Bottom (l-r), FMHS Basketball coach Wayne Henderson leans in to talk with the Lady Falcons during a quiet moment of the game. He offers encouragement to Jennifer Karson (center). Jackie Hoffman keeps her eye on the ball during a freethrow.
By Sara Woerter
As the Frazier Mountain High School girls basketball team slam-dunked its way through the 2008-2009 season, I wondered what it was like to be inside the circle of a team that had shown so much hard work and dedication.
When I received an invitation to ride the team bus to round two of their postseason play-off games, I quickly accepted. The FMHS Lady Falcons haven’t competed at this level of the CIF-SS (California Interscholastic Federation, Southern Section) since 1998.
By 4:30 p.m on February 21, the Lady Falcons (and this reporter) were on the bus and on our way out of the FMHS parking lot, traveling to the playoff game at Chadwick High School on the Palos Verdes peninsula south of Los Angeles.
The bus was making great time until we reached Los Angeles traffic— which stretched our two-hour trip into three hours. But the mood on the bus was upbeat. Girls were dancing with music from their MP3 players. Groups of friends were telling stories and they even waved at the other cars stuck in traffic with them.
No one seemed to be thinking about the fact that Chadwick High School is roughly twice the size of FMHS, or what that may mean for competitive advantage. We passed a Big Boy restaurant with a huge figurine of the Big Boy. The bus lit up with a loud “Ohhh,” and someone joked, “let’s steal that.” But after the laughter, the players calmed down, listening to their music and getting into their game zone.
As the bus arrived at the school, its passengers were quiet. We exited to walk down a flight of stairs into the gym. The girls were ushered into a locker room with only 10 minutes to game time (we had arrived behind schedule due to the traffic), but the team hurried to get warmed up. Hearts skipped a beat as the loud bell rang for the game to start.
“I’m proud of our team for working so hard toward our goal of making it to playoffs and for reaching the second round.” said player Abbie Tandez.
Coach Wayne Henderson and Assistant Coach Ben Garcia rallied the team with a final word before the start of the game. As the team was called to begin, Coach Garcia added: “Hey, just play your game.”
The Chadwick Dolphins scored the first couple of points, then Jennifer Karson scored for the Falcons. By the first quarter Chadwick was up 18 points to the Falcon’s 3, but the girls were not ready to give up. As the bell rang for halftime the score was Chadwick 28–Falcons 9.
Emotions ran high. Coach Henderson suggested different strategies to the team. As the game resumed the crowd (about 45 FMHS supporters—including principal Dan Penner, boy’s basketball coach Jeff Beigle and guidance counselor Mike Stroh) screamed loudly for the Falcons.
The Falcons showed relentless teamwork, but by the end of the third quarter (with the score Chadwick 50, Falcons 19) the team huddled together for their final quarter, then went out to make another basket, ending the game with 22 points to Chadwick’s 60.
The team walked silently back to the locker room.
Inside, the only sound was a few sniffles.
Tammie Christianson was the first to speak: “I love this team so much you don’t even know…You guys have been so great…You’ll all stay in my heart and memories. I’m going to tell my grandkids about this game and about my team and family. I love you all!”
This was an emotional game, but not because of the loss. As graduation day approaches, the seniors realize this is likely to be their last time together on the basketball court as Falcons.
After the game, Coach Henderson was sad about the loss, but pleased with his team.
“I’m just so happy with them. They played their hearts out. I’m proud of all the seniors. I was a very lucky coach and I wish I had these seniors another year. The team was really happy that all the fans came.”
After the girls were dressed, they got on the bus for their final journey home together as a team. We stopped at McDonald’s for dinner and—though upset—the group laughed over their hamburgers and threw french fries into each others’ milkshakes. Team spirit was strong.
On the ride back to the mountain, no one was tired. Spirits were high. They told jokes halfway home, played “telephone” and then sang their hearts out (The Lion King theme song kicked off the concert that ended with Miley Cyrus’ “7 things”).
Seniors Tammie Christianson, Taylor Herren, Jennifer Karson, Shani Quibell, Kelsie Markman, Kailie Shillig and Danielle Grisbach leave the team this year, but their legacy will stay behind. Together the team did an outstanding job. As Nick Onyshko described it: “We fought hard and our crowd was spirited. I’m proud of our team.”
You can see this remarkable group at the Winter Sports Banquet on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 6:30 p.m. at FMHS.
As for the girls, they got home around midnight, ending the night with a lost game but countless personal victories.
This is part of the February 27, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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