Mr. Basketball Ch. 13

"One, two, three, pride," they sounded off.

We took the floor and they warmed up. It was senior night so I made the adjustments to my starting five. Before the game started they were honored for their time at the school. I only had three seniors on the team so it didn't take very long.

The announcer announced it was senior night and went through a little spiel about it. Then he called out Erika Moore and gave a little background into her time at the school. I shook her hand and gave her some flowers and a plaque to honor her years at the school and to the team. Then they called Sarah Pointer and talked about her. She got the same thing from me.

"And last but certainly not least," the announcer called. "The last time we will ever call out the number five, Taylor Tiiiiiilllllllllyyyyyyyy!"

She was full of emotion as she started out of the hallway towards me at half court. Thom, Tammy, Tara and Tessa walked along side of her as the announcer continued about her. Number five was to be retired from the rotation after we were done with this season no matter how it ended. She had done way more than expected with her time here and we felt it would be a nice honor to have the number retired.

"Taylor has been a starter on the varsity squad all four years. She holds a number of records including the most career points, the most career assists and the most games played. Taylor has been busy off the court as well. She has a 4.26 GPA and scored a 1502 on her SATs. In her spare time she likes to hang out with her friends and she has recently started learning how to play the guitar."

"When do you rest girl?" the announcer joked. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders at him.

"Taylor also has big plans for the future. She has verbally committed to play basketball at Duke University on a full basketball scholarship. Way to go Taylor."

She finally met me at half court with a big smile on her face and tears in her eyes. I pulled her into a hug and held her tightly.

"Congratulations baby," I said softly. "This is only a small token of our appreciation for your time and great work here at the school. That jersey you are wearing will hang from the rafters after you girls get that state title."

"Thank you coach," she smiled as we released.

I handed her the plaque and shook Thom's hand. I went down the line and hugged the girls before they turned and stood in line so we could get our pictures taken for the press. Once we had the pictures the court cleared out and we got ready to start the game.

"Hey," I said as they huddled around me. "They like to run a two guard split that tries to dig into the post. If you play the middle a little and bait them to pass the ball around you can probably pick off quite a few passes." Taylor smiled at me as I spoke to them.

They got set to play. Tessa won the opening tip and sent it back to Taylor. She quickly took off and weaved through the bodies as she drove to the hoop and scored easily. She played off as they set up and tried to run their post set. Just like I said they tried the cross court pass. Taylor quickly broke to the passing lane and stole the pass. She quickly took it to the hoop and scored again.

We quickly pulled away in the first quarter and never looked back. By the time we had made it to the midway point in the third quarter we had a thirty point lead and a running clock. My normal starting five sat out from that point on as I let the other girls get some time in there. They played very well and showed a lot of promise for the future. With only three seniors on the team there was a lot of talent coming back next season.

We ended up winning by thirty eight that night. I spoke to them briefly before letting them get cleaned up.