Grapevine freshman girls basketball coach Jim Thompson thinks he might be watching history repeat itself.
"Back in the 1989-1990 season, we had a group that went, I think, 22-1 or 23-1," said Thompson, who has worked in the Grapevine-Colleyville school district for 30 years."When those girls became seniors, they were the first Grapevine High School girls teams to go to the playoffs -- it was a super-talented group of kids."This year's freshman squad went 25-2 overall and a perfect 14-0 in district to win the championship."The future is bright. Hopefully they're all going to keep playing; I think they are," Thompson said.Madi Brown, the team captain who played primarily shooting guard, said she didn't expect to reach such success so early in her high school career."I did not; I was very happy that we were as good as we were and that we won district," she said.Thompson said the freshmen won by being unusually team-focused for their age."On the court, they're so unselfish -- they share the ball and their passing is phenomenal for a group of freshman girls," he said. "I loved coming to practice. They wanted to be there, they loved being there and they worked hard the whole time."Thompson said that team unity speaks well for the future of the girls basketball program at Grapevine."The main thing is, the kids really love and care about each other," he said. "I've never had a team that worked together as well as this one; we never had any bickering, any problems whatsoever."Brown added, "At the beginning of the season we were all just no-drama girls who just wanted to play basketball, and I think that's what led to us not bickering and playing a team type of game."She said the team gradually began to realize its potential as the season wore on."We kept it game-by-game and just hoped we could play the best that we could, and about halfway through, we really decided that we could go all the way."And so they did, all without the services of a number of freshmen who were picked for JV and varsity.Among those was Abby Sandy, who recently led the varsity team with 23 points against Trinity and was carried off the court on her teammates' shoulders."She and Michelle Kotlik were on varsity, and we had five freshmen in JV," Thompson said."They were all really strong players, so at first we were scared," Brown said. "But then we became a really good passing team, and that helped us a lot."For freshman teams, there are no playoffs. The district championship is the ultimate prize. That just leaves the Grapevine ninth graders feeling they have unfinished business to attend to, however."At the beginning of the season, we were in a tournament and played Flower Mound, and we lost by about 10 points," Brown said. "At the end of the season, they were undefeated and we were undefeated, and we really wanted to play them, but we can't -- we're freshmen."But there are three more seasons to go."I don't think I want to play college basketball, but I want to continue to develop and play varsity hopefully by my senior year," Brown said.She wouldn't mind running into Flower Mound again someday, either."I hope so," she said. "I hope we get to play them again."Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
