Kayla Taylor didn’t know what to expect from her senior season.
After watching eight seniors come up short in their quest to win an Alabama Christian Education Athletic Association Division I state title in 2011, Taylor hoped the Victory Christian Academy girls basketball team could return to the championship glory of 2010, when the Lady Eagles won a championship some thought was a year ahead of schedule.
But youth and inexperience created plenty of doubt in the mind of Taylor, the team’s only senior.
“We were probably just going to try, to win, maybe, a few games,” Taylor said.
Once the 2011-12 team saw its potential come to the surface in key victories early in the season, everyone knew Victory Christian Academy had a chance to be right on time.
Victories against Flint Hill and Chilton Christian Academy made it a reality. The 39-21 victory against Chilton Christian helped Victory Christian (11-3) win its second ACEAA championship in three years.
“It was a really good year,” Victory Christian Academy coach Chris Hamm said. “We didn’t play particularly well early on because of a lack of experience and all of that kind of thing. But Friday in the tournament was the best game we have played all year. Saturday we played a good game, not quite as good as Friday.”
Taylor helped keep the team in the right frame of mind following the victory against Flint Hill. She told her teammates in a speech following the victory that no one believed they could do it this year and that they had to go out and prove people wrong again. She challenged everyone to prove people wrong in the title game.
“I felt like even some of the other girls said they were going to cry,” said Taylor, who admitted she started to cry after making the speech in the locker room. “I played last year in the championship game and I played the year before, and I just have been trying to grow in the sport.”
Taylor’s maturation was just one part of Victory Christian Academy’s growth. She also credited the development of Hamm, a junior, who took over at point guard.
Hamm said Taylor’s speech was a source of motivation that pushed her to play for Taylor. She said the speech brought out her desire to win, and made getting even one more victory even more special.
“I knew we had the capability to win,” Alyka Hamm said. “We knew it would take a lot. Looking back, I see how hard we worked from the beginning when we ran two miles every day before we started practicing.”
In 2010, Victory Christian Academy beat defending champion Eastwood 25-20 at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Taylor was a sophomore on that team and was used as a defensive stopper. All 15 of the players on that team contributed. The same was true for this season’s team, even though it blended experienced players with ones who were learning the game.
Other players on the team were: Alyka Hamm, Shelly Coleman, Sarah Smith, Victoria McDaniel, Rebekah Smith, Jessica Sullivan, Gardner, Taylor Hairston, Brittany Jones, Faith Miley, Haynes, and LaPortia Hinton.
With only one starter — Hairston — returning, coach Hamm said the team set realistic goals. He said Hamm, his daughter, Taylor, Gardner, and Haynes provided stability in the starting lineup. At first, he said the team focused on doing well enough to make sure it could play host to the sub-state game. The team lost to Flint Hill early in the season but competed well. It also lost to Pickens Academy before victories against Flint Hill and Lindsay Lane Christian Academy, the team that beat it in the title game of the state tournament, boosted the team’s confidence and set the stage for it to make a run. The victory was even more important because Lindsay Lane had four seniors in key roles.
“I don’t think any of us thought we were going to win the whole thing this year,” Alyka Hamm said. “I think we all had the same mind-set as (her father). We didn’t want to say, ‘Oh, we’re just going to lose,’ but we didn’t really know. We just took it as we’re going to get better and do the best we can as a group.”
Hamm felt the Lady Eagles could play as a team after beating Lindsay Lane. She and Taylor said the victory gave the team confidence to know what it could accomplish if it played hard and if it believed.
“We all grew as a team and we started to see we could win some games,” Taylor said. “Even our fans started to support us a lot more.”
Coach Hamm feels the team has a bright future. With eight seniors, the team should have the experience and depth needed to make another title run. Hamm isn’t sure how he will set the goals for the 2012-13 season, but he likes his team’s chances given what it accomplished this season.
“I think next year we have the potential to be better than we are this year,” Hamm said. “We lose Kayla, and she played very well as a senior, but we have a few really tall post girls. Rebekah (who is 6-foot-3) gave us some really good minutes in the tournament. Sarah Smith will be back as a senior post player, and we have Faith Miley as three potential post players. Sarah and Rebekah will be the tallest girls we have every had.
“We have the potential next year to be more of a complete team that scores inside and out. You take it whenever you can win it. I think having success this year will give us confidence next year.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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