run in districts came to an end in a quarterfinals loss to West York.

Sollberger’s time to step up: West York lost its two leading scorers -- Kari Lankford and Emily Wood -- to graduation. Lankford averaged 15 points per game last season and Wood averaged nearly 16 points per contest. Returning forward Olivia Sollberger should pick up some of the workload, however, after averaging 5.3 points per game in 28 games played last season. West York finished the 2014-15 campaign with a 29-2 record and fell in the second round of the state tournament.

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Video: YAIAA Division II girls' basketball preview
Teddy Feinberg and Christian Arnold preview the YAIAA boys' basketball 2015-16 season.
GameTimePA.com

Sister, sister: Rayah and Rajah Fink will play a big role this season for Dover. Basketball has become the family business for the Finks, as brother Najah plays on the Dover boys' squad. The two sisters were Dover’s leading scorers last season, with each averaging around 12 points per game. Rayah was also the team’s leading shooter from beyond the arc, knocking down 22 3-pointers. The two also finished the year with Rayah just edging out Rajah in total points with 268. Rajah ended the season with 266.

Another coaching change at Northeastern: Coaching stability has been hard to come by for Northeastern. Bill Novak stepped down before the end of last season and Gary Sutton will take the reins in 2015-16. Sutton will be Northeastern’s fourth coach in the last six years. Novak coached the team to consecutive district tournament appearances during his three-year stint at Northeastern.

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