POSTED: MARCH 12, 2008

Concord (30-2) will be paying Chapel Hill a visit this weekend as the Spiders are set to play in their first-ever 3A Girls State Championship vs. the Beddingfield Bruins (30-1). This is the first time that the Spiders have reached the girls title game, and they hope to return home as state champions.

Two of the team’s key players, both freshmen, say they’re ready for the challenge.

“We’re all really happy, we can’t wait,” said Jatzmin Johnson. “We’ve been practicing very hard, and we think we’re ready.”

The game will be played at the Dean E. Smith Center on the University of North Carolina campus at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Johnson will be playing a big role in this game, as she has averaged 13.0 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

This will definitely be one of Concord’s toughest games of the season, as they are playing a very evenly-matched team in all aspects of the game, not to mention all the emotion that adds a tremendous load to each player’s shoulders.

The Spiders will no doubt have to bring their “A-game” to pull out of there with a championship.

They Spiders will depend heavily on senior and Western Regional MVP T.T. Belcher to lead them to a win.

Offense alone won’t win them the game; it’s going to have to be the defense. Senior Jean Best of the Bruins is 6-foot-4 and will be a challenge for both Belcher (6-0) and Johnson (6-1) to guard.



The athleticism for both teams is stupendous. This will be a great game to watch, as both teams have well-rounded guards who will put up a fight.

Freshman Jasmine DeBerry doesn’t see a problem playing on a big stage (the Smith Center seats more than 21,000 people).

“Nah, we ain’t nervous,” she said of the title game. “We got this.” DeBerry added that she’s proud of what the girls have accomplished, just a few years after CHS didn’t win a game during an entire season.

“It feels good to take our team to this level,” she said. “We’ve all known that we could do it, and now we get the chance to show it.”

“Making history feels great,” Johnson added, “and I hope that future CHS women’s basketball teams look up to us and feel like we did it so they can too.”

If Concord in fact brings home the title, this will be the school’s fourth major team championship in less than four years. The football team won in 2004 and 2006, and the boys basketball team won in 2007.

When asked what she would do if Concord won, Johnson said, “I’ll probably cry. I’ll be so happy, I’ll wear my ring and I’ll call everybody I know and tell them and then the team's gonna party!”