Despite moving divisions from 4A to 5A, the girls basketball team has had a successful season with a record of 19 wins and 5 losses.
“The girls are a little bigger, so I think that’s the biggest impact it had on my girls,” Head Coach Jade Carter said. “But with people having more size, we got to use more of our speed.”
Winning is always a goal in sports, but Carter is more satisfied by the team’s growth in character.
“Just seeing them all grow maturity-wise, and being able to handle criticism and being able to handle adversity, I think that would be the major win for me,” Carter said.
Another goal Carter has is to promote girls basketball in general.
“One of the big things is when you think of basketball, and you think in Oklahoma, you think Oklahoma City Thunder, and then everyone gets excited to see the boys and the dunks,” Carter said.
Carter is adamant about maintaining humility and fortitude while going into Regionals.
“The biggest thing is just getting my girls refocused,” Carter said. “When you end the season and you get a big win, like they did in Del City, it’s easy to become complacent, or think you’ve hit your peak.”
The boys team entered the season with high hopes, especially with the legacy of going to State last year.
“It’s always great for the guys who have been here before to have the experience, have the taste of it,” Head Coach Jake Brown said. “I think it makes them hungry.”
However, the boys also shifted from 4A to 5A. The team faced the odds with resilience with a record of 12 wins and 12 losses.
“You can’t dictate what is thrown at you or put in front of you, but the only thing you can dictate is your good habits, and you keep fighting and keep competing every single time,” Brown said.
The change of divisions forced the boys to address and build their relationship as a team.
“We talked a lot, like behind closed doors, about just the importance of loving each other, playing for each other, believing in something bigger than yourself,” Brown said. “They’ve learned those lessons and know that off the court, they gotta play for each other.”
For the Regional Tournament, the team is preparing with optimism.
“We repeat everything that we do well so that we can do it as well as possible when we play,” Brown said. “We’re gonna go play hard until they tell us we can’t play.”
The girls team will play Lawton at Carl Albert at 7:30 P.M. tonight, while the boys are set to play El Reno tomorrow at 7 P.M.
