We dream in stories.
Each night as we drift off, our minds tell us tales of great heroics, impressive feats, or tragedy. Some might dream of finding love or admiration, others may slay dragons; We are the protagonists of our own private blockbusters. The ten young women on the 2023 Lady Pirate basketball team have spent their entire lives dreaming of a storybook season, of walking onto the greatest stage in high school basketball and emerging victorious. For countless nights, they have seen a great battle on the hardwood—an epic struggle in which they step up and become a legendary hero. Just as the buzzer sounds and the clock reads all zeroes, they fire a deep three and hear the distinctive pop of the net. In the next moment, they end up at the bottom of a dogpile at mid court.
Landree Erickson (22), Rylee Robertson (4, floor), and the Lady Pirates surf their way to the title game.
On March 4th, the Lady Pirates were defeated by Frisco Liberty in the 5A state title game by a score of 57-52. They left San Antonio on Saturday with silver medals around their necks and a nagging question in their minds, “what if…?”.
Loss is the most important part of the hero’s journey, it is what shapes and defines them. In the locker room just before taking the court for the championship game, senior Calyn Dallas told her team, “I know we all came here to win […] but if the trophy is the only thing we care about, it will never be enough.” How interesting it is that, when we can’t have it all, we often lose sight of what we gained along the way. Not these girls. For them, what this journey has given to them will never be taken for granted. There can be no doubt that, despite finishing the season in second place, they departed from the Alamodome on Saturday night as winners.
Attending practices and film sessions with head coach Kyle Lovorn is less like watching a coach bark instructions at children and more like auditing a graduate class at a university. There is no yelling and certainly no drill sergeants on staff. In fact, you might strain to hear coach Lovorn who often speaks to his team as if they are in a public library. The coaches and the players are scientists—dismantling the concepts of the game down to their primary elements. Near the end of the season, film sessions feel like you are in a room with 14 coaches. There is no lab or a classroom, though, they cannot even find so much as a conference room in downtown San Antonio. All of the coaches and athletes cram into a small hotel room and sit anywhere they can, the dimly backlit TV plays carefully curated clips, and the scientific process takes over. If there was only one reason why they were playing in San Antonio this week, this is it.
Senior Calyn Dallas turns to her team, runner-up trophy in hand.
Kyle Lovorn and his team break down film from a small hotel room in downtown San Antonio.
They are history makers. This group became the first Lady Pirate team in program history to advance to the state title game after defeating Lamar Fulshear in the state semifinal on Thursday following a season of remarkable accomplishment. No one picked them to make it past the regional tournament, but they made it nonetheless and defeated the #1 team in the state to do it. Though I could go on, there just isn’t enough time to elaborate on the rest of their impressive 31-win résumé. Great teams find a way, and this Lady Pirate squad found their way to the last basketball game of the season.
What a ride.
A banner will be hung up in their home court bearing all their names and they’ll spend the next several years hearing everyone they meet in Lubbock, TX talk about “the girls who made it to state”. Thousands of family members, friends, teachers, neighbors, and even former Lady Pirates took time off of work and school to drive 6 hours to San Antonio—not because of what they might accomplish, but because of who they are. “I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else. I don’t want to be in that other locker room, I want to be here with you girls”, Lovorn told his team following the championship game.
In a few waking moments, the buzzer in their dream now sounds so clearly like their alarm, the clock that had just read “0:00” now tells them it is time to wake up, and the hardwood floor beneath them in the dogpile is merely their bed… eyes open fully and reality sets in. It was only a dream. Life is not a storybook… and isn’t that wonderful? How lucky are we that tomorrow is not written in stone!
Tomorrow when they wake up—as the dream fades—they will look around and realize that the people who love them are still there, they will know that their memories will continue to shine long after trophies have lost their luster, and the “what if” In their minds will have been replaced by the perspicuous voice of their hearts telling them what everyone else will soon find out… we will be back.
It’s kind of weird.
For some who are reading this, an explanation might be in order. I am not a parent or a family member. I am not their teacher, counselor, or coach. Heck, we don’t even go to church together. How did this 34 year old, who has no children of his own, end up on a bus to San Antonio with a girls basketball team? It wasn’t until now that I had occasion to think about the answer, or how I ended up in downtown San Antonio writing this message many miles from home.
At the baseball regional semifinal series this past Summer, former Lady Pirate Mary Catherine Cook showed up to watch her brother and the rest of the boys compete. It’s always a treat to say hello to alumni and this was the first time that I had seen Mary Catherine since she graduated. I was able to share with her that she is, in all likelihood, the reason I cover anything more than football and band to this very day. She was the first athlete outside of the football team to make a connection with me and, while she may have thought nothing of it at the time, she made me feel welcome on the baseline. What was just a basketball “experiment” turned into a something much, much more. Now I look forward to covering the Lady Pirates 1-2 times a week from December to March. MCC, if you’re reading this, thank you for being who you are.
So I kept coming back. By late 2019, I can’t show my face at a game without coach Lovorn making a point to shake my hand. The girls are including me in their pre-game nonsense while waiting for JV to finish, parents are regularly stopping me to introduce themselves, and I have more shirts with #ONEMORE printed on them than I know what to do with. A young, up-and-coming freshman named Calyn Dallas is in my DMs every day asking me about photography and a year that after I’ve got an article written about the Cortez sisters and their family’s unique and competitive dynamic.
Some time later on a bus in Junction, TX, I am questioning my life choices as I listen to Bella Sipowicz (who has commandeered the bus’s the PA microphone) loudly sing an ad-libbed song about our bus driver. All on the heels of being taught by Avrie Douglas that not knowing the words to “Fly Me to the Moon” is no reason not to sing it for 2 hours straight.
And now, at the conclusion of another extraordinary journey, I once again find myself on a bus with the Lubbock Cooper Lady Pirates headed back to Lubbock. In each seat, silver adorns solid gold. Why am I here? Because they are the team that chose me.
UIL 5A Girls State Basketball Tournament was covered on assignment for Hub City Preps and Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District.