We made our way as a group down to the all camp meeting in the fieldhouse just before 9am. During the meeting the camp all-stars and honourary all-stars were announced and our team had one representative in the honourary all stars. All-stars were separated into leagues and, because we played in league two, our girls were not eligible to be selected for the full all-star team.
Our honourary all-star represented us well, guarding a grade 11 opponent for the majority of the 15 minute scrimmage that the honouraries took part in. She also scored 4 quick points in the middle of her teams big run throughout the middle part of the game. If it hadn’t have been for some questionable substitution patterns she may have had twice that.
After the all-star game the girls hit up the University’s store in order to get some branded gear to take home with them. Most girls got a shirt or a water bottle or something to type of souvenir. I bought a shirt for me with “Whitworth” across the front and a sweater for my pretty lady.
After shopping it was game time with some morning tune-ups scheduled before the big tournament after lunch. Our mission was to get the girls all on the same page and to be able to pick up all the momentum we had been building all week. The first game we romped over a rather defeated opponent with our energy, enthusiasm and unselfishness. Almost every Falcon scored or shot the ball in the game and the girls really started to build up their confidence again.
Our second tune-up was against a grade 8 team that blitzed us earlier in the week with their incredible speed, shooting, and trapping pressure. We were ready for them this time and our ladies did a great job of being strong and unselfish with the basketball, finding the open girl for easy looks. Unfortunately we had a few too many turnovers in the waning moments and we were unable to fight all the way back from the single digit deficit. A great effort from the ladies with a very difficult team to play against.
Lunchtime came and went uneventfully and before we knew it we were facing a tough select team at the beginning of our double knockout tournament with a really good post player, possibly the best in camp. We developed a plan and told the girls to do their best to execute it. To understand that they had possibly one hour of basketball left and to make it something to be proud of.
Our girls came out fast, tough and intense. The selects didn’t know what hit them and they could not throw the ball into the ocean. By the time they big post player hit a turnaround fade away it was too little too late. Our Falcons were flying high on their way to the championship side of the bracket.
Our second game was against a team from inner city Tacoma, Washington. The girls on both teams had become good friends and had taken pictures together just the day before. One of the real neat things about these interactions is that I feel the girls on our team realized that, even though these girls were from the inner parts of big city Washington, we had more similarities with them than differences. We both wore the same clothes, both liked to eat the same foods, play the same sport, and we all disliked the same types of other rival girls and schools. It was cute seeing the girls bond with other teams over that kind of thing.
Our approach to this game was the exact same as the first, except along with the other teams monster in the middle we had to be careful with a little guard as well. The guard was a ninth grader who already could hit a step back jumper from three, and the post was a 6’ monster ninth grader who gobbled up rebounds and pitched a tent in the low post. I told the girls that because we were on the championship side now it was single elimination, and that if this was going to be the last 25mins of basketball we played this week, to make it something they were proud of.
Our huddle was abuzz after warm-up, the girls were ready to play. As we turned to help the girls match up with who would be starting, we noticed their slick point guard was missing. Coach and I knew right away where she was,
“[She’s] not here,” he said to me, “they must have kept her up with the seniors today.”
We told the girls to adjust for the other shooter and not the point guard now and to kick up the ball pressure because the team was without a true ball handler. The monster also didn’t start (she had been battling fatigue all week and only played about half the game). Our opponents were lacking their best player and short on reserves... and they gave us everything they had. The game was tightly called and both teams were in the bonus with a full 8 mins left. After a couple strategic timeouts and a real “dig deep” couple moments from our ladies we were able to give ourselves the lead with under a minute left.
You’ll recall the girls did a situation tournament last night, so the situation was this. We had the ball, there was 45 seconds left and we were on our heels, but still possessed a 1pt lead. Our goal was to prevent all layups and not give their shooter (who had just hit two in the last minute) any open looks. Offensively we wanted to take the air out of the ball and only take a layup if it was obvious.
The defensive assignment went to our little jitterbug, who was really struggling with her confidence after falling ill for most of yesterday afternoon. I could see it in her eyes, she reminded me of myself in my senior year. Unsure of herself and really pressing too hard to make the right play. She so badly wanted it that I took hold of her and looked her straight in the eye.
“You are our emotional leader,” I told her, “I know you can do this. You have one job. Do NOT let that young lady touch the ball.... period. You’re faster than her, smarter than you feel and better at defense than anyone else we got. I know you can do this, but you have to know it too. Go get em.”
And she was awesome. She was attached to that girls hip, arm, leg, and face. Wherever she went, jitterbug went. That girl never touched the ball for another 15 full seconds.
Our opponent pushed the ball hard. They took a desperate shot from the corner and, out of NOWHERE, our jitterbug leaps over everyone and rips down a rebound. She turned and dribbled to the side full speed, only to be fouled hard (but clean). She went down hard and I turned to Dave immediately, “go right now, she hit her head.”
I gathered the girls and made the substitution (our provincial fastballer). I gave them another situation.
