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Q&A: York Suburban girls' coach Jess Barley


Jess Barley is entering her fourth year as girls' basketball coach at York Suburban High School. She sat down with GameTimePA.com to talk about the Trojans' upcoming season:

GameTimePA: Can you talk a little about last season? It was a breakthrough for the program — you qualified for the YAIAA playoffs, advanced to the quarterfinals of the District 3 Class AAA tourney and narrowly missed a PIAA state berth.
Jess Barley: We had a good season and created a lot of good memories there. We certainly earned a lot of good wins along the way, but one thing we've already talked about is that last season is over. Last season can't earn us anything now...It's a new season with new goals. The one thing we can take from it is how it feels to win. How that feeling can be replicated again this season.

YAIAA Division II girls' basketball: Changes in coaching, player personnel

GTPA: Can you talk about this year's team?
JB: We have three of our five starters back. Molly (Day) has had a great offseason, gotten herself into basketball shape and will be playing at York College next year. She's gotten that decision out of the way. I look for her to be a leader for us. Olivia Gettle will be at the point for us and Georgia (Dumars) is back. Parker (Faircloth-Henise) and Ali (Reinecker) give us some height. We'll be a little taller than in the past, but as always, we'll spend time working on the defensive end...We are a blue-collar team that likes to come out and play defense every single night.

GTPA: How do you see Division II shaping up this season?
JB: Until somebody dethrones West York, they are the team to beat. I think Susquehannock has a lot coming back. I truly think Division II will be competitive every night. I think you will see a lot of close games. It will be really interesting to see who comes out on top.

GTPA: You are a York Suburban graduate and a 1,000-point scorer while here. You came back right after graduation from York College (where Barley started on the women's team for parts of three seasons) and took a job coaching seventh and eighth grade basketball your first winter after college. Was that your plan all along?
JB: I knew probably from my junior year of college on that I wanted to get into coaching. Certainly, Suburban held a special place in my heart from playing here and having lots of great relationships here...I lucked out. They needed a seventh and eighth grade coach. At the time, (then-York Suburban girls varsity coach) Bob Rudisill was doing a great job and he connected with me. Looking back, I was very, very fortunate it all worked out timing-wise. To this day, (Rudisill) is my greatest mentor and I owe a lot to him.

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