Winning Streak:  The girl’s C-team basketball team currently stands undefeated with a record of 17-0

Girls C-team basketball coach Rick Rogers pulled out a shiny gold Burger King crown from his bag after an intense practice and passed it around the team huddle for every girl to sign. Rogers then took the crown and crossed out the word “king” replacing it with “queen”. 

This “Burger Queen” crown was awarded to freshman Vada Walsh by sophomore Clara Breneman for being the team’s hardest-working player that week. To help his team bond, Rogers allows one of the girls to pick a teammate they think deserves recognition for their hard work that week and he rewards them with unique prizes.

“​​I bring silly things and ask a girl to present it to a teammate who brings energy, positiveness, or something we want to recognize,” Rogers said. “All I do is provide opportunities for a fun climate but they take it and run with it.”

The girl’s C-team basketball team has created a strong bond together, according to Breneman, which is essential to their undefeated season of 17-0.

“I think we have a lot of individual girls that are really good, but I think we also just have a lot of good team chemistry, and we play really well together,” Breneman said. 

Any time a teammate makes a three-pointer, free throw or even just a good pass, the girls will be on the sidelines celebrating their success. 

“My teammates are always the ones who bring me up and help me stay positive to finish off the game strong,” Walsh said. 

There were four seconds left in the game against Shawnee Mission South when Breneman made a quick pass to her teammate sophomore Grace Rayfield. Grace stepped out of the three-point line, jumped up and shot the ball. The buzzer sounded as the basketball swirled into the hoop, and her team flooded the court to congratulate Rayfield. 

“She shot her three-pointer and the entire team rushed the court,” Breneman said. “It was a really happy memory.”

Despite most of the girls already having experience in the sport — and their undefeated season —they constantly are seeking out opportunities to improve.

One way that the girls improve is by going over individual statistics that team parents keep track of every game. After each game, Rogers will run through the game stats with the girls to see what they can improve in the future.

“He’s really good about rewarding what we do well and not harping on what we’re doing bad,” Breneman said.

After the full review, Rogers designs specific drills for the team which the girls train at their following practices to be more successful in their future games. Along with the drills, the team also makes an effort to remain productive and hard-working at practicing by not messing around.

“We make sure to have a set time where we’re like focused to learn the plays and work on the little things,” Walsh said. “We just make sure to get [the plays] in our head and practice them over and over again.”

The strong bond formed through team memories — and Burger King crowns — has helped the girls hold strong 20-point leads against teams or come back from a team in the third quarter. 

Girls C-team basketball currently has two more games this season against Olathe West on Feb. 20 and Shawnee Mission South on Feb 23.

“We’ve all worked super hard this season,” Breneman said. “We’ve learned so much about each other and just gotten so much better as a group.”