FERRIDAY — Ferriday High School’s Lisa Abron has seen plenty of injuries in her more than 20 years of coaching, but she has never had a season riddled with as many as she did this year.

As the Lady Trojans fought through numerous games with a less-than-perfect roster, Abron kept her cool.

“I’ve had one injury here or there, but I’ve never had so many things happen at once,” she said. “It was pretty rough. Especially because I know they were paying attention to my emotions, too. I just had to keep my emotions in check. When I was in a mood, so were they.”

Through the hardships, Abron led Ferriday to a No. 3 seed heading into this year’s LHSSA Class 2A Playoffs, while posting a final record of 26-5.

For her efforts, Abron has been selected as The Natchez Democrat’s 2017-18 All-Metro Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.

“Despite everything that happened, we still did very well,” Abron said. “It was just one thing after another. I was always thinking what was going to happen next, but this is a great honor. I just hoped and prayed that we could continue doing well, and I can’t blame anyone. We did really well.”

Going back to the start, Ferriday’s trouble began long ago. Just days before the season began, one of the Lady Trojans’ starting guards, Diamond Johnson, dislocated her elbow.

“I was totally worried because I never knew if it was going to heal properly, and I didn’t know if I was going to have her back or how long it would be,” Abron said. “But, she ended up missing just four games. Still, In the back of my mind I was hoping that it wouldn’t pop out again. We got her back and just kept going.”

Shortly afterward, Ferriday’s starting center, Tierra Spurs, fell during a game and suffered a knee injury.

“We initially didn’t know how bad it was,” Abron said. “It ended up being just a really bad bruise, but she never really got back to being 100 percent.

“You can tell by the way they practice and play that something isn’t right, and I could tell.”

The Lady Trojans once again kept pressing on, until starting senior guard Anasia Turner went down.

Abron said instantly, she knew it was bad news.

“We thought her foot was broken,” she said. “Once the paramedic got there and took her shoe off, it was black and purple immediately. She fell so hard. She could not move it, so we really thought it was broken.”

After a trip to the hospital, doctors confirmed that nothing in Turner’s foot was broken. As she hobbled on crutches, Abron said the senior wasn’t going to let her career end on such a bad note.

“One day she just showed up and ran on it,” Abron said. “She wasn’t 100 percent, either, but she wasn’t going to let anything stop her. She wrapped it up as tight as she could, and she went on. She never complained, so I just couldn’t take that away from her.”

Along with the injuries, Ferriday also lost one of its main post players to a 30-day suspension halfway through district play.

“That really put a dent in everything we were doing,” Abron said. “Again, I had to keep my spirit up and tell them it was going to be OK. I just kept telling them we still have enough people and enough strength to keep going.”

Ferriday returned all of its players in time for both playoff games as the Lady Trojans eventually fell in the second round to No. 14 Rosepine, 73-65.

While the postseason run wasn’t as far as Abron has ever taken one of her teams, she said the adversity speaks for itself.

“I’m just so proud of how my girls kept up,” Abron said. “I dedicate this award to my team.”