Gruver girls looking to overcome the odds once more at state
When LeBron James won his first title with the Miami Heat, he famously said afterwards, "I'm not even supposed to be here."
The Gruver Lady Hounds haven't won the Class 2A girls basketball championship just yet. But, by many accounts, they're not supposed to be here either.
The Lady Hounds won state in the 2019-2020 season and they won again last year. This year's team became the first in school history to make it to the state tournament in consecutive years and is aiming to make it three titles in four years.
Except they aren't "supposed" to.
The previous two state title teams were led by Bailey Maupin, who is playing for Texas Tech now. Last year's team had four seniors who made up the overwhelming majority of the offense.
This year's team is led by Oklahoma State signee Brenna Butler, who does all of the little things that don't show up in the stat sheet. She does well there, too, but neither she nor anyone else on the Lady Hounds scores at the same clip that Maupin did.
Yet, here Gruver is once again, back in the state tournament with a shot at winning it all.
So, how did they get here?
“I’ve really got tremendous kids that bought into the things that we’re doing," Gruver coach Trent Lankford said. "We get great contributions from all of the girls and they just do their job. ... We identified the roles at the beginning of the year and the girls embraced that and try to be superstars in their role. It’s great to watch and fun to see the belief and the evolution of this. The practices have been great, the energy as been great and they play for each other.”
For Butler, getting back to this point was never about trying to be something they used to be. They were always just trying to find the best way to move forward with what they have.
“I think we were less concerned with how do we replace Bailey and the other seniors that we lost and more focused on the fact that this was our team," she said. "We were concerned with what our strengths were going to be and who we were and what our weaknesses are and just went from there.”
What ended up being the strength of this year's team, according to both Lankford and Butler, is the grittiness they play with. Lankford acknowledged after the regional tournament that the wins aren't always as pretty as he'd like, but the wins always come.
"We had to find our own identity," Butler said. "Last year’s team was a little like a shadow that we had to get away from. We had to start over and start something new if we were going to be successful. Grittiness just came along with that. I don’t think it’s something that we talked about or manifested. I think it just came.”
Lankford has preached the importance of not being afraid of the moment.
Kimber Whitehead wasn't afraid of the moment when she dropped 22 points in the regional semifinal against New Home. Hannon Lankford wasn't afraid of it when she knocked down three three-pointers in the opening quarter against Panhandle. Allie Sparks wasn't afraid of it when she hit the game-winning putback of the same game. Butler has never been afraid of it.
The Lady Hounds (29-5) take the court at 10 a.m. Friday against Hearne (33-8). They won't be afraid of the moment then either as they try take another state title, even though they're not supposed to.
“It would be awesome to (win another title) with my three best friends who are the other seniors on the team," Butler said. "I think that’s what would make it really special is that it’s our team. We’ve been working towards this forever.”
UIL Class 2A state tournament
at the Alamodome, San Antonio
Friday's semifinals
8:30 a.m. — Lipan (33-3) vs. Martin’s Mill (31-6)
10 a.m. — Gruver (29-5) vs. Hearne (33-8)
Championship game
1:30 p.m. Saturday
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Gruver girls looking to overcome the odds once more at state
