Community gets behind Blue Hill girls basketball team

Will Vraspir wvraspir@hastingstribune.com BLUE HILL — Despite a rocky start to their season, local fans have supported the high school girl’s basketball team as it rebounded and made its way to the state tournament in Lincoln. Coach Tim Streff said he has been impressed with the town’s continual support. “Our followings at games have been tremendous,” he said. “They were really supportive at 1-6, just like they were supportive at the district finals.” Streff said a group of mothers has put up posters and left messages around the school for team members. The team also is escorted out of town by a fire truck, he said. Demonstrations of support continue downtown as some of the businesses have painted messages wishing the girls luck at the tournament. Mandy Ockinga, owner of Main Street Styles, said she has always rooted for teams at the high school and decorating before the state tournament is just an extension of that. “I always think it’s important to support the youth,” she said. “We’re just really proud of them, that they made it that far.” Since many of the students spend money at the business, Ockinga said it’s natural to support the team. Main Street Styles employee Mel Iliff of Blue Hill decorated the windows for the business with a mixture of the basketball and business themes, “Bobcat Basketball: A cut above the rest … and going to Lincoln in style.” Iliff said her husband, Curt, is an avid fan and has been following the team since the first game. He and their children will be heading to Lincoln for the tournament. Iliff expects most of the townspeople to be in Lincoln for Blue Hill’s first match on Thursday at 2 p.m. against No. 1 Elmwood-Murdoch at Lincoln High School.“ I think in Blue Hill, everybody is pretty much supportive of anything that goes on at the school, whether it’s sports, academics or choir,” she said. “We have some pretty talented kids at the school.” Tim Thramer, owner of Thramer’s Food Center, said they enjoy supporting the local school teams and usually put something up on the windows for big events like a state tournament.“ Whenever somebody looks like they’re doing something exceptional, we try to get out there and paint things up,” Thramer said. “(We) have some fun with it and support them that way. It’s fun and kind of adds to the festive atmosphere.” As soon as news got out about the Bobcat girls heading to state, employees painted the windows in congratulations and rooted for the team. Thramer said the district conference win was especially momentous because of the 1-6 record the team had at the beginning of the season. “To see them excel makes us proud and we like to tell people about it,” he said. “They’re getting better fast. They’ve been an interesting and fun group to watch.” Blue Hill girls turn season around Ryan Murken rmurken@hastingstribune.com Tim Streff doesn’t remember an “ah ha” moment for his Blue Hill girls basketball team this season. The head coach can’t single out that one moment in which his team saw the light bulb go on. There wasn’t one specific game that helped his team turn the corner or a particular time in which the Bobcats flipped the switch. Streff might not be able to say when exactly things turned around for the Bobcats but he can say how. “It was just a confidence thing we started to get some confidence and we gradually got better,” Streff said. “Each game we slowly improved. It wasn’t a dramatic turnaround it was just a slow gradual thing and just kind of steam rolled.” That slow gradual improvement has taken Blue Hill from a 1-6 start all the way to the state tournament. After opening the season by dropping six of its first seven games, Blue Hill has won 13 of its last 15 games and will take a five-game winning streak into tomorrow’s opening round of the Class C-2 state tournament against face top-ranked Elmwood-Murdock at 2 p.m. at Lincoln High. The Bobcats just keep getting better. After stunning No. 6 Sandy Creek in the subdistrict semifinals, Blue Hill downed Shelton 36-23 in the subdistrict final before cruising past Cambridge 57-42 in the district final. The 57 points Blue Hill scored in the district final came within one point of matching the Bobcats’ season-high. Since opening the season 1-6 Blue Hill’s only two losses are to state qualifiers Sandy Creek and Lawrence-Nelson, teams that the Bobcats have also defeated during the current stretch. “I think we are definitely playing our best basketball right now,” Streff said. “I think we by far played our best ball against Cambridge the other night so hopefully we can continue to build on that.” Blue Hill is making its first trip to the state tournament since 2007 when the Bobcats fell to Elkhorn Valley in the opening round. The 2007 team took a much different route to the state tournament. Blue Hill received a wild-card berth to state in 2007 and entered the state tournament 21-3, ranked No. 4 in the state and with a roster loaded great players. This year’s team hasn’t appeared in the state rankings at all in 2010 and will enter state tournament play with eight losses. “That team a few years ago had a lot of tremendous players, it had a lot of stars on it this team has a lot of good players on it but they have gotten there through a joint effort,” Streff said. “It has been a team thing.” That team thing has worked well for the Bobcats this season. Blue Hill has two players that average double figures in points but has three more players that score at least four points a game. Madison Coffey, the lone Blue Hill player with state tournament experience, leads the Bobcats in scoring at 11.6 points per game. Coffey was a freshman on the 2007 state tournament team and scored a team-high 18 points in the opening round loss. The senior guard also averages 5.2 rebounds per game and leads Blue Hill in assists and steals but is far from Blue Hill’s only option. Senior Alyssa Willicott averages 10.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game and Alissa Overy and Christine Herrick both reached double figures in scoring in Blue Hill’s district final win over Cambridge. “She has been there (to state) before and we rely on her every game to score points for us,” Streff said. “It’s not the type of situation where we are going to rely on her and if she has an off game we are going to fail.”