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Girls basketball tournaments begin this week
The four seniors on the West Branch girls basketball team played their 100th game together Saturday afternoon in the team’s regular-season finale.
Their record: 88-12.
“It’s funny how when you have a group of competitive girls like ours, you can remember each loss,” said Warriors head coach Walt DeShields.
“The 88 wins are nice, and those memories sometimes come and go, but it’s the losses that stick with you the most.”
The class is led by point guard Melinda Trimmer, who has committed to Youngstown State. She became the school’s all-time leading scorer this season and has scored more than 1,600 points for her career.
“Her consistency in every practice and every game, her leadership in making the other girls around her better, that has been what makes her special,” DeShields said.
The Warriors led Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary for much of last year’s regional final, but was unable to convert down the stretch. It doesn’t matter how it happens or when it happens, a loss to end the season is going to leave an emptiness — or a feeling of unfinished business.
“That was kind of our motto and we had T-shirts made up before this season and we kind of lived off that a little bit,” DeShields said. “When you make a tournament run like that and have three returning starters, they’re determined to make it back again.
“But we know there’s no guarantees.”
The Warriors aren’t the only team who will begin this year’s postseason tournament with a bull’s-eye on their backs — but they’ll certainly have one of the biggest.