The Waite girls’ basketball team has been looking forward to the Division I girls’ basketball tournament all season. The time is here.

After losing three times to Start last year, the Indians defeated the Division I state runner-up Spartans twice this year to claim a City League championship. No. 6 ranked Waite (18-2) may have to face No. 7 Start (16-4) a third time this season in the District final on March 6 at Perrysburg High School (7 p.m.).
 
Waite first had to get past east side rival Clay (10-9) on Feb. 27, and if successful is to face the Northview (18-2)-Bowsher (12-7) winner on Mar. 4 at Central Catholic, game time 7 p.m., for the right to play in the District final.

Defeating the Coach Jerry Sigler-led Northern Lakes League champion Northview Lady Kats will not be an easy task, either, but the Waite girls say they are up to it.
 
Three not-so-little Indians made an appearance last Tuesday night at the WRSCRadioc.com coaches show, substituting for the Northwood Rangers with co-hosts Al Singlar and Mason Lowry. The broadcast was recorded at Ralphie’s on Navarre Avenue in Oregon.
 
The biggest Indians, 6-foot-3 senior forward Natasha Howard and 6-2 junior forward Shanice McNeal, were not present. The Florida State-bound Howard led the City League in scoring (24.7 points) and was third in rebounding (11.1). McNeal averages 13.4 points and 9.1 rebounds.
 
Instead, appearing on the radio show with Coach Manny May were point guard Brooke Hunt, two-guard Mariah Haynes, and Courtney Jackson, who plays both the point and two-guard position. Haynes is the only other player averaging double figures in scoring at 10.5 points.
 
However, all three gave their taller teammates plenty of kudos as to why this team has surprised the pundits and brought a City championship back to the east side.
 
“We played with a chip on our shoulder, and we worked hard every practice and wanted to bring the City Championship back to the east side and that’s what we did,” Brooke Hunt said.
 
Not just to the east side, but also to a public school.
 
“It’s great to see a public school playing for their part of the city, playing for their neighbourhoods, get a win, and it was great to see two public schools in the final,” Lowry told the girls.
 
They credited team chemistry, the establishment of Waite’s program by Coach May as a perennial power, and graduated Waite star Shareese Ulis as their inspiration.
 
“I would say Shareese Ulis — that was my big inspiration just to keep me going. I mean, I look up to all my teammates — all of them,” Hunt told Singlar and Lowry.
 
“Each person helps my game differently,” Hunt continued.”Like Courtney, she helps me physically because she’s stronger than me and she can go up there one-on-one. Mariah helps me mentally because she makes sure my head is on straight. Natasha, she just talks to me and she just pushes me. Shanice, she just keeps me laughing. I don’t know what it is about her but she just keeps me laughing.”
 
Haynes never played varsity basketball with Ulis, but she learned much of the game from the former guard.
 
“I had the pleasure to meet her and play with her before I even came to Waite because my sister went there,” Haynes said. “Just the stuff that my teammates did before I got here — that just really helped us from the championships they won before. It helps you because you want one, too.
 
“Just having to play with Natasha on the team with us, it gives us confidence as players, too, because everybody looks up to her because she’s the best. She’s Natasha, and so that really opens up a lot of looks for us, too, and she helps us out with our game,” Haynes said.
 
“Our coaches just tell us that we all have something that we’ve got to be able to do, and we’ve all got to play our roles and don’t overdo it, because sometimes you can overdo it, and you can destroy your own defense and offense. We just basically go out there and know what we can do and don’t try to overdo it.”
 
There’s one other team that plays its home games in Grant Murray Field House that is providing the impetus. It is the Waite boys’ team — which the girls say they often scrimmage against in practice.
 
Before the broadcast, the three Indians said they had just finished a session with the boys’ team, and you could almost sense the frustration in their tone of voice.
 
“It helps though because we get outhustled,” Jackson said. “They push you to the limit and the coaches also do. That’s the thing I like most about Waite — when you think you are down and can’t run any more, they push you to the limit.”
 
The issue of boys vs. girls came up when Singlar made a remark that the Waite girls could possibly beat some boys’ teams.
 
“There are some boys teams that you guys could destroy. I’m not kidding,” Singlar said, and his sentiments were echoed by Lowry.
 
These are girls who have been playing basketball nearly all their lives — plus every summer.
 
“I’ve been playing for as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t until I actually got to Waite that I actually understood what the game was all about and that I could actually take my game to another level because the coaches seen the potential in me,” Haynes said.
 
“This past summer really has helped us with my season\ now because we had some real good looks in Tennessee and when we played in Kentucky with some great AAU teams and other school teams so we really got some great looks. We just work on our game — that’s all we really do and it helps us with our chemistry because we are always together,” Haynes continued.
 
“We work out all summer,” Jackson said. “We’re gym rats, basically. We stay in the gym and just learn from each other.”

The entire broadcast is archived and can be listened to anytime at www.WRSCRadio.com.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed