The year 2022 has been an amazing one for high school girls’ basketball.
Among our three newspapers, The Texas Spur, The Caprock Courier and the Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon our team, including freelance stringers and photographers and ourselves, cover 10 girls’ basketball teams in eight counties.
This playoff season has been a smorgasbord of stories for 1A and 2A sports fans, not only for the hometown teams that our newspapers cover but also from the squads they battled on the courts or crossed paths with.
The Sands Lady ’Stangs, a team who ended the seasons of the Spur Spurettes and the Valley Lady Patriots covered by The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier, respectively, are going to the state basketball tournament for the first time since 1961.
Make no mistake: Spur and Valley had phenomenal seasons. Spur was ranked in the Top 20 most of the year, and the Valley Lady Patriots were in the Top Ten.
(By the way, there is no Sands, Texas; the Sands Consolidated Independent School District supports the educational needs of those living in and around Ackerly, Texas, population 220, located halfway between Lamesa and Big Spring.)
In the playoffs the Sands Lady ’Stangs have epitomized how not to be intimidated by where you come from.
While the Valley Lady Patriots handled the Borden County Lady Coyotes in the regional finals (Jayton Lady Jays fans know something about Borden County; they blocked passes, stole balls and full-court-pressed their way to victory in the area playoff over the Lady Jays) the Lady ’Stangs of Sands ended the Nazareth Swiftettes’ eight-year streak of going to state competition. All total the Nazareth girls have been to state 26 times. For generations there’s been one word that has struck fear in girls basketball teams and fans in the playoffs: Nazareth.
There’s a lesson for all of us here. Come ready to play no matter who you’re facing.
A little bit south of here, the Robert Lee Lady Steers are going to the state tournament for the first time in 45 years with a come-from-behind victory over Hermleigh. Robert Lee Coach Brandye Wilson has coached basketball for 30 years and this is the first time she has led a team to the state basketball finals as a head coach.
It goes without saying, never give up.
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