The Lady Pirates, under first-year coach Shawn Taylor, will get their 2009 season underway today (Friday) as they travel to El Dorado for the two-day Butler Invitational, which will conclude on Saturday. Several Jayhawk Conference teams will be participating in the tournament, including Allen County, Butler, Coffeyville, Labette, Fort Scott and Neosho County. Taylor hopes to build off the Lady Pirates’ 18-18 season a year ago in which they finished in a tie for sixth place in the Jayhawk East with Neosho County. The coach will be making his Lady Pirate debut this weekend after spending the 2008 season as an assistant at Valparaiso University. Prior to that, he spent one year as the head coach at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, where he led the Coyotes to a 27-8 record and the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships.