Thump. Thump. Thump. The basketballs bounce off of the hardwood floors as the Fly Girls eighth grade team practices in the Heritage Academy gym.
The girls practice layups as coach Shelly McElveen offers equal parts encouragement and advice on what can be improved.
These girls are here to learn the fundamentals of basketball, but more importantly, they are learning about life.
“We have some girls that are struggling, they are living in poverty,” McElveen said. “We also have girls that aren’t living in poverty. … We have girls from different sides of the spectrum. This provides them the opportunity to do the right thing and be in the right place. They know that we don’t tolerate any disrespect or misbehavior. It provides them an opportunity to just do something else and keep them out of trouble. We’re just like another adult in these children’s lives that monitors them and provides them with the guidance they need to develop and stay out of trouble. There are a lot of crazy things going on in this world, and we don’t want our girls to be a part of them.”
The team was founded in 2021 by Tamara Tippett when her daughter expressed interest in playing the sport. However, the number of options was very limited.
“My son, who was in the sixth grade, had all of these opportunities around here to play with different teams and travel basketball, but there weren’t many opportunities for my daughter to play,” Tippett said. “And it wasn’t just her. She had friends. … We put it out there, seeing who would be interested in playing, thinking we would just do a fifth grade team. We got such a great response, we started off with five teams that year because we had so many girls interested, not just in the fifth grade, but from the fifth grade up through high school.”
Tippett said one thing became clear to her when the organization was established, it was, like McElveen said, about more than basketball.
“After starting this, it became evident that it wasn’t just about basketball,” Tippett said. “It’s about being impressionable on our young girls. Being a mentor and giving them life guidance and spiritual guidance. We give them an outlet. It’s a privilege to play the game of women’s basketball. A lot comes with it. Good grades, good behavior, a respectable attitude, these are things that we can teach them when we’re in practice or when we have different meetings. We come across girls with problems at home, problems in school. And because we have this program, it gives them a reason to do better and a reason to have good grades.”
The group is also competitive.
Recently, the group went to Ruston, Louisiana to compete in a tournament. Fly Girls went to the championship game of all four age groups.
The sixth and eighth grade teams won the championship games.
The teams compete in tournaments across the country.
All of the traveling is not cheap, however, and the group operates almost exclusively off of donations and sponsorships.
“We are also doing fundraisers and looking for sponsorships,” McElveen said. “It is expensive to travel. We’ve done a lot of fundraising, and we have sponsorships as well, from local businesses. The community is getting behind us and chipping in. We are very grateful and appreciative of that.”
Room for growth
Improving the girls’ basketball skills is an equally important part of the Fly Girls organization.
“When I started, I could not make a layup or a shot,” Jalicia McShane, a player for the eighth grade team, said. “Ever since I’ve been under (McElveen) I have been getting better and now am making my shots and layups.”
The girls all joined for different reasons. Hunter Hill, an eighth grader from Heritage Academy, joined to improve her game for her school team.
“I was trying to get better for school ball because our team’s not very good,” Hill said. “The running helps for sure and the drills too. It’s made me faster and definitely made me a better athlete overall.”
All of the girls have found not only friends, but family in their teammates.
“This team is based around family and we put God first,” Madison Grays, a player, said. “We make sure we stay humble and work hard every time we come to practice. It’s really been a great experience. Everybody feel’s welcome here. Everybody talks to each other. We trust our coaches and the staff and the parents are really supportive too.”
The girls on the team are from all over as well. There are girls from Louisville, Tupelo, Caledonia, Amory, New Hope, Columbus and Starkville, McElveen said.
Though the teams all sport pretty full rosters, anyone interested in joining the team could still have the chance.
McElveen said girls simply need to reach out and they will try to find a spot for them if at all possible.
“We do have pretty full rosters, however, we are potentially taking a select few on different teams,” McElveen said. “Just contact myself or (Tippett), and we will get them on the team if they want to be on it.”
She said those interested can email [email protected] or call her at (912) 223-3634.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion