‘Sisterhood’
Close-knit Alma Junior Girls battle Greenwood at conference tourney
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
The biggest number on the sheet is the wins. Thirty-three of them, to be exact.
But the bigger picture, coach Angela Rushing believes, is the love from within.
But don’t take her word for it.
“I came here a little over a year-and-a-half ago,” explains Lauren Settle, a relative newcomer who moved to Alma from Booneville at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
“We have become close; we’re really tight. It’s not like a job, it’s a family. We do it together; we work together.
“It’s all for one.”
Rushing and the Lady Airedales (15-5) face Greenwood on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the junior high conference semifinals at H.B. Stewart Arena in Greenwood.
“This team is pretty special,” Rushing said. “Overall, it’s probably the tightest-knit we’ve had. Their chemistry, the way they support each other on and off the court, they work well together.”
Rushing has compiled a 33-8 record with mostly the same group the past two seasons. Settle, Faith Sartor, and Anna Swarnes are key components moving forward as sophomores in 2024-25.
“This team is the closest team I’ve ever played on,” Sartor said. “We’re really a big family; a sisterhood. We love each other so much. We do anything for each other.”
“It’s fun to have such close-knit teammates,” Swarnes said. “It’s more than just basketball when you have such a close-knit team. It’s having fun together and going out and playing with your team.”
Alma finished second this season to Farmington, though the Lady Airedales played much better in last week’s loss to the Lady Cardinals.
“I thought we played really well against Farmington that last game, considering we had Faith (Sartor) and Jaeli Morris both out,” Rushing said. “I was planning to start Jaeli in place of Faith, and then she was out, so it was like a domino effect. (But) we were only down by three at the half, and that kind of showed our team we can play with anybody.”
“Playing on a team like this means so much to me because we can go into this tournament confident with each other, lifting each other up, and having good attitudes,” Sartor said. “We’re so excited for the conference tournament this weekend.”
First up is Greenwood, whom the Lady Airedales split with during the regular season. Alma owned them at home but lost at Greenwood due to a lot of missed free throws (16 of them, to be exact).
“We just want to have fun together and do what we do best,” Sartor said.
The Lady Airedales have some positive things building in the younger grades, too, from those Alma Intermediate and Alma Middle School kids playing AAO (Arkansas Athletes Outreach) competition, to coach Hailey Ostrander’s seventh and eighth-grade squads.
“The eighth grade has come on these past few games,” Rushing said. “It’s kind of hard whenever I take Madie (House) and Jaeli (Morris) out (to play with the ninth-grade team). I’m excited about that group for next year. We’ve got some pieces in the seventh grade that have done pretty well, too.”
Haven Baxter, Chloe Kovalck, Lauren Burdick, Ellyse Wright, and Grace Routt, among others, have had strong eighth-grade seasons.
The fact that Alma’s fifth and sixth-grade teams (and others) finished strong against bigger classified schools in AAO play this season will be huge, Rushing said.
The sixth-grade ‘Silver’ team went 18-1 and the sixth-grade ‘Gold’ finished 14-5. The fourth-grade squad, coached by former Alma standout Dustin Hughes, finished 17-1 while playing in the fifth-grade AAO league.
“That’s tremendous,” Rushing said. “Before that, it was just our little Alma City League, and then we had the River Valley (League), where we traveled but played a lot of smaller schools, so it wasn’t what we needed. At least they’re going up there and facing big competition. We’re going to see a lot of those kids in the future. They’ve already seen that (competition), so when they step on the floor it’s not going to be shock and they’re not going to be scared of it.”