WEST POINT — There is a lot of responsibility when you’re the only senior on a team.
But Tanner Grubbs didn’t allow the potential loneliness of her situation to affect her in her final season with the Oak Hill Academy girls basketball team.
That’s because Grubbs’ personality enabled her to build relationships with every player and helped make them feel like they were an integral part of the team.
“I try to be outgoing and easy for people to talk to because I know practices are hot and sometimes go on for hours, so I try to make it as fun as I possibly can,” Grubbs said. “I can try to lighten the mood and then serious at the same time.”
Grubbs’ ability to be a “jokester” and to be serious paid dividends for Oak Hill Academy this season. It also played a key role in Grubbs being named The Dispatch’s Small Schools All-Area Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Grubbs, who also was a member of the school’s cheerleading squad, set the tone for her final basketball season by working as leaders with two other seniors on the school’s fast-pitch softball team. She said she grew up with many of her teammates, so it was easy for her to step into a bigger leadership role. Grubbs said she was able to shoulder that responsibility because she has an ability to relate to everyone.
“Over the past few years I have noticed how I can change my way of talking to people,” said Grubbs, who will attend Ole Miss in the fall. “If one of my friends responds to strict criticism, I will yell at them to get them to respond. If another friend starts crying if I yell at them, I will do positive things to lift them up to make them feel better.”
Leaning her game
Grubbs said she discovered she had that ability as a junior. She said she never really thought too much about it, but she acknowledges she is confident she can find ways to motivate teammates and to get them to buy into the team concept.
Grubbs’ contributions and leadership were rewarded in March when she was named to play in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Senior All-Star Basketball games at Jackson Prep.
When interviewed for her honor, Grubbs said in March that she took on a bigger scoring and rebounding role as a senior after serving a more complementary role as a junior when senior Sarah Dill was the team leader.
Junior Anna Kathryn Childress, who played with Grubbs for six years on the school’s fast-pitch softball team and for four on the basketball team, said Grubbs was the ideal senior teammate.
“She was like a godsend for us,” Childress said. “She cared so much and we just felt the love coming off her and we fed off her. When you have that kind of person on your team, nothing else matters. You know she will always be there for us and we love her so much.”
Childress understands how Grubbs can balance having fun and being serious. She said she and Grubbs and pretty good friends who hang out all of the time, which explains why they have had more than one occasion to embarrass each other. In fact, Childress recalls one time when Grubbs asked her to do a television interview with her. She laughed when she recounted how they turned their basketball success into an embarrassing moment that caught the attention of plenty of their friends.
But Childress said the embarrassing memories never lingered. She said she and Grubbs would laugh about those situations and turn them into ways to strengthen their friendship or to help bring their teams closer together.
Regardless of the situation, Childress said Grubbs tried not to let the pressure get to her, even if she realized her senior teammate was in a tough spot.
“The younger girls tried to take the pressure off her,” Childress said. “She was awesome during games. If we would get caught in a tough situation, we could get the ball to Tanner and she would know what to do. She is a pro.”
Oak Hill Academy fast-pitch softball coach Mitch Bohon agrees. He said Grubbs is “one of the funnest players he has ever coached.” Bohon said Grubbs had the ability to make you laugh while she was always working extremely hard.
Open your ears
However, Bohon said you had to be careful because Grubbs would “talk a lot of trash to you” to keep things relaxed and to make sure you were bringing your best game, too.
“It motivates her even more when you challenged her back,” Bohon said. “Me coming in coaching softball (from coaching the baseball team), if it wasn’t for her and a couple of other ones I wouldn’t have made it through it. She helped me get through it with her leadership. At this school, you probably couldn’t have asked for a better leader guy or girl. The team fed off her. If she was confident they were confident.”
Childress said she and Grubbs had a knack for being able to help the other out of tricky spots. If one was getting anxious, the other would be super calm and help the other relax. Childress said that relationship helped set the tone for the team. Next season, she hopes she can take some of the things she learned from Grubbs and be just as an effective leader.
“I think the younger girls took a lot from (Grubbs’ personality and leadership),” Childress said. “We brought in some of the junior high girls at the end of the season and she told them how it was. She told them we weren’t going to treat them any differently and they respected her a lot.
“I know from my personal experience you have to stay close to your teammates to be successful. During games, there has to be that one person to help everyone. I think we will all take that from her. She was that one person who would help all of us when we were in need. She also was that one we could rely on. She would never let us down.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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