Tester Earns Rookie Of The Year

It's tough for a sophomore to make much of an impact on a team that returns five senior starters and eight of its top nine players from the previous year. Forget making an impact, most sophomores would be content with any playing time at all.

El Dorado's Kristian Tester, the News-Times Rookie of the Year, isn't like most sophomores.

Tester moved into the starting lineup, started every game and helped lead the Lady Cats to the Class AAAAA state tournament and their first winning season (17-9) in recent memory.

"She did exactly what we needed her to do," said Coach Brad Slatton. "In fact, I thought she held herself back some. She could've scored more but she understood that was not what this team needed. She did everything I wanted her to do."

The 5-5 sophomore led the team in scoring early in the season as El Dorado cruised through the nonconference schedule. When the Lady Cats got into the AAAAA-South season, however, Tester looked to get the ball inside more than for her own shot.

"It was a different level of competition," said Tester. "Early on, we were playing smaller schools, it wasn't the AAAAA competition. I think I molded myself into my role later in the year."

On the season, Tester averaged 11 points and led the county with 5.9 assists per game. She led the team in assists, free throws made and free throws attempted. She was second on the team in steals and third on the team in scoring.

"She added a whole different dimension they never had before," said Sheridan coach Rick Treadway. "She took care of the ballhandling. She was the stabilizer. She can drive or hit the outside shot. She really balanced out their team. She was exactly what they were looking for."

Tester's biggest contribution to El Dorado was being the team's primary ball handler. Last year, teams couldn't wait to apply full court pressure to the Lady Cats. This season, El Dorado rarely saw any pressure as teams showed their respect to the rookie point guard.

"Not only did she blow away the assist record but everybody's assists were up," said Slatton. "Everybody became a better player because she was out there. The shooting percentages were up because of the shots they were getting and our turnovers were down."

The season wasn't all white roses for Tester, however. There was plenty to learn and a lot of the lessons came under the lights for everyone to see. The high level of competition, night-in and night-out, proved to be the biggest challenge.

"At this level, you have to play every game and I didn't realize that until I got here. It surprised me but I thought I handled it well," said Tester. "As far as scoring and passing, I thought I did pretty well. On turnovers, I had a couple games where I had a bunch of turnovers. I let their guards get to me but overall, I think I did pretty well."

The AAAAA-South features some of the toughest sophomore point guards in the state, including Sheridan's Samantha Anglin and Lake Hamilton's Katie Mattingly. Tester showed she is definitely in that same class.

"I want to be the best," she said. "They're making me work harder to get where I want to get. If they want to get where I want to get, they're going to have to work harder, too."