Lady Panthers playing each game like it’s their last

Dianna Sager did not sugar coat it with her team. When the 2016-2017 basketball season began, she told her Colleyville Heritage girls squad that it was the best one she had coached since the 2007 team advanced to the then-Cass 5A Region I semifinals.

She expected these players to be able to duplicate that. Right there, the gauntlet had been thrown down.

“At first, we were taken back by it,” senior point guard Hannah Verdi said. “We talked about it. But we also realized there were some good seniors on this team. Once we started to gel, we felt it was realistic to do it.”

Colleyville Heritage had been known more for its early playoff exits than for doing anything in the postseason. That’s why this run carries significance.

The Lady Panthers are playing in the second week of the playoffs. The baseball and softball seasons are under way. The track season has begun. The boys basketball season is over.

Those signal that it has already been a good season. But it also signals that advancing to the Class 5A state tournament is a realistic goal. The Lady Panthers (28-6) play Fort Worth Trimble Tech in the Region I quarterfinals Tuesday at Arlington High School. A win would send them to the regional tournament in Snyder.

There’s the natural euphoria of making the playoffs and the excitement of winning a postseason game. But when a team wins that second-round game, the mood changes. The urgency surges.

“No one is scared,” Sager said. “The fact that we’ve traveled to and played in good tournaments in Katy and Duncanville against some good teams has helped. The fact that we have five seniors is an underlying factor.

“When you’re not a senior, you can’t understand it by saying that you might get there next year. I made it very clear to them. This might be the best team we’ve had. They do not want to wait.”

Those five seniors — Verdi, guard McKinley Charles, guard Caitlyn Foster, forward Alyssia Harris and forward Emily Lewis — have been together since their middle school days. That’s hundreds of basketball games. Now, every time they wear the uniform, it’s a one-game season.

“The implications for us in practice are real,” Verdi said. “There’s way-higher intensity. We focus on the things we can do to get better. We all know it could be our last game at any point.”

As good as this team is, there are stronger challenges that could be coming to Snyder, which is about one hour west of Abilene. Traditional powers Amarillo and Canyon are considered the favorites to win the region. Canyon won the 2015-2016 5A state championship.

But Colleyville Heritage beat several very sound Class 6A teams in South Grand Prairie, Keller and Plano West. That experience had to mean something Tuesday for a trip to West Texas to become reality.

“These are the things we want from this program, and they’ve handled it all really well,” Sager said. “We enjoy these experiences. Anything that has gone against us, this team has known how to respond.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 4:28 PM with the headline "Lady Panthers playing each game like it’s their last."