Coach reminds dejected players they’re best in school history

Colleyville Heritage girls basketball coach Dianna Sager walked into a dejected locker room and said one thing that brought smiles to her players’ faces.

References to 2007 were over. From now on, future teams would hear how they would have to measure up to the 2016-2017 team.

“Thank goodness,” senior point guard Hannah Verdi said with a laugh.

The process of forming a successful team takes commitment, trust and accountability. And that’s what happens before they ever pick up a basketball and start going through workouts.

That appeared to be the formula for this team, which went to a regional tournament for the second time in school history. Colleyville Heritage finished the season 29-7 with a 55-45 loss to Amarillo in the Class 5A Region I semifinals this past Friday in Snyder.

The team tied for the most wins in a season under Sager (the 2004-2005 team finished 29-8), won its first playoff game since 2011 and advanced to the Region I tournament for the first time since 2006-2007.

“When the end of the game was coming and we could tell, I couldn’t look at McKinley [Charles], because I saw her tearing up and then I knew I’d start crying,” Verdi said. “We had to finish the game. Obviously, I’m proud of each other. We learned so much about basketball and about life in general. We became friends and most importantly, we had fun.”

This team and the 2006-2007 regional semifinalist team were both similar and dissimilar. The guard play mirrored what the Griffin twins, Kaitlyn and Kelsey, brought back then. They weren’t asked to score. They were asked to distribute and get the offense flowing. That’s what Verdi and Caitlyn Foster did.

But the post presented the big difference. That 2006-2007 team featured a defensive enforcer in Porche’ Torrance. This team had (and still has) a dynamic playmaker in Bryn Gerlich. Either way, Colleyville Heritage experienced the trip out west.

“We genuinely liked each other and spent time together when we weren’t forced to because of basketball,” Foster said. “That’s what made it easier for us to cooperate on the court.”

And it didn’t turn into an inner circle of the five seniors — Verdi, Foster, Charles, Emily Lewis and Alyssia Harris — and junior forward Bryn Gerlich. It evolved into an inclusive environment.

That was felt in the postseason with a junior varsity call-up, sophomore Johnvi Babaria. There was a moment where the youngster felt like she needed to leave the locker room for a team moment. Verdi stepped in and made sure the future of Colleyville Heritage was a part of that moment.

“She needed to be with us,” Verdi said. “She contributed to what we were doing.”

Time has passed. The frustration has faded. The memories will remain for each player’s lifetime. And as odd as it sounds, it may be more about what this group did off the court than off it.

“What they accomplished was the power of teamwork,” Sager said. “Nobody wins the district championship and goes four rounds in the playoffs without working for the same thing. What I respected about them is that they kept everything in check.”

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Coach reminds dejected players they’re best in school history."