The wait is almost over. Clover girls’ basketball one win away from 1st state title
They’ve waited a long time to see their coach dance.
Some, like senior Aylesha Wade who started playing for Clover girls’ basketball head coach Sherer Hopkins when she was in middle school, have been waiting for years. Others, like assistant coaches Shakkia Walker, Allison Jackson and Sydney Cates — all of whom played for Hopkins when they went to Clover — have been waiting longer.
“Coach Hop has always said that if we win the state championship,” Wade told The Herald at a recent practice, “she would do a dance.”
That wait might soon be over.
The Blue Eagles (17-1, 8-0 Region 3-5A) will play in the 5A state final Saturday at 1 p.m. against Sumter at USC-Aiken’s Convocation Center. The game, originally scheduled for March 5 before COVID issues postponed it to this weekend, will be their second-straight state title appearance and thus their second-straight chance at bringing home the program’s first-ever state championship. (The Blue Eagles emerged from their COVID quarantine and began practicing again earlier this week, Hopkins said.)
No matter what happens, though, the game will mark the end of a special run — one witnessed by a supportive town; one led by a Clover, South Carolina native and Clover High School alum and 20-plus-year Clover coach; and one fueled, in part, by a 2020 state championship loss that hasn’t been easily forgotten.
“I was devastated for a few days,” said junior Ashely Farmer, referring to that four-point loss to Goose Creek in March 2020. “But, you know, some days, you gotta move past it and start working hard to get your revenge and win it all.”
Remembering March 2020 loss
Last year’s heartbreaking end and this year’s hopeful run are inextricably connected, players said. Finishing its unfinished business has been Clover’s goal all year, even if that goal has largely gone unspoken.
“It’s kind of known, like subconsciously,” senior guard Lauren Deal told The Herald. “We just all know about it. We want to get there, so that’s our goal.”
Clover had a good idea that it could return to the season’s ultimate stage after its loss last year.
For one, the Blue Eagles knew they would return seven players who were acquainted with the “big moment.”
For another, they knew they’d be talented: Clover is Ied by Wade, the UNC Charlotte commit and S.C. Basketball Coaches Association’s co-state player of the year. She’s averaging a team-leading 21.1 points per game, per statistics provided by the school, and notched 23 points in the Upper State title game against Rock Hill.
But the Blue Eagles are much more than just Wade, as the senior guard will tell you herself. They have multiple ball handlers, including Farmer and Deal, who have proven that they can handle the most active of presses, and they also have a formidable frontcourt: They pretty much start three forwards — La’Destiny Worthy (10.2 points per game); Janelle Carter (11.1); Taylor Thomas (7.7 points, 9.7 rebounds per game) — and are typically the taller of their opponents.
“We only lost two seniors, and this group has been together since our freshman year, really,” Wade said. “So we just stayed down until we came up.”
But for as much as last year’s loss appears to bring the team together, every player seems to remember the details of the loss a bit differently. Thomas remembers it for the “experience” it gave her, she said, “going up against a really great team in a new environment.” Nysheria Wright, now a sophomore, remembers being nervous even though she didn’t play as big of a role on the team last year as she does this year.
And some don’t remember much about it at all — which is revealing in its own right.
Said Worthy: “I just remember the score. That’s all I remember. I remember we gave up two easy baskets and struggled to get those back.”
Said Carter, with a laugh: “I’m the wrong one to be recalling stuff. You have to have a short-term memory on the court because you can’t get down about missing a shot. I don’t know, that’s kind of how I am.”
‘It would mean so much to Clover’
Clover coach Hopkins knows that last year’s loss in the state finals has been on her players’ minds. But she has a longer list of memories she can draw from and compare this season to.
The calm, quieter coach whose deliberate demeanor seems to shine through in Clover’s controlled playing style, has been the school’s coach for decades. The Clover native led the program back when the Blue Eagles made the state championship game in 2000.
She, if anyone, knows how important the game means to Clover.
“I think it would mean so much to Clover,” she said. “Having grown up here and seeing a lot of growth and change, which is good, our community is so supportive of us and always has been. When I coached in that first one, they showed up.”
And those supporters will show up on Saturday.
“They deserve this,” Hopkins added.
And they do.
After all, they — like their coach — deserve a reason to dance.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 8:20 AM.
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