The shadows are large in the Hampton gym and the banners tell a story.
Boys basketball state champions: 1928, 1942, 1973, 1988, 1989. Boys basketball state runner-up: 1927, 1987, 1990, 1994, 2010. Ten trips to the state finals. A sideline once roamed by the all-time winningest coach in Nebraska state history.
But, this year, the Hampton girls team has some tournament thoughts of their own. And, they have left coach Margo Labrie, “pleasantly surprised” heading into the Class D2-1 district final on Friday night against top-ranked Falls City Sacred Heart at Norris High School.
They’ve played volleyball well — Labrie on that sideline as well with long-time head coach Diane Torson — including a run of three state finals appearances in 2000, 2001 and 2003, but have only managed a 1990 trip to the state tournament that ended in a state title.
Twenty-five years later, maybe there is a chance to dust off that purple banner.
Hampton was 9-13 a season ago, and Labrie admitted that she hoped the Hawks could “finish in the middle of the conference” before the season started. Considering that Crossroads Conference foes Giltner and Exeter-Milligan played for the state title in volleyball and would be equally good in basketball, it may not have seemed out of line. When they lost in their opener to Class D1 BDS 57-42 she thought her prediction might be about right.
“We came out and BDS played really well,” Labrie said. “We had a little reset after that. Our conference is so good, so tough, the best in the state I think.”
But, her players had different ideas. They won 17 of there next 18 games, including winning the Crossroads Conference tournament in late January. It was the first conference title since, well, 1990.
A goal reset, for sure.
“After that first game, we just took off,” Labrie said. “I was like ‘oh my gosh’. It’s seems like every time we go out and play we have an ‘aha’ moment and do something we haven’t really done before. Our confidence continues to grow.”
Labrie said it was never more evident than in York during the end of January when they defeated High Plains, Exeter-Milligan and Giltner in four nights. They won by 3, 1 and 5 points in overtime.
“Before that game with Exeter-Milligan, I can’t even tell you the last time we beat them,” Labrie said. “But, we got more confident as the game went on and stuck to our game plan and the girls made the plays to win.”
The Hawks overcame a poor final possession against Giltner in the finals and jumped to a quick lead in overtime before winning 57-52. Two Friday’s later, they won at Giltner and after victories over Lawrence-Nelson and Meridian (avenging one of their losses), the Hawks have also have another thing that’s a first since 1990. A 20-win season.
Labrie and the Hawks have done it with a pair of senior leaders — Brittany Dose and Cami Roehrs — and a slew of young talent, led by sophomore Tristan Mason who is Hampton’s leading scorer at just under 15 points per contest.
“Brittany is kind of our quiet leader,” Labrie said. “She doesn’t say much, but get us running our offense and, generally, she guards the best player for the other team. Cami has really stepped and been a vocal leader for us. She’s been a really tough player for us for four years.
“When she talks, the players have her full attention.”
It’s been a solid 8-player rotation for Hampton this year that also includes juniors Tayma Sebek, Hayley Schultze and Jayme Troester and sophomores Madison VanHousen and Taylor Klaasen. After Mason’s 14.6 points/game average, the Hawks get balanced scoring of between 3.2 and 9.8 points per game from the other seven players.
Labrie said getting back to Lincoln will be no small task for the Hawks against the Irish who go 5-11, 6-0 and 6-0 across the front line. “We’ll have to play great defense and rebound,” she said. “And, we’ve got to play with confidence.”
They’ll head to Norris with a full backing of a community that loves basketball.
“The community support here has been amazing,” she added. “We had a full half of the gym in sub-districts and I suspect it will be the same on Friday. They are proud of the team and the girls have handled success well. They are very humble, very coachable and they get along well.”
In Hampton, they hope those ingredients add up to another trip to Lincoln.
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