For Fort Gibson (Oklahoma) girls basketball, continuing 'The Streak' remains the primary pinnacle
FORT GIBSON, OKLAHOMA - Scott Lowe applied the pressure during a free-throw drill.
The Fort Gibson head basketball coach wanted two freshmen, any freshmen, to hit a pair of free throws. Miss the first, the team runs from one end of the court to the other and back. Hit the first but miss the second, it was a half-court round trip.
It went on for about 10 minutes and a dozen or so sprints.
Finally, Addy Whiteley, a junior, is asked to shoot. Whiteley, the team's point guard, drops two through the net.
Practice was over.
At Fort Gibson, pressure is part of being in the program and Whiteley, a three-year starter, answered it. You take it on when you become part of The Streak.
Addy Whiteley
This year will make 20 consecutive seasons in which the Lady Tiger basketball program has punched state tournament tickets - provided they make it back there this season, of course. Others may have more gold balls – Fort Gibson has four – but no other team in Oklahoma has had this streak.
Only COVID-19 in 2020 kept them from officially stepping on a state tournament court in that time - the Lady Tigers were headed out of Tulsa on the way to Oklahoma City when the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association suspended, then ultimately canceled it.
This group wasn't even born when it started in 2005 with a quarterfinal exit under then-head coach Jerry Walker, which means that first group could conceivably have been mothers to players in the program now.
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Walker, Chuck London and Lowe - the men who have led the way over those years - all had a collective "wow" when that thought was raised last week.
"It's crazy. It's almost sick because it's just not realistic," said Lowe. "We've all coached for so long. Chuck had a powerhouse at Bristow. Jerry's been around forever. There's so many good coaches and you look at the great championship teams over time. There may have been teams win more state championships, but to sustain a run of consecutive trips this long, it's mind-boggling and honestly, luck has to be a part of it with injuries and such.
"But I don't allow myself to look at it, and along the way I know Chuck and Jerry haven't. Some day, we may and fully appreciate it whether it ends this year, 3-4 years from now or whenever. But we're in the fray and it's always looking ahead to the next game."
Members of the 2022-23 Fort Gibson Lady Tigers basketball team after earning the right to advance to the state tournament for the 19th consecutive season.
Walker, who was head coach in 2005, stepped down in the summer of 2017 and handed it off to London, who had been his assistant since 2008. London then hired Lowe - who had his own success as head coach at Central Sallisaw and Roland. London handed it off to Lowe, who is in his third season at the helm and has Walker back on staff as an assistant.
Walker, a Fort Gibson alum who played under his father Jerry Sr., had one previous state appearance in 2001. London at the time was at Bristow. Bristow beat Idabel for the title, two days after Idabel sent Fort Gibson home.
Three other state appearances in school history came under Ronnie Rogers, with a pair of quarterfinal appearances (1985, 1994) sandwiching a state finals appearance in 1990.
In all, Walker captured three championships, London one. In all, the trio has had six other finals appearances.
TEAM OVER INDIVIDUAL
There's been a consistent message through it all: An emphasis on team over the individual. The best shot rather than the best shooter. Being defensive-minded.
"When I got here, I thought I was about team ball but here it's taken to another level," Lowe said. "I've been going to watch the state tournament forever going back to being a kid and remember how the best players elevated their game every night.
"With Fort Gibson, a kid may score 27 one night and another girl lights it up the next night and the girl that scores 27 scores 2."
London can't think of a player that has averaged more than 15 points a game in a season.
"Through the years, if you look at our scoring averages, they won't wow you at all," he said. "The focus is always on taking the open shot and having the overall confidence among our kids that you're a part of this and take advantage."
It's also about defense, and in no game over this 19-year period was that more in evidence than in a game with top-seed No. 1 Classen SAS in the 2021 quarterfinals. A team that had been ranked in some national polls and had scored over 100 points in four games with an average winning margin of 44 was held to 29 points and 11-of-48 shooting in a 39-29 Lady Tiger outcome.
