WBAA-79 / North East-79
RECORD: 7-5 (1/3 of games played vs. older teams)
WBBA National Semi-Finalist
78-79 Parks Dept. City Tournament Runner-up
Mickey Benedict, Rocky Benedict, Miranda Bryant, Monique Carter, Allison Evans, Latrisha Thomas,
Kim Golliday, Canandra Goodall, Mona Dycuss, Daisy Members, Pam Morman,
Karen Stickland, Paula Walker, LarrisaBrinkley,
Karen Woodard
WBAA All American
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Following the tournament, I received a letter and invitation from the Women's Basketball Association of America [WBAA] based in Kansas City inviting our team to participate in their upcoming national tournament for 18 and under girls teams.
At first, we viewed the letter as a positive thing for both the center and the girls. Still, the initial response was that there was no way that an inner-city community could generate funds to pay for such an endeavor. It was also clear that the Parks Department would choose to send the first-place team over us, the second-place team. (We had no idea if the first place team had also received an invitation.)
Expenses for 12 players, a coach, rooms, meals, and a chaperone to play in a tournament were going to be through the roof. It wasn't just about the expenses, though. It would be 15-year-olds that didn't make their high school team versus varsity high school and college freshman players. 15 and 16-year-olds, verses 17 and 18-year-olds. Neighborhood kids versus high school all-stars and college scholarship freshman. We weren't even sure if the parks department would pay my salary for the week-long tournament in Kansas.
But at some point, the talk turned to how to do it, if we could do it, and eventually, the attitude became why not try.
I sat down with the girls, and we discussed the ideas presented about accepting the tournament invitation. I emphasized to them that it would take a lot of work to raise the money and that at some point, success would be dependent upon finding a sponsor to pick up the difference. I also pointed out that even if we raised funds and found a sponsor, the fact was that to be competitive, we would have to add players, and that would mean that some of them would not be going. There was no sense in putting in the practice time, the fundraising time, and getting permission to be out of school for a week if it wasn't our intent to try and win the tournament. A simple field trip to Chicago could substitute for a basketball road trip if we weren't going to be competitive.
To their credit and the surprise of many, they accepted the reality of the situation. The girls were unanimous in agreeing to put in the work and accepting my eventual decision on who would or wouldn't make the trip.
Initially, we set-up and staged a car wash as our first fundraiser. I also recruited two high school players(sisters) from Cathedral H.S. I incorporated the team as a not-for-profit corporation with the state as 'Circle City Warriors, Inc.' to accommodate the planned fundraising activities. Things were progressing enthusiastically, and the car wash was a moderate success. Still, we were far from thinking that we would pull it off as we weren't getting anywhere on a sponsor other than an occasional pledge of a donation. The community center director then contacted Officer Lymon Battles of the Indianapolis Police Athletic League (PAL Club). Officer Battles obtained full funding for the trip and brought in three high school players from Arsenal Technical High School and one from Marshall.
Officer Battles was a lifesaver. Not only was the funding there, but the four girls he brought were standout players—all sophomores; Monique Carter, Canada Goodall, Miranda Bryant, and Karen Woodard.
The skill level of these four and the two girls from Cathedral was above the team that played in the Parks Department Tournament. Still, I don't think the new girls intimidated anyone as everyone continued to work and practice. We played a couple of scrimmages against some older girls at Hill and Douglass Community Centers and looked pretty good doing so.
As the trip time neared, I had to trim down the roster from 17 to 11 (10 players and an alternate) from the original team. It was an agonizing decision. The five that I had to cut from the trip were: Latrisha Thomas, Daisy Members, Michelle Benedict, Pam Mormon, and Mona Dycus. Latrisha and Daisy were important in the parks department games, but where their strong points were unique on the parks department team, the new girls' brought skills that displaced those attributes. Daisy was a good shooter with adequate ball-handling skills, and Latrisha was a quick ball handler who could hit the open shot enough. But both of them tended to be more accurate with the set shot and weren't consistent rebounders because the set shot kept them on the perimeter. Michelle was as good as her sister Rochelle, but it came down to a toss-up for two frontline positions between Michelle, Rochelle, and Kim Holiday. I can't remember how I decided that one.
It never ceased to amaze me how well these girls took things. Mona and Pam would pout and stomp out as pre-teens will do, but they never really quit. Michelle, Latrisha, and Daisy worked hard, were fun to have around, and never backed down, and I cut them. Yet, over the years, when I have run into them, they never have complained about not making that trip even though I know it was important to them. Maybe they realize that I genuinely felt bad about not taking them, and if that is the case, then that raises my assessment of their character even more.
The tournament rosters were limited to 12 players, but the PAL Club would fund us for only ten players, so we submitted our roster of 11 players, with one of them being an alternate. The six new girls were a lock to make the team until one of the Cathedral girls badly sprained her ankle and was a late scratch. At that point, her sister bowed out, so this left us with only nine players.
The nine girls, all sophomores, selected to make the trip were:
back row L-R: Karen Stickland, Karen Woodard, Kim Golliday, Canandra Goodall,
front row L-R: Rocky Benedict, Allison Evans, Monique Carter, Paula Walker, Miranda Bryant.
The 10th and 11th spots were the sisters from Cathedral, but after we had submitted our roster to the WBAA, the uninjured sister informed us that since her sister wasn't going, she didn't want to. It was too late to replace her, so not only were we underaged for this tournament we were also shorthanded as we had only nine players as opposed to the tournament limit of 12.
The Northeast Community Center area was a neighborhood that had seen better days. All the girls came from the neighborhood or similar neighborhoods on the Indianapolis northeast side.
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