Iowa Lightning Girls Basketball Team

The 2008 Iowa Lightning girl’s traveling basketball teams will play in their second spring/summer season at the Saline County Shootout in Marshall, MO on April 12-13. All games will be played at the Missouri Valley College fieldhouse.

Our three oldest teams play at the following times on Saturday, April 12.

The Iowa Lightning Silver team will play in the Varsity Division. Game times on Saturday for Silver will be at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

The Iowa Lightning Scarlet team will play in the Varsity Division. Game times on Saturday for Scarlet will be at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

The Iowa Lightning Black team will play in the Varsity Division. Game times on Saturday for Black will be 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

The Iowa Lightning White team will play in the JV division. Their games times on Saturday will be at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Bracket play will on Sunday. The championship game for this age division is at 3:00 p.m.

A total of 47 girls comprise the 2008 Iowa Lightning rosters. Players come from all over Iowa and play at high schools ranging from 1A to 4A class size. The Iowa Lightning will compete in tournaments during the months of April, May, June and July during their remaining season of 2008.

The 2008 Iowa Lightning girl’s traveling basketball teams open up their spring/summer season with their first tournament of the year at the Iowa AAU Junior Eligible tournament in Des Moines, Iowa on March 29-30, 2008. The four Iowa Lightning team participating include:

Iowa Lightning Black Team – Coached by Adam Mich – the Black team opens pool play in Pool A at 9:00 a.m. and at 4:00 p.m. on March 29 at Hoover High School.

Iowa Lightning Scarlet Team – Coached by Anne O’Neil – the Scarlet team opens pool play in Pool C at 11:30 a.m. and at 3:15 p.m. at Hoover High School.

Iowa Lightning Silver Team – Coached by Bryan White – the Silver team opens pool play in Pool B at 10:15 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. at Hoover High School.

Iowa Lightning White Team – Coach by Lisa Morrissey – the White team opens pool play in Pool D at 12:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

If the Iowa Lightning teams do well in pool play, they will advance to bracket play which starts on late Saturday, March 29 and finishes on Sunday March 30th.

A total of 47 girls comprise the 2008 Iowa Lightning rosters. Players come from all over Iowa and play at high schools ranging from 1A to 4A class size. The Iowa Lightning will compete in tournaments during the months of April, May, June and July during their remaining season of 2008.

The Iowa Lightning Girl’s Basketball Traveling organization is pleased to announce that Lisa Morrissey has joined its coaching ranks. Coach Morrissey is a former Iowa Lightning player who played her high school career at Dowling Catholic, a 4A school in West Des Moines, IA. While at Dowling, Morrissey started at point guard and was instrumental in Dowling Catholic making their 11th consecutive appearance in the Iowa Girls State High School Tournament.

Morrissey played point guard for the Iowa Lightning in the summer of 2005. During that summer, she led her team to three high place finishes including the MAYB National Kick-off Classic where the Iowa Lightning won the 11th-12th grade National Title in the “B” Division of play. After being knocked out of the “A” pool by the Kansas Dream Team, a team with 9 Division 1 signees, Morrissey led her team to five consecutive wins to capture the “B” Division title among 60 teams in the division. Her Lightning team played a total of 9 games that particular weekend. Her group of Lightning players also placed high in tournaments in Wisconsin and in Minnesota.

Upon graduation from Dowling Catholic, Morrissey is currently attending Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa where she is majoring in Early Childhood Education. She has continued her basketball success and has been the starting point guard at Loras during both her freshmen and sophomore seasons. Coach Morrissey will return to Loras as a junior in the fall of 2008. She is the daughter of Dave and Denise Morrissey who live in Urbandale, Iowa.

Coach Morrissey will oversee the Iowa Lightning White team. The Iowa Lightning is thrilled to have a former alumni player back with us! Coach Morrissey will do a great job in leading our Iowa Lightning White team and is a great addition to the Iowa Lightning organization.