The results are evidenced on the walls outside the Lady Tiger dressing room, tattooed with lists of championship years, semifinal years, state appearances, regular season tournament championships, conference and district titles. Amid it all are just 17 photos of kids who went on to play college ball.
"There's a lot more than could have been there had they chose to do that," London said. "People are all about playing for a scholarship and that being the end-all and be-all of the team experience, and that emphasis at times is ridiculous.
"We want that for them if that's their goal, but for some it's about being the best high school basketball player you can be."
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The run hasn't come without some gut punches.
After that 2005 quarterfinal year, Walker's next three teams were all finalist squads. They led in the final two minutes by five against Weatherford in 2007 but lost.
The following year, they avenged that loss, handed Vinita its only loss of the season in the semifinals, then led by eight late in the third but was outscored overall, 35-19, in the second half and lost, 51-43, to Star Spencer.
They broke through in 2011, then after a loss in the finals in 2012 recorded back-to-back state titles in 2013 and 2014, the last of those on a 27-foot 3-pointer by Allie Glover with just seconds remaining against Anadarko. Walker's last year saw a 29-0 team fall to Harrah in the finals.
Under London with Lowe as his top assistant, they won it in 2018, and again in 2021. That second season, they were upset in regionals and had to win three straight in successive days in area to reach state, something Lowe did in 2022.
But Lowe's biggest battle came just weeks after being hired to succeed London. That summer he discovered a lump on his neck while shaving.
He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer commonly known as head and neck cancer, squamous cell carcinomas. He had his tonsils and 50 lymph nodes removed at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Doctors found six malignant lymph nodes.
Subsequently, he underwent radiation twice weekly and chemotherapy weekly for four weeks. Walker took over the daily activities of the team over the off-season with Lowe, when able, peeking in and communicating from home or the hospital.
"I've always been a person with strong convictions about my faith, but I would definitely say that made me take a little step further in that," said Lowe. "It's a belief with me now that so much of this is not in my hands. I don't let things become a burden.
"Coaching is stressful on its own, but for me there was this sense that I was placed here and meant to be here, and my purpose is with these kids."
Fort Gibson Lady Tigers coach Scott Lowe
LEARNING TO 'ENJOY THE JOURNEY'
Each coach has in his own way, embraced the deeper aspects.
"When I was younger, the focal point was always the end goal. But the end goal is not always going to be a state championship and I didn't enjoy that part of it," said London. "About 2009 or 2010, when I had a kid on the team (Taylor, the first of three girls), I knew I had to start enjoying it.
“All of our girls here, we’ve always had the high level of expectation that comes with this program, and as coaches we appreciate that. But we need to enjoy every single win. If you don't, it becomes a burden and I learned that.”
Said Walker: "Once we won one state title, the expectation grew that we were supposed to go out and beat people 20-25 every night. The fans expected it, and the girls expected it.
"At one point, I asked the girls, ‘Did you worry about that last year when we hadn't won a state title yet?’ They'd say, 'No, it was just about winning.' I said, 'OK, let's get back to that. Enjoy the journey.'"
He took that same advice about the journey to Lowe as his assistant. Together, they've carefully mapped out the journey, tweaking it as needed.
Lowe has broken the season and the focal point down into sections - preseason, pre-Christmas regular season, post-Christmas regular season, and playoffs. The goals of each are much closer in proximity.
"The preseason, we're all getting used to each other and installing what we need to install," he said. "Scrimmages are never like games, but you're still able to measure the foundation of what you're trying to do and evaluate it. Up to Christmas in the regular season, now it becomes a testament to whether you're doing the right things and having the right combinations.
"The third season, you figure out what you're supposed to know and the counters to the things we are supposed to know. If we can predict that, we're well ahead of the game."
And that typically brings an edge to the fourth season.
Brooke Copeland is Walker’s daughter. She was once a ball girl for him and later played for him and graduated in 2011, the year of their first state title. She now teaches fourth-graders in the Fort Gibson system and attends games regularly with a front row seat to what has been accomplished there.
“Some girls grow up dreaming of visiting the castle at Disney World, but I grew up dreaming of playing at The Big House,” Copeland said, referring to the longtime home of the small-school basketball tournaments, Jim Norick Arena on the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds.
