Girls squad deserves the support too

“Obviously they’re playing their best basketball of the season here in this stretch.”

That’s something I heard recently about the Jay County High School girls basketball team.

It’s a statement that is spot on, too.

The Patriots are 13-7 on the season, have won five in a row and 11 of their last 12 games.

During that stretch, senior Shelby Caldwell scored 41 points Dec. 20 against Blackford to break the school record of 40 held by Shannon Freeman and Lyla Muhlenkamp.

(She’s in line to become just the third player in program history to score 1,000 points soon. She currently sits at 973.)

Nine days later, the Patriots beat Fort Recovery on the road, 39-34, for just the second win against their state-line rival in the last five tries. It was also the team’s first win at Fort Site Fieldhouse in more than a decade.

Jay County’s only setback in its last dozen games was a one-point overtime loss to Class 3A No. 7 Concordia on Jan. 2.

Since then, the Patriots pushed their regular-season winning streak against Allen County Athletic Conference opponents to 13 straight games by beating Bluffton Jan. 4 to claim the regular season conference championship.

They also won the program’s fourth ACAC tournament championship in the last five years.

Better yet, the Patriots handed Class 3A No. 2 Norwell its second loss in as many games on Tuesday.

That quote at the beginning of this column came following that upset of the Knights, from their coach, Eric Thornton.

Here it is again.

“Obviously they’re playing their best basketball of the season here in this stretch.”

Indeed they are.

But have you been there to see them?

Chances are, no.

Therein lies my issue.

In the ACAC tournament semifinal on Friday — which was at home, mind you — the Patriots Pack, as the student section calls itself, was only 15 members deep midway through the third quarter.

For those who missed out on the game I offer a quick rundown: trailing Bluffton by two in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, Hannah Phillips drained a go-ahead 3-pointer with 22 seconds remaining and Hallie Fields came up with a big block at the other end. The game eventually went into overtime and the Patriots won by seven to secure a spot in the title game.

After Saturday’s snowstorm postponed the tournament championship game to Monday, I was hoping for a better student turnout as Jay County met Heritage at Stardome in Berne.

There was improvement. Slightly.

In the second half I counted 17 students — all girls — in Patriots Pack on the bleachers along the baseline.

Late in the fourth quarter as Heritage mounted its comeback bid, the Heritage boys basketball team — under first-year coach and Jay County graduate Adam Gray it repeated as tournament champions earlier in the evening — occupied the last two rows of bleachers behind Patriots Pack and shouted louder than the girls in front of them.

While the Patriots from the other school included themselves in Jay County’s Patriots Pack, those last two rows should have been occupied by a different set of Patriots.

The JCHS boys basketball team.

Throughout the final two games of the girls tournament, I counted only three players from the JCHS boys program who supported the girls.

One was a freshman brother of a varsity player, another a boyfriend (and one of the first two players off the bench for coach Chris Krieg’s boys).

Where were the others?

Combing through the Patriots Pack during boys games, especially at home, it’s easy to spot a majority of the girls program among its members.

But when the JCHS girls play in a conference semifinal game — in the newly-painted gym, nonetheless — or are in the conference championship game 15 miles north, where are the boys?

Tuesday I noticed the same three boys at the game against Norwell. The freshman boys team also stuck around to watch after their contest against Wapahani.

The varsity players seemed to be absent.

Basketball teams feed off of the crowd atmosphere. Student sections play a crucial part in creating that energy.

(I know, I used to be in charge of the student section when I was in high school in Michigan nearly two decades ago.)

At the very least, basketball games are a way to socialize with your friends in the stands as well. But mostly, it’s a way to support friends and family competing on the court.

The JCHS girls team cheers on the boys at some road games, and they do so especially at home.

As Thornton told me Tuesday, the JCHS girls are playing their best basketball right now.

It’s about time the boys reciprocate the support.