There’s some belief that the 2021 Bethlehem Banshee Region Championship may have actually began just right after the 2020 Region Final loss to Elizabethtown. For head coach Jason Clark, his team had been through the wringer that season with a team which had just come off one of the biggest upsets the previous season beating one of the most talented Elizabethtown teams in recent history and were suddenly for one of the few times in the program’s history a heavy favorite going into that season. For many reasons, the Banshee team had everything to lose and nothing to win as the favorite for much of the season and looked it going 31-3 leading up to that fateful game.
Afterwards, that’s when Clark started planning on the following season in which he would be fielding one of the best and most talented team’s in it’s history trying to leave nothing to chance in it’s drive for the program’s first championship in girls basketball. Putting together a schedule against Top Twenty teams to prepare them for the possibilty of playing on that final day in Lexington.
Of course, there had to be a season first. A conversation that I had with him during May of 2020 in which he shared his hopes that there would even be a 2021 Girls Basketball season at all while the rest of the Kentucky high school sports season’s were in doubt may have given him a glimmer of hope.
Then finally November came along and the first look at what turned out to be one of the most grueling paths to a Region Championship was made public along with the razor like efficiency that Clark put his team through until the season actually started in January.
Still, plenty of things had to fall into place for them to get that chance. After going 10-0 while beating the likes of Marshall County, Apollo and Mercy, the Banshees dropped their first game on January 30th on the road against unbeaten Boyd County 66-65. That followed a wild and crazy District game against Bardstown just two days later in which Bethlehem built and lost a 12-point lead late and then a after pulling out a win over Nelson County two days later, they went on the road to face top ranked Anderson County and fought hard, but fell, 57-56. Ironically, that long stretch may have been their salvation. During that time, Clark began using sophomore Xavier Smalley more often in the varsity lineup knowing that her size and length would help give them another tall body along with Emma Filiatreau and All Area and Miss Basketball candidate Ella Thompson. Meanwhile, the guard play of the other Miss Basketball candidate Amelia Hodges was always consistant and helped compliment the three-headed monster on the other side of Bailey Bishop, Kasey Spalding and Carlie Thurmond.
Sometimes, building a championship team in basketball is like building a pitching rotation in baseball while moving in new parts to replace one that graduate. Your trying to build a pitching staff to go for a short and a long series and in this case, Clark was looking ahead to the long haul. With the loss of Baeli Young and Mikiah Livers-Bryant from the previous season, Smalley’s emergence was crucial along with Filiatreau growing into her expanded role inside while Thurmond was asked to shoot more along with the Bishop and Spalding’s dependable play. Add to that a freshman group just waiting to move in and wait their turn and suddenly the 2021 Banshee’s were ready for primetime.
After dropping the Anderson County game February 4th, Bethlehem had only lost one more (Ryle on March 3rd) and have won 14-of-15 while running the table in both the District and 5th Region Tournament while average margin of victory was 20-points.
You could say that this is the “Banshee Way.” Clark helped build this champion and his assistant coaches helped mold the clay and create a masterpiece which will begin their first rung on the ladder towards a State Title Thursday at 2:00 against Bullitt East. To say it was easy would be an understatement and if you asked Clark, he’d tell you it’s all about the girls. “They do all the work. We just coach them up.”
In a season in which nothing has been normal or has come easy, Bethlehem’s second EVER trip to Rupp Arena will be one to savior for two such girls in Hodges and Thompson. When they went for the first time as a Banshee, they were both sophomores and that squad had only two seniors. This time around, they are the only two seniors and a key component to team’s success.
One thing is for sure. Those two should take a moment and try to drink in every second when they enter Rupp for the first time this week. It may be a quote unquote “Buisness Trip” but much like Maddie Sparks and Carly Beam (the two seniors on the 2019 team), who suddenly woke up one day and there they were walking around the nice slick wooden floor try not to take it for granted.
The Banshee Way may have gotten them there, but it’s up to them and everyone else on the team to make sure it’s an extended stay.