“When you’re a Fort Gibson Lady Tiger, you’re a part of something bigger than yourself. You aren’t playing to just win games, you’re going to battle. You’re battling for your teammates beside you, the teammates who have played before you, and the little girls in the stands who are dreaming of being in your shoes.”
Tradition with expectation.
“I’ve experienced it in different ways,” said Zoey Whiteley, Addy’s oldest sister. “When we won it all, we were pretty dominant all year and there wasn’t much pressure. But my junior year, when we lost to Inola in the regional tournament and had to win three in area to get there, there was this terrible feeling in my stomach.
“When we got back, coach London got us in the gym and said, ‘Forget about this, it’s time to move on.’ We then won three games against some really good teams. We knew all along it was doable, but after we won that third game you could feel the weight lifted off. My senior year, we had to win an area consolation game against Locust Grove and we got on the bus and started singing from the time we left the gym to the time we got to Fort Gibson.”
It was a fun moment, ironically the last fun moment. That team has the asterisk of not actually playing in a state tournament game due to COVID-19.
'IT'S WHAT EVERYONE WANTS TO CONTINUE'
Lowe recalled a parent from his first team after it punched its state ticket in the area round.
"He stopped me and said, ‘Thank you so much. I didn't want my daughter to be on the first team not to go (to state),'" Lowe recalled. "I said something about, 'It's really not about that' and started to walk off.
"He grabbed my arm and pulled me back in and said, 'No coach, it really is about that.’ Then he explained it was her senior year and she wanted to make sure she wasn't on the team that let the streak drop."
Walker, who recalled the time someone came up to him in the local grocery store and informed him that their hotel reservations for Oklahoma City in March were reserved, thought back to his three consecutive state finals losses before winning one.
"The first time we lost, I talked about 63 other teams that would trade places with them. You tell them that and then you think you never get back,” Walker said. “And the next year comes and you're like, 'I can't say that again' and the third year you definitely don't want to say it again."
But, perspective.
"Go put 19 of these together and then tell us how terrible we are," Walker said.
Just try getting there, in other words.
“We don’t bring it up a lot,” said Zoey Whiteley, referring to her sister. “It’s what everyone wants to continue. She had to take on a leadership role her freshman year and has done this twice.
"After watching them at Lincoln Christian, I told her y’all are 100 percent one of the top eight teams in 4A. It’s all about playing like it at the right time. And that’s exactly what they did last year.”
Coming out of the prestigious Lincoln Christian Winter Classic tournament, they were 5-5 a year ago and won 17 straight to get to state. This year's group was 7-4 coming out of that event and is 8-4 heading into the 50th Old Fort Classic in Fort Gibson on Thursday, which has (Class 4A) No. 5 Stilwell, No. 6 Tuttle, No. 7 Fort Gibson and No. 8 Inola.
They avenged an earlier loss to No. 11 Verdigris, lost a six-point lead late in an overtime loss to Wagoner in early December and fell to 5A power Sapulpa and Stilwell in the Lincoln Christian tournament.
It has two key pieces from last year, Whitley and Laynee Stanley, and two promising freshmen and some role players who can spring into action at any moment.
Laynee Stanley
Just like previous Fort Gibson teams who weathered all storms.
"It's the elephant in the room no one wants to recognize," Lowe said of the streak. "I knew when I followed Chuck, I had to ask myself whether I can be that guy who handles the day the streak ends, and I had to embrace that possibility.
"The thing about being here at Fort Gibson is, we’re about faith, family, school and basketball, in that order, so you're trying to give the big picture of competition but also the other things that mean something in life and the lessons that come from that.”
Sports, after all, is about life lessons as well as legends.
"We know until that time comes that we have a target on our back,” Lowe said. “And we've come to like it."
Photo of Fort Gibson assistant and former head coach Jerry Walker (in green shirt) and current Fort Gibson head coach Scott Lowe by Karen Schwartz
-- Mike Kays | @SBLiveOK
