Well, this is sad to write this last report. It’s sad because a coach never wants a great season to end and sad because we are losing three outstanding seniors- Katy Davis, Calea Turner, and Shelby Hardy.

These three young ladies have been the backbone of our program and I will sorely miss them. They do all the things that a coach desires from a basketball standpoint- come to practice everyday, never miss practice, sometimes when they don’t feel good, are accountable, and are great COMPETITORS. These three will fight and compete till the bitter end and that’s what makes them so special.

Now to the Wall game, there’s not much to say from a coaching standpoint. I know the officiating wasn’t great but for some unknown reason we didn’t play well. We had the “deer in headlights look” for the first half and were down fifteen at halftime. What was so puzzling to me was that we have really “gotten after” Wall the past two years and they seemed to be the aggressor in the first half last Tuesday.

Now, what I did like in the second half was that we didn’t sulk and not compete. We came out and scraped, clawed, and threw everything we had into the second half. We cut the lead to eight at one point in the second half but could get no closer. The problem with Wall is when they get you down in double digits, it is that the lead seems larger because you have to play so hard to recover.

They’re so sound defensively that a big lead is hard to overcome with those guys.

We played very hard in the third and fourth quarter but we just couldn’t recover. Losing Shelby was huge for us. She fouled out in the third quarter and I rolled the dice with her. I just felt like the game was really slipping away and we had to have her. I thought her last foul was a charge but the ref saw things differently. Oh well, enough about the Wall game.

I told the girls in the locker room to not let “one” game define our season. I know it was a huge game because any playoff game is but that they need to focus on what we accomplished. The first District Championship since 1957, 32 wins in a season and 3 Tournament Championships-San Saba, Burnet, and Albany. Like I told the seniors during their last basketball visit. They “raised the bar” high for future teams!

We had our All District Meeting about two weeks ago in Early. I’ll give the selections below even though I had a problem with one selection. For you guys that don’t know, here’s how All District works. I put up our girls for either 1st or 2nd Team and then the District Coaches vote for who you put up. I CAN NOT vote for our own players.

The MVP of the District was Shelby Hardy. 1st Team was Calea Turner and Haylee Oliver. 2nd Team was Katy Davis and Tarah Crosby. I really felt like Katy should’ve been 1st Team. I put her up for 1st Team but she didn’t receive enough votes for 1st Team. You can’t tell me that she wasn’t one of the top 10 players in the District. She’s first team in my book and that’s all that matters. Nicole Sears and Danessa Vasquez garnered Honorable Mention honors.

Before I close, thanks once again to our crowd. You guys were incredible for both our playoff games. You guys were awesome with a capital A. Phil 4:13