'We've got it': Jefferson could have its best girls basketball season in 30 years

ROCKFORD — Jefferson has been at or near the bottom in the NIC-10 in most sports for three decades.

Especially girls basketball.

They may have been the worst team in any sport in NIC-10 history from 2013-19, going 5-125 in the conference those eight years. And when young coach Amber Lee-Black seemed to be finally making inroads, she got a promotion and left to work at Auburn.

Jefferson started over again.

Only not really.

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Second-year head coach Tiffany Lambert, an assistant under Lee-Black for two years, has the J-Hawks (6-3, 3-2 NIC-10) as the biggest early season surprise in the NIC-10, even after Friday’s 58-37 loss to Boylan.

“It wasn’t a hard situation to step into,” Lambert said. “I’ve been here the whole time. We had a lot of commonalities in coaching,” she said of Lee-Black. “Now I get to put my finger print on it and change a few things. But our motto is to get after it.

“The girls buy in. They work hard. We expect to play better this year.”

Jefferson hasn’t won more games than it lost in both the conference and overall in a full season since Carrie Coffman, the No. 4 greatest player in Rockford history, led the J-Hawks to state in 1991. The J-Hawks did go 7-6 in the abbreviated COVID season two years back, but haven’t won more than seven games since going 12-14 a long 15 years ago.

That looks like it will end this year. Jefferson also seems likely to have it’s first winning season in 20 years, since going 17-13 overall (8-8 in the league) in 2003.

“We don’t know that,” 5-foot-2 sophomore Aaliyah Keller said, “but we’re working as hard as we can. I think we’ve got it this season.”

“It depends on how hard you work,” 5-4 junior guard/forward Mo’Rya Mitchell said. “How bad you want it. Everybody’s happy. We’re all working hard, trying to get better. Everybody brings a lot.”

Keller provided a perfect illustration of that Friday in a 58-37 loss to perennial power Boylan. Down 13 in the second quarter, she dove for a loose ball and took a wicked blow to the head. She stayed down for several minutes, but was soon back in the game.

“I just play to the best of my ability,” said Keller, who scored seven points. “I play until I can no more and get back up when I can.”

Boylan coach Aaron Westlund was impressed.

“They got down 20 and they never slowed down,” he said. “They played hard the entire game. That’s what you want. They kept playing the whole time. That makes them better. That makes us better, too.”

It’s also encouraging that Jefferson’s three best players are underclassmen. Mitchell added eight points for Jefferson and 5-9 freshman Abbie Bracius led the team with 11.

“We can win more,” Bracius said.

The J-Hawks don’t have much size and are limited offensively. But they play smart. After getting off to a bad start, they had fewer turnovers than Boylan in each of the last three quarters. And while they only made four 3-pointers, they took a lot of 3s because players got in good position behind the arc and teammates got them the ball when they were ready to shoot.

“It’s just knowing when to pass and when to shoot,” Bracius said. “Everyone knows when to do it, so it’s easy.”

Bracius, the sister of sophomore Sebastian Bracius, who set school passing records for Jefferson’s football team this fall, is an all-court, all-conference talent even as a freshman.

“She is going to be a really strong player for years to come,” said Boylan’s Westlund, who has worked with her in the Rockford Wildcats AAU team in the summer.

Could the entire Jefferson team become strong? Their coach thinks so.

“Basketball is something you have to do consistently and constantly,” Lambert said. “They work hard every day. I expect things to change. And they want things to change. When you couple those two together, you should expect a positive outcome.”

That’s the type of thinking Lambert learned from her mom, who was killed in 2016 when a speeder fleeing police crashed into her car, cutting it in half.

Lambert, whose father is an associate pastor at a local church, says she is trying to pass on to her players the lessons she learned from her parents. Lessons that allowed her and her sister, Crystal Lambert, to publicly forgive the speeder when she was sentenced in court to five years in prison.

“My mom was my hero,” Tiffany Lambert said. “Every day I coach, I do it for her. No matter what’s going on or how hard it is, basketball is the outlet. It allows me to express positivity and help the players be better people off the court, giving them the coach that they ought to have, that they deserve.

“It’s not just about them producing on the court. We are giving them life lessons. Those are the lessons my mother taught me. As long as I am making her proud, I’m good.

“And we’re going to keep on getting after it.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

NIC-10 girls basketball standings

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford Jefferson girls basketball team could be best in 30 years