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This is not the year for shoulda, coulda or woulda.
It is the year for can and will.
This is the year the Heathwood Hall girls basketball players began to dream of and prepare for the minute they walked off the court after the loss to Pinewood Prep in the 2010-11 SCISA Class 3A finals.
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“We really did not take a step back from there,” coach John O’Cain said. “We’ve got three sophomores that have been starting since the eighth grade. We’re a young team, but it’s a mature youth.”
The Highlanders (19-1, 7-0) defeated Cardinal Newman to earn the region title and are now ready to begin another title quest.
“We were like this at the beginning,” O’Cain said, spreading his fingers and flattening his palm. Curling his hand into a white-knuckled fist, he said, “but over the years, we’ve become more like this. The fist is what you have to be as a team to be successful, and we’re getting to that.”
Just having the five starters — led by sophomore forward A’ja Wilson — perform well has not been the key to the Highlanders’ success this season.
O’Cain said it’s the collective work of the starters and the reserves that allows the Highlanders to not only get strong starts, but put together complete games.
Against the Cardinals, the play of Elise McKelvey and Danielle Zurcher in the fourth quarter was the key.
“Having them come off the bench and playing some of their best minutes, that is what we need,” he said.
They will get it, because this is the last shot for Zurcher, one of two seniors on the Highlanders’ squad.
“I’ve played my hardest all season, and tonight, when coach put me in in the fourth quarter, all I could think was this is one of the last games I’m going to be playing, and I played even harder,” Zurcher said.
Wilson said the Highlanders have become a strong unit through such efforts, knowing that every member of the team is working toward the same goal.
“We’re a real team unit now, more than we were before,” Wilson said. “We have had a great season and we expect to be great in the tournament. We’re becoming prepared.”
When the SCISA state tournament begins on Feb. 17, the Highlanders will be ready, they said.
Because this is what they have been waiting for.
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