Mayfield: FHS seniors contribute big to steady Lady Ads 4-year improvement
When the 2018-19 high school basketball season ended recently, the Farragut Lady Admirals bid farewell to a senior class that included some top players who competed at the school.
Senior wing Morgan Carbaugh leaves FHS as one of the program’s top-five all-time scorers and 3-point shooters during her four years, scoring 1,512 points in her stellar career.
She also had 182 career assists and grabbed 650 rebounds during her time at FHS.
Head coach Jason Mayfield, who commended Carbaugh’s leadership, also had high praise for senior wing Sydney Chapman.
“Sydney Chapman is the ultimate role player,” Mayfield said. “She had over 100 assists and she shot 42.5 percent (from the floor). Sometimes I wish she would have shot a little more, but it just wasn’t in her personality.”
Brooke Christian, senior wing/post, made an early impact when she arrived at Farragut. She got the starting nod for the second game of her freshman year. From there, she started every game as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
“Brooke came in and started the second game of her freshman year and she started every game until this year,” Mayfield said, adding that as a senior, “She took seven charges this year and I don’t think anybody else took more than two.”
The Lady Admirals also had another inspirational senior in Olivia Campbell, a student manager, who started when the Lady Admirals played Fulton on FHS Senior Night last month.
“These girls, including Olivia, grew a lot during their time here,” Lady Ads’ coach Jason Mayfield said. “They became leaders.
“We were beat up [at times] and they all had to battle adversity and some things that were out of their control. They are a special group.”
During their freshman campaign, Carbaugh, Chapman and Christian played on a team that finished with 20 victories. But that year, the Lady Ads battled injuries and were bounced out of the District 4-AAA Tournament. As sophomores and juniors, the trio suffered through sub-par seasons and failed to qualify for the Region 2-AAA Tournament.
They all finally made it there in 2019 and they fell in the semifinals at Campbell County after they beat the Lady Cougars in the 5Star Preps Invitational at FHS just before Christmas.
That was definitely a disappointing end to the season. But the Lady Admirals finished 25-8 and had key district wins over Maryville (which knocked the Lady Rebels from the ranks of the unbeaten) and William Blount.
“Our season didn’t quite end the way that we wanted it to,” Mayfield said. “But we won 25 games and that’s pretty good.
“Their freshman year, we won 20 games but we were a little beat up and we got knocked out in the district tournament,” Mayfield said. “Then we had some things happen that were out of our control. We made it back to the region this year.”
