In high hopes of reaching playoffs, The Lady Bruins have reached this far with a district record of four – three.

    “We haven’t been off to the start that I would like before district, but we’re pretty much where I want to be. We’re in second place in district. And the early part of the season was to prepare us for this. So I would like success early, but I would rather have the preparation for district,” Girls Basketball coach Jesse White.

     This, compared to last year’s team, is considerably different putting the team at a better advantage.

     “[The comparison] is like night and day. We were at the bottom this time last year. So we’ve had a complete turn-around. We’ve gone from being one of the worst teams in the district, to one of the best. That’s a big change,” White said.

     Many things factor in to the girls’ success so far this season. However, it is largely attributed to the return of many players and White’s dedication to coaching the team.

     “I have six girls that returned from last year’s team. They were sophomores last year. They’re growing up,” White said. “Part of it is what I’m trying to do and dive in to it. You got to show even the best of them that you know what you’re talking about.”

     All of the achievement has had quite an effect on the Lady Bruin- both on their attitudes and their skill.

     “It’s up and down. You can’t fix all the wrongs just because you win. It’s a complete attitude change. But habits like that aren’t going to be corrected overnight. They’re learning to accept being good; they’re learning what it takes to stay at the top. You can’t just get there and rest. So we’re trying to learn that,” White said.

     White has learned that the students must work hard to be good and knows that if the players really want victory, they will have to earn it.

     “There are days when practice is great, and there are some when I run them out of the gym, ‘ya’ll get out.’ I’m not going to deal with the bad attitudes,” White said. “For example, I basically ran them out of the gym telling them ‘Get out. Ya’ll don’t want to work hard for the position where we want to be? Ya’ll don’t want to work hard, I’m not going to waste my time.’”

     White believes that their success will continue on to the coming years thanks to returning players and the current district alignment.

     “Unless we have some type of realignment of the district and bring in some of the best teams of the state, we should be in the same position we are in now,” White said.

     White also knows how to spot hard working players that are determined to make a name for themselves. While some may play for fun, others have true intentions of becoming good at playing the sport.

     “The one that really stands out to me right now is Jakeira Davis. She is a sophomore that I brought up to Varsity. But what makes her stand out is her work ethic. She works hard all the time. She really wants to be good,” White said. “Anytime I see a kid that works non-stop, they get my attention because I like hard workers.”

     As far as playoffs are concerned, White is hopeful yet quite realistic about the direction of the team and understands how he must lead them.

     “It’s been six years since we’ve been to playoffs. And we’ve got four championship trophies up there. I would love to put another one up there, but I’m realistic about our goals. You have to crawl before you walk. We can’t go from being the worst team to the top team overnight. So I’m content being where we are now,” White said.

     Nonetheless, he continues to aim high in order to motivate the team and himself with hopes bringing glory back once more to the Lady Bruins.

     “I want the kids to experience state playoffs. I want to give our fans, our cheerleaders, our whole school the opportunity the come watch our girls play at the next level. That’s my focus, that’s my goal right there,” White said. “It’s a good thing and I want our whole school community to experience that.”

     While the Lady Bruins might have made a 180 degree spin on skill level, the Bruins are continuing on their already begun quest to make district.

     “We are fighting to see if we can win district, that is our first goal. And then our next goal would be to win playoffs. We’re trying to get ourselves in a good position by the weekend so that we’ll have a good seating in the playoffs. It is important in our district that we win as many games as we can. Because if we win at district, we can play the fourth place team in District 20-5A. And that’s kind of easy, because normally the fourth place team won’t have the kind of record the first place team does,” Boys Basketball coach Sam Simon said.

     One problem area the Bruins are facing is their communication skills. They’ve begun this year working harder on this.

     “Last year, we started real slow and didn’t really come together until district,” Simon said. “This year we have started off hard and we’re starting to come together in each game, improving and getting better and better.”

     Thanks to this season’s success the team has garnered the team moral has been boosted and the team is seeing many of the effects from this.

     “It is paying off quicker than what it did last year. But the team moral last year was great. It was just that we played a harder schedule than some of the teams that were ranked high in the state,” Simon said.

     However after their success last year, the Bruins left a lasting impression on their opposing teams that won’t soon be forgotten.

     “This year, we did the same thing, but some of those teams we played last year backed out. So you see, they refused to play us. So we didn’t get to play the big number teams that we played last year,” Simon said. “This year, we might have gotten to play 3, maybe 4 big name teams whereas this time last year we had played probably 8 or 9 teams like that. And that makes a very big difference.”