“Ladies we are up 1 with 30 seconds left, here’s the situation. When we make 2 you have a three point lead. NO layups. Nothing easy. No matter what the lead is yours. Press hard and take a clean steal, but nothing gets behind you and no one gets a clean look. Calves the shooter is yours. Don’t leave her”
Our fastball pitcher had struggled with her free throws in practice since the beginning of March, but she went 4/4 down the stretch to put the game out of reach and guarantee the win for our young Falcons. The girls and coaches were ecstatic, and dad was in the stands to watch his baseball player bang home four clutch free throws. A huge team win and honestly quite the shock for us to be heading to the championship game in our league after opening the week struggling with the speed and physicality of the game.
Our Final opponent was a team that we had lost to twice previously in the week, both times in overtime. We scared them bad the first time that we played them with our shooting and pressure defense, and the second time they beat our pants off by switching to a slow it down 2-3 zone defense. The third time we adjusted well to the zone, but still fell short in overtime. “We are due,” I thought as we walked over to the game to play back to back, “what a storybook ending to our week if we surprised everyone by winning the league against this team!”
Rumours quickly spread to the coaches ears that this team we were playing had forfeited their two early morning games in order to save their legs for the tournament in the afternoon. This meant that in addition to them having played two less games than us, we were also hurrying to make our time slot as we walked 5 minutes down campus to the other gym. We blocked it out of our minds however and tried to get the girls focused.
Our jitterbug was out, so it was down to 5 girl line changes every 3 or 4 minutes (which is what we had been doing since Tuesday afternoon.) We felt like this was the best way to take advantage of our depth and we were really tough on teams with few subs. Of course this team was sitting in a zone defense and had played two less games than we had that morning, but the plan remained unchanged: play hard, play fast, and play for each other.
From the opening tip it was clear who the fresher team was. Our girls spotted them 9 quick points before they really started to get it going. One thing that I have said about this group of girls, however, is that they are too young to know when to quit. They have proven time and time again that they are resilient and that they possess a high enough character as a basketball squad to never count themselves out. We scratched and clawed and talked and touched our way back into the game, to the point where the other coach had to call timeout to organize her girls with 5 mins left.
It was after this point that the fresher team just spread us out and started to take the air out of the basketball. They swung and dribbled and swung and dribbled, squeezing ever ounce of energy left in us until a layup lane opened because our girls played 2 mins of solid defense. Of course the old NCAA rules do not have a shot clock, so many teams down here follow Dean Smith’s strategy of the “spread” or “four corners” offense late in the game if they have the lead. Infuriating to play against, but very smart offensively.
Our girls competed hard but in the end they didn’t have enough left in the tank. We told the girls how ridiculously proud we were of them as incoming “freshmen” to beat several grade eleven teams on our way to losing on a back to back situation in a championship game we never expected to be in. Our overachieving little Falcons were all smiles
Our night ended with a BBQ hosted by two lovely parents and some much deserved pool time for the girls at a local spot. Coach Kyle got water ballooned and cake faced more than once, so he had a rough night, but to see the girls laughing and continuing to bond with one another off the court will never get old for me.
We just got back to the dorms now and I can hear the girls dragging their mattresses along the floor in order to try and sleep in the same room on their very last night. What a group these young ladies are.
It has been a busy, exciting, challenging week, but I wanted to leave the readers with this moment that Coach and I have shared more than once this week. You see, most of our time as a team in between games was spent moving to different locations, sitting together at meals, riding in the van or chasing one another for whatever reason. About 95% of the time we were doing those things our whole group was either singing, laughing, or taking pictures of one another. More than once an adult would walk by and give Coach and I the look of, “man I bet those guys are hating their lives right now.” Some people even sarcastically asked, “Having fun?” Each time Coach and I exchanged a glance like ‘is this person serious!?’ And each time we responded with a smile and said, “aren’t they great? We wouldn’t trade them for anything.”
And he was right. I came down here wondering what the heck I was doing taking a week off work to go to basketball camp with a bunch of fifteen year olds. I knew why I was coming, but the above thought did cross my mind. The truth is now that we are coming home with 13 members of our team, newly bonded through a week of hard fought losses and well deserved victories. Our girls have made new friends outside their team, and gotten to know each other inside and out within our team, and I can honestly say I would have had no idea what I was missing. This group has a chance to be special. They have risen to the occasion more often than not and they have made the transition to being 5 individuals on a court that play for the same team, to 5 team members working and playing for one another. It has been an awesome sight and it could never have happened without your trust and commitment to your girls moms and dads. Thank you for an awesome week ladies. Thank you for your awesome daughters moms and dads. Until next time:
*Cue jitterbug*
“CAN I GET A ‘HOYYY YEAAAAH!???”
Team (and coaches): “”HOYYYYY YEAHHH!!!!”
Jitterbug: “CAN I GET A ‘WHAT, WHAT!?”
Team (and coaches): “WHAT, WHAT!!!”
Jitterbug: “1, 2..”
Everyone: “FALCONS!!!!!!!!”