Lady Patriots look to 4 captains for guidance

There is strength in numbers.

That’s why the Homewood High School girls basketball team uses four captains, instead of the customary one, to shoulder the responsibility of guiding the Lady Patriots through the peaks and valleys of the season.

“This year, we just all wanted to come together,” guard Hannah Barber said. “Us four as captains, it’s our job to keep everybody together and to lead, not only by what we say, but by our actions in practice.”

Barber, Ajah Wayne and Tori Webb are juniors. Shelby Hardy is the lone senior of that group, and one of just two on the entire team.

The four of them lead a team loaded with postseason experience, having won the Class 6A state championship in 2015 and reaching the state final once again in 2016, falling short against LeFlore last March.

“It’s a really big role for us,” Webb said. “Because we’re some of the more mature players on the team, and we’re able to keep everybody in contact and keep everybody together and staying focused.”

Insult and injury

In the loss to LeFlore, things went from bad to worse. The Lady Patriots were struggling from the get-go, and then Wayne went down with a knee injury in the second quarter. She returned to action briefly, but after one possession, it was apparent that she could go no longer.

The diagnosis was a torn ACL.

“I didn’t have a good first quarter, but I was planning on having a better second half,” Wayne said. “Going down and not being able to go back in, you never know when something can happen.”

Throughout the offseason, Wayne was not able to do things the way she wanted. The opportunities to bond with her team around physical therapy sessions and rehabilitation were limited.

“I didn’t really get to focus on my team a lot during my surgery, because I had to work three times harder with [physical therapy] and having to deal with the struggles. It was tough,” Wayne said. “But my team, they were always there and were encouraging me and ready for me to come back.”

Wayne said she also has someone to rely on when the going gets tough. Hardy knows what it is like to go through the grind of recovering from a knee injury.

“If I’m hurting, [Hardy] will tell me it’s all part of it and to fight through it. She encourages me a lot,” Wayne said.

Unsung hero

There are not going to be many games when Hardy is Homewood’s leading scorer. She is more than capable of putting the ball in the basket, and it should be no shock if she does pace the Lady Patriots on a given night, but she loves her role.

“I’m the cleanup person,” she said. “Everything we do, especially rebounding.”

Hardy’s contributions may not be overly exciting on a nightly basis, but Homewood’s success has a lot to do with her production.

“I think a lot of what she does gets overlooked,” Barber said. “Things like getting the ball out quick, that’s a big part of what we do. Some of the things she does, like setting good screens, don’t show up on the stat sheet, but they don’t go unnoticed.”

That extra year she has on the other three captains also puts an additional responsibility on her plate, another one that does not necessarily show up when the lights come on, but is the product of tireless work behind closed doors.

“As a senior, I feel like people look to her more for leadership,” Wayne said. “If we’re all just goofing around, it’s her role to step in and say something. She knows her role and she does it really well.”

Hurry up

If there were one aspect to define Homewood’s success on the court, it would be the tempo of the game. If the Lady Patriots can establish it in their favor — meaning they are flying up and down the court fast enough to give a spectator whiplash — they feel confident they can win.

“Tempo is everything,” Wayne said. “Our game flows better. We take better shots. We’ll make a couple bad passes, but since the tempo is going, we’re ready to get back on defense.”

Barber mentioned Hardy’s responsibility to take the ball out quick after the opposing team makes a basket. As the point guard, Barber rushes the ball up the floor, while Webb and Wayne scurry into position as well for an offensive set.

“We all have a different role on the floor as well,” Barber said. “It’s up to us four in our own position to get the tempo up. When we can control the tempo, most of the time we’re in good shape.”

That tempo wears other teams down, too. But the Lady Patriots practice that way, and they are prepared for those fourth-quarter possessions in a tight game. While the opposition is hunched over searching for air, those extra sprints show their true benefit.

Doing it together

If the Lady Patriots are to conquer a tough classification once again this season, one that includes Hazel Green and area foes Parker, Ramsay and Shades Valley, they will do so as more of a unit than ever before.

“The fact that we’re much closer as a team, that will be something positive for us,” Webb said. “Whether we lose or we win, we’re still going to have each other’s backs, regardless.”

Webb called the loss in the championship last season a “bad sickness,” but overcoming that metaphorical illness has yielded trust, understanding and comfort amongst the captains.

“If you had a bad day, just to know that you have three people that you know have your back and can pick up your slack and encourage and motivate you, that’s where it comes in biggest for me,” Barber said.

The four captains know they need each other to climb the mountain once again. No team is complete without crucial role players either, and the Lady Patriots have those in the likes of Lia Roberson, Kayla Mikula, Kalia Cunningham, Kassidy Crawford, Venice Sanders, Zoe Watts and on the list goes.

The journey is long, and the contributions of them all will be required along the way. But there is no time to reflect while there is still work to be done.

“I can enjoy it when it’s all over,” Wayne said. “Not now. Now, we’re still going hard.”