Pasco: Losing provides lessons

Losing provides lessons

The Wesley Chapel girls' basketball team learns about persistence as they endure a 43-game losing streak.

By JOHN C. COTEY

WESLEY CHAPEL -- With 34 seconds left in her team's basketball game Friday, Wesley Chapel High coach Shelley Carrino jumped higher than she probably ever had, enough to make a few of her players look over and smile at her.

Emily Conklin's three-pointer had swished through the net, the game was tied and her Wesley Chapel Wildcats had new life. A turnover and one more basket away from victory, perhaps.

Or perhaps not. When you are on a 42-game losing streak, soon to become 43, things are never quite that simple.

So naturally, Zephyrhills High missed their next shot but grabbed the rebound, drew a foul, made two free throws and then pressured Wesley Chapel into a turnover.

That sealed another loss that brought to a stinging conclusion a week that began with so much anticipation.

"That hurt," said Carrino after the 40-37 loss to the Bulldogs. "When Emily hit that three-point, it was just like Holy Cow! Thank God!

"We just couldn't hold on."

Not Friday night, nor Thursday night when they lost to Mitchell High 48-44, nor Tuesday night when Gulf High beat them 46-32.

That the Wildcats kept their grip in those games as long as they did, though, was rather remarkable when you consider 10 days prior, they had been beaten 106-27 and 78-30 on consecutive nights. In fact, in the team's two-year existence, they have never won a game. "We're getting closer," said sophomore Erikka McIntyre. "We're sad a little bit that we lost, but you have to look at it that we're improving . . . a lot."

McIntyre was not the only optimistic Wildcat. Forty-three losses in a row or not, the team is not ready to give up.

"This is fun, how can you be upset?" said freshman guard Brenna Lane. "We're definitely getting better."

Sophomore Jamie Freund, however, put it best: "I'd much rather lose by four points than 100 points any day."

Last week was supposed to be The Week for Pasco County's most victory-challenged girls basketball team. Three games were scheduled against Gulf, Mitchell and Zephyrhills, teams that the Wildcats were convinced were beatable.

And why not? Wesley Chapel had almost beaten Gulf earlier in the season, losing in overtime after squandering a 31-20 halftime lead. Mitchell was a first-year school, one of the few as young as Wesley Chapel. And Zephyrhills had won just two games while enduring their own procession of routs.

"The girls were told this was a golden opportunity," Carrino said.

After Wesley Chapel lost to Gulf Tuesday, Carrino downgraded her comments to her team at practice on Wednesday. "Maybe there was too much pressure because they played like it against Gulf," she said. "So I just told them to relax and let's do this one game at a time."

Before a surprisingly uproarious crowd of 61 that sounded more like 610, Wesley Chapel lost to Mitchell 48-44. The Wildcats erased a 32-25 deficit to start the fourth quarter and eventually tied the game at 44-all on McIntyre's free throw with 41 seconds left.

Mitchell's Jessica Fuller broke the tie -- and some hearts -- with a bankshot a few seconds later, and Wesley Chapel could not answer.

The game was more than a moral victory. The Wildcats were ecstatic.

"I think if we keep playing like we did tonight," Freund said, "we'll definitely get our first win this year."

On the way out of the gym, a smiling Lane was asked if she thought the victory would come the next night against Zephyrhills.

"I think so," she said.

One problem: Zephyrhills' Jessica Clancy, who willed her team to a 40-37 victory with key rebound after key rebound.

While the Wildcats took great solace in almost beating Mitchell, it was not so easy to do Friday. At one point early in the third quarter, they had led 19-11, and even after losing that lead Conklin's three-pointer had sent her teammates into delirium.

But again, victory had slipped away. Instead of smiling in the huddle after the game as they had the night before, most of the players just stared forward, lost in thought.

The golden opportunity had vanished.

"The season's not over," Carrino told her players. "There are a lot of teams on our schedule we can still beat."

In truth, there is just one -- Crystal River. But Carrino has trying to captain her ship away from an iceberg.

"Please don't stop playing," she said. "Don't give up."

Jim Lane, Brenna's father and an assistant principal at nearby Weightman Middle School, doesn't think they will.

"It's frustrating for us but we try to keep their spirits up," he said. "In many ways, these close games are worse than the blowouts. Ironically, I think it's done a lot for their self-esteem being in these games. They've learned from it. I know it's a cliche, but it's been a character-building experience for them.

"It would be nice to get that win, though."

Jeanne and Charles Edwards agree. Daughter Meagan clearly takes the losing harder than any of her teammates, and sometimes it's hard for her parents to bear the effect defeat has on her.

"It's heartbreaking," said Jeanne Edwards. "This is the third game that we've lost like this. It's heartbreaking for us and I know it has to be for them."

"At least," Charles Edwards said, "these close games give you hope."

This is the way it goes sometimes for a young team still learning how to play and doesn't know how to win. Key shots are made by the other team. Passes suddenly miss their mark. Free throws clank off the front of the rim.

Close games slip away.

But they bring with it hope. It is easier to envision victory, easier to believe in its possibilities.

If anything, Carrino said, the losing streak took a few more steps toward the cliff last week. In the next close game -- and there will be another -- someone, anyone, needs to push it off that edge.

"This year," said Meagan Edwards, smiling, "I guarantee it."