Columbia opens with Hempfield

It’s been a while since the Columbia girls’ basketball team has been among the contenders in the Lancaster-Lebanon League.
A combination of things have taken the Tide girls from the penthouse of girls’ basketball in the L-L League to the first floor, looking to move on up again.
One, Columbia’s talent level has dropped off. It’s not that the Tide doesn’t have talent, they do. They just don’t have enough of it. Plus, the rest of the L-L League has gotten better.
For example, the Tide’s schedule includes six teams that played in the state playoffs last year, plus three others that qualified for the district playoffs. That represents 14 of the Tide’s 22 games, that will be against playoff teams from a year. It also includes only one game in the Warwick Tournament, which could increase that number to 15.
Coach Lisa Tomsheck’s team opens the season tomorrow night by hosting its own tournament. All four teams, Columbia, Lampeter-Strasburg, Hempfield and Central Dauphin East made the District 3 playoffs a year ago, but Columbia was the only one not to advance to the state tournament.
“Our opening tournament has extremely good competition. We open the tournament with Hempfield, who is the reigning L-L champs. The other teams are L-S, who I think is the strongest team in the L-L League because they did not have a senior on the squad last season and CD East, who made a good run in the state tournament,” Tomsheck said.

Read more in this week's Columbia Ledger.