York Dragonette basketball player Raylee Werner wants to do all she can to make a difference.
Werner enters her senior year at York High School. Werner said she has seen her bond grow between herself and her teammates throughout her time at York. Werner said the goal for her this season is simple.
“Our goal of course is winning,” Werner said. “But overall, our goal is to remain a family and we can’t do that unless everybody is together. Everybody helps everybody, that’s just how it is in Jamestown.”
York enters this season without guard Reese Beaty, who will play basketball for Iowa State. Beaty missed half of York’s season last year with injury. Werner said it was a little different initially.
“We got the hang of it and once we did, we really improved,” Werner said. “When she came back, you put her in the mix, a great player with some other great players, we got what we wanted to, just didn’t get the outcome, didn’t finish strong enough.”
York made it to the state finals last season. Werner said she knew when it hit her this was her senior year.
“After tryouts really, I realized wow, like this is it, we’re the leaders now, Reese [Beaty] is gone, we really have to step up and show what we can do,” Werner said. “Everybody’s like, oh they don’t have Reese anymore, but we’re still here, us four, we’re still good, we’ll be back.”
Werner has committed to Carson Newman University after she graduates. She looks to major in physical therapy. Werner said she intends to use her degree to head to nursing clinics and help those patients get better.