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| Barrier sensed it was the right time for return |
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6/23/2017
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
She grew up with a basketball in her hands.
She was a talented player at a very young age.
She helped Montgomery County reach the state basketball tournament for the first time in school history.
She probably would have led the Lady Indians to a state title had it not been for a knee injury during her senior season.
She was named Miss Kentucky Basketball.
She went on to play and have a 1,000-point career despite another significant knee injury at the University of Alabama.
She served as an assistant coach at Troy State.
She came back to Kentucky and coached at Menifee County but after a short tenure she got out of coaching, had two children and watched them mature through their early years.
All the while she was a volunteer coach whenever possible in the Montgomery County system.
Then last Tuesday, Beth Vice Barrier was introduced as the new girls’ basketball coach at Montgomery County High School.
To say she has come full circle might be a bit premature.
Let’s just say she’s come all the way around the circle and is standing at the final juncture to come full circle.
The full circle, as she said during her remarks when she was introduced as the new coach last week, will be getting Montgomery County girls’ basketball back to the level where they’re competing for regional titles and playing in state tournaments.
Vice takes over a program that hasn’t been to the Girls’ Sweet 16 since 2013 after they ran off seven regional titles in eight seasons.
She takes over a team that won just five games in 31 outings last season after a 1-14 start, but did show significant improvement.
That team took a huge hit with the graduation of leading scorer Sarah Arnett. Then the team leader in waiting packed her bags and left for Clark County leaving the Lady Indians without a point guard and with very little ball handling experience at all.
Vice said in her comments last week that many things are already in place to try and bring Montgomery County girls’ basketball back to a competitive level.
They’ll have teams playing from the second and third grade levels all the way through high school this year, trying to build a foundation.
“We have some terrific people that are involved in the program at the lower levels that are going to make a positive impact,” Barrier said.
The Lady Indians have been playing some games this summer and “there are some obvious things” that the Lady Indians will have to improve on if they’re going to begin the road back.
“Coach Dan Gooch (former MCHS football coach) has agreed to help us some in the weight room because we’ve got to get stronger,” Vice said.
“We want to shoot the ball better and I want everyone on the team to feel like they have the green light and to feel confident to shoot the ball when they’re open.”
The Lady Indians do return senior guard Delaney Bromagen, an all-region performer and the team’s leading scorer last season.
“I think Delaney took a lot of shots last year because she felt like she had to,” Barrier noted. “Nobody else seemed to be able to get a shot. So she was shooting under a lot of pressure and sometimes when those shots didn’t go in, she got frustrated.
“Hopefully she’s going to be able to shoot less and score more for us in the season ahead.”
Also returning are Kaitlyn Barber and Mikayla Harris among the starting contingent and a number of younger players who got a chance to see what the high school game was all about last year.
“I don’t think we’re going to jump up and win 20 games,” Barrier explained. “We’re just going to try and improve the players’ games individually and then fit that into a team concept that will make us competitive.”
Barrier said that while she was “not a very good defensive player” she believes that defense wins games and that the Lady Indians will be playing a lot of man-to-man on that end and trying to pressure their opponents.
“I’m really excited to have a chance to be in this position,” she continued. “I feel like the timing is right. I’ve sort of had the sense for the last couple of years that it was time for me to get back in the game and this feels like the right time for me and hopefully for this team and the program.”
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