By Landon Williams
“A sisterhood bond.”
“We just really formed a family.”
“The effort that we put into each other’s relationships.”
Player after player continues to cite the special relationships that played a major role in the girls’ basketball team’s first trip to semistate.
But this didn’t happen by pure luck.
The girls’ basketball team accomplished a feat that hadn’t been done in 32 years.The team was not only sectional champions but for the first time in school history brought home a regional title.
Along with these accomplishments the girls had an outstanding regular season.
They had 18 wins this season, the most since winning 20 games in 2002-2003.
Head coach Tyronda Benning had a plan when taking this team over for the 2023-24 season.
Benning wanted to create a family within the team, but she knew it wouldn’t just happen.
Occasionally after practices the team would go out to dinner and attempt to strengthen the team chemistry.
Eventually it began to pay off.
What seemed to be insignificant ended up helping the girls go beyond their expectations.
“The bond and the amount of time people put in and the little things go a long way,” junior guard Elizabeth Bamidele said.
Not only did these team dinners pay off but the help of a new coach changed the way they did almost everything.
To make a difference Benning would need to change a few things up, including the team relationship. Benning emphasized having a strong relationship with teammates because it would correlate to their end game results.
Not only did Benning take action on this but soon after some of the girls on the team began to see the bigger picture.
Olivia Marshall, junior guard, took pride in not only her ability to play but in her team.
Marshall accomplished many goals with her “family” by her side the whole time.
“It was an amazing season just because of our team and our coaches, we just really formed a family,” she said. “It was so much fun to go so far and achieve our goals.”
Marshall was one of many to accomplish various individual goals.
Jillian Barr, another junior, not only dominated the paint but her competition as well throughout the season. Barr completed a challenge this season that on average takes an athlete all four years to complete.
She scored her 1,000th career point in her junior season.
She finished the season with 1,067 total points.
Barr is only 341 points off from the all-time Delta girls scoring record held by Niki Steveson, a 1992 graduate.
Along with this she dominated the stat sheet by being number one in 10 out of the 13 stat categories.
“I would like to improve my game individually and just become a better athlete and understand basketball more so I can just add to the team,” Barr said.
Although Barr put up outstanding stats, she wasn’t a one-person army.
Griffyn Knight, a junior shooting guard, thrived from beyond the arc this season. Knight was second on the stat sheet at more than half of the categories. Just like Barr, Knight wasn’t able to make this happen all alone.
With the help of two point guards, sophomore Harper Timmerman and junior Addison Barnes, Barr and Knight were able to do what they do best.
Barnes led the team in assists, averaging 4.5 assists per game.
Timmerman, a more subtle player, worked in areas of the court like dishing in some assists and occasionally getting a silent bucket.
With each player playing their individual roles, they were able to finish a remarkable season.
The team looks forward to what they can do next year, and the goals they can achieve.
Still a question remains to be unanswered, how are they going to follow up a season like this?
