Felicia Allen isn't exactly boisterous.

The shy farm girl has been pretty loud though on the courts, she has helped her team come back from an 0-6 start. As the MVP, she served as a pivotal player for the Southern Cayuga girls basketball team in their recent win of the Cayuga County Christmas Tournament.

Allen is having a great season in her first year on varsity. She was asked to come up from the junior varsity squad a little young, not only because coach Tim May needed players but also because he knew she was a powerful player by watching her play since the third grade.

“She is a physical and strong player,” May said, #“Her defense stands out and she is versatile. I can put her on point guard or forward, wherever she is needed.#” Allen is not the only player coming to the team with no varsity experience this season and having to make the difficult adjustment - the Chiefs are a young team with only two girls returning with varsity experience. While it is no surprise that they have had a struggle this season, their ability to rebound from it has rested largely on Allen's shoulders. Her hard work and quiet leadership has enabled Southern Cayuga to work together better.

After the rough start, things seemed to click together finally for the Chiefs at the Christmas Tournament when they beat Port Byron in the first round. They scored 22 points in each of the third and fourth quarters to finish with the 71-55 win. They then went on to win the tournament with a 54-34 finish over a good Weedsport team.

May said that he knew he could count on Allen to cover Weedsport's Markie Kreplin, who has had a very strong season, which Allen did by containing her to two points. The Chiefs kept up their momentum with a win over Tioga, who is ranked ninth in the state.

Allen's defense is her strongest asset for the Chiefs, now 4-8 on the season.

“ Our team's philosophy is that defense is critical to our offense, May said. ”We like to run, so defense is our offense.“

Allen's only downfall, May admitted, may be in how quiet, shy and unselfish she really is - despite what a leader she has turned out to be with this young team.

“I doubt my shots a lot and I think everyone should get a chance to play,” Allen said.

That may be why her stats appear lower than her performance would suggest. May says that Allen will have wide open shots sometimes and pass the ball away because she does not want to dominate the court or take all the shots. Perhaps it is this attitude that causes the other girls on the team to respect her and look up to her the way they do.

“I don't try to be a leader,#” says Allen, #“but if someone needs help I try to help them.”

“Everyone is a leader on the team in their own way and she is one of them,” Chiefs junior Lianna May said.

The different personalities and leadership roles of the girls on the team seem to be one of the catalysts to their positive reaction together on the court. Another one of Allen's teammates, senior captain Megan Lawrence, says that she has known Allen since they were young and today she is one of the Chief's strongest defensive players.

“A lot of girls look up to her because of her skill and how young she is although she doesn't try to be a leader,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence also agrees that Allen's unselfishness, no matter how it my hurt her personal performance, is something she should be proud of.

The versatility of Allen is her other strongest point as a player because her ability to play different positions, whether it be as a guard or as a forward, changes the play level of the young team.

“It really helps our team that she can play well at different positions because it opens up our offense,#” Lawrence said. “We won (the tournament) because people believed we couldn't. And because we could put Felicia on Markie, our offense could perform better.”