The 2008 Iowa Lightning Team Try-outs will take place on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at Oskaloosa Senior High School in Oskaloosa. The Iowa Lightning will play with four teams in 2008. The White team will consist of girls who have just completed 8th and 9th grades. This team will play a varsity level schedule. The Black, Scarlet and Silver team will consist of girls who are competing at the high school varsity level. On March 2, 2008 the try-out process will determine what players are selected overall for the Iowa Lightning. Once try-outs are finished, the 2008 roster of Iowa Lightning will have an intra-squad scrimmage on March 9 to determine what teams an Iowa Lightning player will be placed on.

The March 2, 2008 Iowa Lightning Try-outs will begin with the registration process that takes place from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m. Try-outs will begin at 1:00 p.m. and end at approximately 5:00 p.m.

All participants interested in trying out for the Iowa Lightning should fill out the registration form on the website and mail it to the address listed along with a $20 pre-registration fee. Walk-ins are welcome but the registration fee climbs to $30 after Saturday, February 23.

Selections for the Iowa Lightning rosters will be made by a panel of high school and college coaches. All participants will be notified of their selection status within 5 days after the try-out process.

For a list of the colleges who attended in Champaign, go to: http://www.usjn.com/MidAmericaChallenge.htm#PostEvent

Then click on the 2007 Post Event Page - Click Here part of the website. This will take you a list of schools who attended.

You'll notice that there were several Iowa Colleges and Universities who attended. The NAIA, D-3 and JUCO coaches are actively recruiting right now. We heard individually from all of these schools and they were excited to see you in action. There will be many more opportunities in our tournament schedule to be discovered this summer in front of coaches.

Game Schedules for Wichita MAYB National Kick-off

IowaLightning Black: Pool "B" -- Team #6 Friday, June 8, 2007 3:15 p.m. vs. Junction City Lady Jays -- Gym: Trinity High School 9:45 p.m. vs. Colorado Elite -- Gym: Wichita East High School Saturday, June 9, 2007 10:10 a.m. vs KS Lady Nets -- Gym: Wichita State University, Court #2 We'll play again on Saturday based on how we do in our three pool games. See schedule for possible game times.

Iowa Lightning Scarlet Pool "F" -- Team #22 Friday, June 8, 2007 6:30 p.m. vs. KS Hoopsters -- Gym: Wichita State University, Court #1 Saturday, June 8, 2007 10:10 a.m. vs. Omaha Lady Lakers -- Gym: Andover Central High School, Court #2 12:20 p.m. vs. KC Hustle -- Gym: Andover Central High School, Court #2 We'll play again on Saturday based on how we do in our three pool games. See schedule for possible game times.

Iowa Lightning Silver Pool J -- Team #38 Friday, June 8, 2007 2:10 p.m. -- vs. O & H Thunder -- Gym: Wichita State University, Court #1 6:30 p.m. -- vs. NEK Lady Deuces -- Gym: Wichita State University, Court #3 Saturday, June 9, 2007 8:00 a.m. -- vs. Augusta -- Gym: Trinity High School. We'll play again on Saturday based on how we do in our three pool games. See schedule for possible game times.

Iowa Lightning White Pool "C" -- Team #12 Friday, June 8, 2007 8:40 p.m. vs. Colorado Elite -- Andover High School, Court #1 Saturday, June 9, 2007 9:05 a.m. vs. Soutwest Missouri Sting 1:25 p.m. vs. Wichita Lady Sparks We'll play again on Saturday based on how we do in our three pool games. See schedule for possible game times.

Due to coaching conflicts, we will not be able to have practice this coming Sunday, June 3. Please take it upon yourself to condition and prepare yourself for Wichita. We need each Iowa Lightning player to bring their best game!

Our three Iowa Lightning teams competed well at the recent USJN Tournament in Champaign, IL. The Silver team went 3-1 in their play; the Scarlet team was 2-2; the White team competed well even though their record was 1-3.

Great job to all three teams!