Purcellville, Va. — Led by Head Coach Derek Fisher and Assistant Coaches Todd Turner, Brent Early, Danny Michael, and Christine Funk, the Woodgrove High School Girls’ Varsity Basketball team just finished up an undefeated regular season, Region 5D Championship, right through the state semi-finals, to finish second in the Commonwealth to Menchville High School out of the Newport News area. Even when down by a sizable deficit in the fourth quarter, the determined Wolverines never stopped fighting down to the final seconds of the game. A disappointing loss, but a season—and a team—that our town should be very proud of.

Many of the girls on the varsity team have played together for years on various teams in Loudoun County—whether the Harmony Middle School Travel Teams (which is the feeder school into Woodgrove) or with other travel organizations in the northern Virginia area. This is one of the biggest components of the team’s success—that many of the players have grown up playing together. As their coach puts it,

“They know who to trust with specific situations on the court in the ebb and flow of the game.  This allows us to have the kind of chemistry that can only be achieved through the cultivation of time.” 

The fact that the team has two sets of sisters also helps!  

The players are excellent at communication both on and off the court, amongst themselves and with the coaching team. They consistently make sure that the coaches are aware of individual goals and idiosyncrasies, but they also recognize and take to heart that as a team, there is only one collective goal….to simply get better with every game. 

This season, Senior Ashley Steadman was the team’s sole Captain, but every member of the team is a leader in their own way. Some girls are vocal.  Some girls lead by example.  Some lead quietly behind closed doors.  But everyone leads. The tradition of the program is that leadership is not defined by a hierarchy, but rather by the experienced players leading on familiar situations and encouraging newer players to lead right along with them as they learn. That is the culture that the Wolverines have cultivated with great pride.

One of the things new players learn are the surprising amount of pre-game rituals. NOWL enjoys an exclusive “behind-the-scenes” peek into these important—and abundant—traditions that cover everyone from the Team Captain all the way down to the coaching staff and managers.  

Prior to every game the following traditions/rituals must occur:

-Colette Baine ensures that the speaker for music is fully charged and ready to go.  Sing-alongs are a big deal amongst the team whenever they occupy the locker room.

-Anni Rohs and Tara Mullen beat on their lockers in the locker room in direct syncopation with the beat to the song “We Are Young” by the band Fun.  

-Anni Rohs, Maddie Shea and Coach Danny pluralize as many words as possible on Fridays when conversing. It’s something they did on JV and the tradition continues. This will go on until they get tired of it.  This only occurs on Friday, which are known as “Plurals Days” amongst the three of them. It might be the most ridiculous tradition within this organization.

-Captain Ashley Steadman braids everyone’s hair that requires braids.  It is only Ashley and it has to be Ashley.  Even before the state semifinals, with a dislocated shoulder, and arm in a sling, she insisted on not breaking the tradition. When Jenna’s braids were not perfectly aligned, she redid the braiding immediately.  

-Before the pregame briefing in the locker room we have a Solo cup with a tennis ball inside of it.  Every member has to bounce the ball while it’s still inside the cup and catch it.  

-The Nice sisters find a way to get some sort of smoothie after school.

-Coach Fisher obsessively parks in the same exact spot for all home games.  In fact, in his first season (last year) he parked at least 400 meters away at the faculty parking lot b/c those were the only spaces available during our practice slots.  This year with later practice times he parks closer to the building, but it’s always in the same space

-Coach Turner eats two McDonald’s cheeseburgers before every home game if he did not have time for lunch at his job. Regular cheeseburgers, not double.

-Coach Early always holds the blue clipboard on the bench with a green towel.  It can only be Coach Early that does this, Coach Fisher only holds it if there is a timeout, and he has to use the board for explanations.

These rituals—and a whole lot of skillful play—sure worked to make the 2021-2022 season a great one. So, how does the team celebrate? Homework often gets in the way after most games, but after big wins the girls go out to eat in town for a special meal.

There was so much to celebrate this year! Other highlights of this past season are that Ashley Steadman scored her 1000th point this year and has become the leading scorer in program history, and the basketball program on the whole are proud that not only the varsity, but the Freshman team and JV teams also finished the season undefeated. The varsity players were so incredibly supportive of all the girls on JV and Freshman—and for good reason!! 

Coach says, “It’s rare when all three teams can have such an accomplishment and it’s something that we do not take for granted.”

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