With a young team, one thing that basketball coach Billy Dunn talks about a lot is improvement. In his second season as the girls basketball coach, Dunn has seen improvement in his players and one who's right at the top of that list is Drea Watkins.

Watkins first made an impression on Dunn when he saw her play in summer games in 2011 and she has continued to impress ever since. Dunn believes that the fact Watkins is willing to learn and work hard is the reason for the improvement. Dunn also credits Watkins' personality for helping her to improve on the court.

"I just love the work ethic that she has. The coachability is awesome and I love that about her," said Dunn. "There are some things that we want her to continue to work on, but if you want to talk about kids that you just love to coach, Drea Watkins is the best."

If Dunn likes having one Watkins on his team, he might love next season, because there's a possibility that he'll have two. Drea's sister Destanee plays on the JV squad and could battle for a spot on varsity next season. Drea believes her sister is one factor for her improvement on the court.

"That would be exciting," said Watkins of the possibility of playing alongside her sister. "My dad takes us to the park and gets us to play one-on-one with each other, because I need to make her better and she needs to make me better. She's fast and I need to get my quickness up and I'm a little stronger than her, so she needs to body me up, so it's competitive and we feed off of each other."

As a junior, next season will put Watkins in the role of being a team leader. She already has the respect of her teammates, so that won't be an issue and she's watched and learned from the girls who have led the team ahead of her.

"The seniors are great this year. They're leaders on the court, they score, they play defense," Watkins said. "When we're down, they want to get back up and after every loss, they talk to us and tell us to pick it up. And in practices, when we do something wrong, we stop and talk to each other and say, 'You need to pick it up.' And that's what I want to be next year.

"If I make a mistake, I have to go get the next one. The coaches always tell us, 'If you make a mistake on offense, make up for it on defense. If you make a mistake on defense, make up for it on offense.' I just work hard."

A 58-57 loss to Allen last Friday ended the Lady Hornets hopes of reaching districts. The season will wind up Friday night with the Central Catholic Vikettes coming to The Hive for a game on Senior Night. While Dunn had hoped the team's chance at playing in districts would come down to that final game, he isn't ready to just put up a white flag for the rest of the season. Instead, he's using the disappointment as a teaching tool for his team.

"What the girls are going through now will be similar to something that they'll deal with in their life," Dunn said. "There'll be an adversity that they'll go through in their life. It could be an illness that someone they love goes through; it could be the loss of a job; it could be any type of difficulty. You hope that some of these experiences will carry them in life, so to give up or to bring younger players into the lineup, I think would say something to them that I don't want to say."