What a season!

It's been a long time since my last blog. Lots of things have happened, including the conclusion of the high school basketball season.
Despite all my whining and complaining about the bottom teams in the area not being competitive, the season didn't turn out so bad. For the second year in a row, Union County had three girls teams advance to the state semifinals.
This year however, two teams made it to the finals. Maybe those area teams at the bottom weren't so bad after all.
Okay, I'm not ready to make that statement, yet. But, it was a fun postseason.
I hadn't covered a basketball state final since Strong did its repeat several years ago. I had a blast covering El Dorado and Parkers Chapel in Hot Springs last week.
The Lady Wildcats claimed their first-ever state championship. The Lady Trojans lost to England in a heartbreaker 31-29. Those Lady Lions also eliminated Norphlet in the semifinals.
I felt bad for Parkers Chapel because I honestly thought those girls should've won it. That's the toughest kind of loss to take.
El Dorado, on the other hand, didn't leave anything to chance. The Lady Wildcats dominated Little Rock Parkview from the opening tip. Whitney Frazier had her game-face on and it was obvious, she was not going to let her team lose.
Frazier was the MVP but the key to El Dorado's championship run was her teammates. The Lady Wildcats got the most use out of their semifinal loss a year ago. It seemed like all of the key players got better over the summer.
Bria Snowden went from stand-still shooter to a scoring threat off the drive and via the pull-up jumper. Little sister Sequoia sharpened her handle and emerged as a solid point guard. She joined Emily Sinclair to fill the void at that position. Sinclair ran the team like a seasoned veteran. More importantly, she cleaned up her turnovers and made better decisions.
Kanedria Andrews impressed with her overall game. She gave the team whatever it needed whether it was scoring, rebounding, ball handling or defense. She couldn't do that last year.
Everyone got better at El Dorado.
It's great when a team can take a negative and turn it into something great. The Lady Wildcats, more than any other team, turned last year's semifinal loss into a reason to bust their butts in the off-season.
They did it as a team. It wasn't just one or two. The whole team went to work. From Charlotte Bradley to Hannah Burroff to Marchelle Lockhart, everyone on that team was a better player this year than they were last year.
Give Stephen Harshaw some credit. Give the girls the rest.
I guess it was a pretty good season after all.