JACKSON — When he entered the coaching profession, West Point High School girls basketball coach Dashmond Daniel took advice from several coaches.
One suggestion was to build offseason conditioning around a theme.
Daniel found his latest theme Friday in the Mississippi Coliseum. In its first state championship appearance, West Point dropped a 56-45 decision to Neshoba Central in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 5A State championship.
“One more game,” Daniel said. “We will write that on the board in the locker room when we get home. Now that we have had the experience of getting to Jackson, we want to get back. That will be the motivation. You really don’t need an extra push when you get this close to the championship and don’t get the win.”
Daniel has transformed the program in five seasons. His first squad won five games. After that season, Daniel started to work on building the junior high program. The investment has paid off with back-to-back 21-win seasons.
“Coach has really believed in us from the beginning,” West Point sophomore Jamia Hollings said. “He told us we could do some really great things if we put our mind to it. Making it to Jackson was a big accomplishment for this program because it had been so long (2002). Coach always kept us focused and grounded. He made sure we worked hard to reach our potential.”
Last season, West Point qualified for the Class 5A playoffs and lost to Lanier in the second round. That loss helped Daniel come up with the theme for the 2016-17 season. On the way back from Jackson, Daniel met with his returning players and encouraged them to embrace the challenge of making it to Jackson. Playing in the state tournament was the No. 1 focus, so Daniel built a challenging schedule to help prepare his players.
“With each win, we got a little more confidence,” West Point senior Tia McCrary said. “Last season, we still doubted ourselves. We didn’t know if we could win the big game. The biggest thing has been all of our coaches supporting us. They made us work hard because they saw the potential in us.
“Once we got on a winning streak, everybody believed more. We felt like we were a team good enough to get to Jackson.”
Daniel said the theme of getting to Jackson was re-emphasized throughout the season. The Lady Wave didn’t set their sights on winning the state championship. Instead, the focus was on the journey. The goal was to finish as one of the elite teams in Class 5A.
“The best thing coach has done is helping us with our togetherness and our chemistry,” West Point sophomore Amari Heard said. “We know we don’t have any really star players, so that means we have to work hard. Coach taught us to work together as a team and to believe in one another. Once we started winning some games, we believed in one another.
“It felt good to go to school every day and people were talking about coming to our game.”
Daniel knows how far the program has come since that five-win season. Small steps along the way –such as winning the region title at New Hope earlier this season — are still recognized as major accomplishments.
West Point beat Class 5A favorite West Jones in its first game at the Mississippi Coliseum and followed that with a victory against highly touted Ridgeland.
“A lot of people doubted us, even when we got to Jackson,” McCrary said. “We didn’t block that out. We fed on it. People still aren’t really sure what West Point basketball is all about. We are going to play defense and we are going to play hard. I think everybody in that locker room knows the hard work it took to get here.”
Next season, Daniel wants the players to live in the moment and to enjoy each step.
“I know we don’t make it easy,” Daniel said. “We really work the players hard. I just want to get the best I can out of them. I want them to see their full potential. When we first started here, it was about winning a game, any game.
“Now it has turned into winning championship games. Playing three times here will only help us. We want to continue to play the big games. The younger players know that. They have experienced the big-game atmosphere. The crowd intimidated us a little bit. We had a lot of things to overcome. Now, the theme is one more game. We will work harder than we ever have before to get back to this point and to win that championship.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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