S T E WA R D AT H L E T I C S If a basketball team is willing to work through 57 practices only to play four games, it stands to reason that they share a goal greater than wins and losses. That was the count as of Jan. 26 for the Steward girls basketball team (4-0, No. 3 in the T-D Top 10). The defending VISAA Division II champion Spartans have put in months of work in the gym without the assurance of a schedule or playoff in pursuit of a collective purpose which has eluded so many amid the pandemic — closure. Head coach Kara Bacile coached the junior varsity team when the Spartans’ tight-knit core of six seniors were freshmen. She’s progressed alongside them, and staked her aspirations this year on providing them some sense of finality for their high school careers. "That was my biggest mission to start this year, was we need to have some kind of closure for them,” Bacile said. “I don’t know what it looks like yet, no matter how many games we end up getting, if we can get something for those guys, that’s a victory in my mind for them to have some closure and be in the uniform one more time and get out there and play a last few games together.” Steward held a ceremony last week for the class, which has gone 69-22 over the last four years. Each senior had two parents or guardians present to take pictures with. The student-athletes received school blankets and flowers, the parents got buttons with their children’s pictures on them. The parents couldn’t stay for the game, but it was livestreamed. Bacile said this senior class is especially near and dear to her because they “started this journey together.” “They were the ones that believed in the vision before anybody else could see it,” Bacile said. “So I feel like I owe them so much.”
game) to go along with 1,068 rebounds (13.9 rpg) and 250 blocks. Bacile thinks, with Pittman’s talent, she could average 30-plus points if she wanted to. But Pittman looks to create for her teammates before herself, Bacile said, and sets the tone in the locker room as a level-headed motivator that uplifts those around her.
from years back saved on her phone of Odibo shooting free throws in a game and sending them over the backboard.
“For all she does on the floor, what she brings off the floor to the community is huge for us and we’re going to miss her so much,” Bacile said.
“Her growth from year one to now has been leaps and bounds,” Bacile said. “She sparks our energy, she sparks our intensity on defense.”
Point guard Ameerah “Mimi” Traynham (14 ppg last season, 1,314 for her career) has been on varsity since her eighth grade year and “really set this whole thing in motion,” according to Bacile.
Of the six Spartan seniors, Saara Qureshi has been there the longest. Starting at the school in kindergarten, she’s a “Steward lifer” who’s headed to Mercer to play Division I lacrosse.
Bacile and Traynham used to have heated exchanges over Traynham losing confidence after making mistakes. Traynham is now Bacile’s trusted floor general.
Bacile said Qureshi couldn’t make a layup in stride as a freshman. Every time the Spartans threw the ball up the floor to her, she’d travel and get frustrated. Now, she’s a trusted contributor and essential rebounding presence.
“Finally, we were able to break through and break her out of that habit and give her that confidence to where she is now, she’s like an extension of me on the floor,” Bacile said.
Last season, she was sinking free throws confidently in the state title game, and now she’s averaging nearly 10 points.
”She’s gotten to the point where we completely trust her as a scoring threat,” Bacile said. “She’s super physical, really smart ... once again, just a kid that’s a super teammate to everyone else.”
Forward Grace Inge was on JV as a freshman when Bacile coached that level, and has been with her the entire time. Bacile said Inge does all the little things to help a team win. Her father is an assistant coach, and the pair are part of the fabric of the Steward program.
The practices continue to come in at a higher clip than the games for the Spartans and their programdefining senior class. Bacile said they appreciate competition more than ever whilst it’s scarcely available.
“Just a really, really sweet girl, one that works her butt off for you and is the ultimate teammate,” Bacile said.
If it’s in the cards, they hope for a chance to defend their state crown. But closure for their seniors has always been the Spartans’ higher calling in this most abnormal of high school basketball seasons.
Forward Eleanor Kuhn also played on Bacile’s JV team. She was the tallest player on the team, but hated doing the jump ball because she didn’t like the attention. She used to beg Bacile not to make her do it, but now the coach teases Kuhn about it.
Forward Sherese Pittman, a James Madison recruit, headlines a group which Bacile said has each carved out definitive roles and leads as a collective.
”Because, looking at that girl in ninth grade who was so nervous, to really watch her grow and develop confidence has been really special,” Bacile said.
Pittman was the VISAA Division II player of the year and a first-team All-Metro honoree as a junior last season. She’s scored 1,513 career points (19.3 per
Forward Nicole Odibo is the Spartans’ lock-down defender who relishes matchups against the opposing team’s leading scorer. Bacile has a video
“If it’s not that Cinderella ending that we’re looking for, then we’re certainly grateful just that we had this time together,” Bacile said. “Because it’s a really, really close group of kids and coaches and just being together is something we really appreciate.”
Reprinted from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1/20/21
Year in Review |
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