On March 12, the Northwood women’s basketball team defeated the Enka Jets, 70-42, at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh to capture the 3A state title — the first in program (and school) history. The dominant victory capped off a 30-1 season that snapped the 52-year championship drought plaguing Pittsboro for over half a century.
The Chargers — who finished undefeated in their conference (12-0) and earned the 3A East Region’s No. 2 seed — cruised through most of the season, earning 14 wins by 30-plus points, before going on an unforgettable championship run, culminating in the title-winning, 28-point blowout in Raleigh.
Two weeks ago, the News + Record spoke with Kerri Snipes, Northwood’s first-year head coach, nearly a week after her team won it all to discuss the near-perfect journey, the fact that she secured a title in her first season as head coach and the way they’ve celebrated the big win.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
KERRI SNIPES: Yeah, the whole team was probably walking on Cloud Nine. You could just tell, seeing them in the hallways, they were just floating. So happy. And a lot of the staff here were congratulating our team, and then the school on Monday, during one of the class changes, everyone — all the students and staff and teachers — stood in the hallways for us and the team walked around and kind of got to show off the trophy, so that was a really, really neat experience, just to have the whole student body be there congratulating the team. I could tell the girls were very happy and were really proud of themselves.
Exactly. And I think they’re understanding that and I know that they will, especially looking back and thinking, ‘Wow, that was our team.’ Hopefully in the coming years, or maybe even this season, we’ll have another team make it to the final game or win it all, but it’s going to be something that’s really special that they’ll be able to carry with them for the rest of their lives, which is awesome.
We were kind of just trying to take it game-by-game the whole season, but obviously we knew, once we started the playoffs, there was a little more weight to it. We had a good end to the regular season and then obviously the conference tournament and going into the playoffs, we just tried to keep ourselves focused, and I think that was the main thing for me, especially for the week leading up to the championship game. Having a whole week to prepare was definitely different. Most of the season had been one or two practices and then a game. So I think just trying to stay focused on the game and preparing for that and making sure the girls were staying prepared for it because there’s a lot of excitement leading into that championship game, which is warranted, but just trying to not get caught up in all of the other things that go along with that.
I think one of the things that I heard last week, kind of leading into the week of practice, was to not get worried about the little things. Everyone’s trying to make it a good experience, and it was. I can’t look back on anything that I thought, ‘Oh, that wasn’t right for us. We didn’t appreciate that.’ Everything worked out really perfectly in my opinion, but I think just having that week to remind myself that everything may not go exactly how you may draw it out. That was a really good piece of advice that I heard someone else say, just don’t get too worried about the little things, just stay focused on the big picture, which is trying to prepare and win state title.
I did. I really haven’t doubted this group at all. From the the first couple weeks of practice, I knew that they’re a talented group. They’re skilled players, a lot of them have played basketball for the majority of their lives and they love the game. So I knew that aspect was there. It was just, ‘OK, how much fight are we going to have?’ There are ups and downs during the season, it’s a long season and things don’t always go as you may plan, but they kept their heads on straight. They listen, they work together as a team and I think having that heart kind of saw us through in a couple of games, especially those close games. They didn’t give up. They were tough. Those are things that I can look back on and say, ‘That’s kind of what got us here.’
I knew we were talented and obviously coming into a new conference, we weren’t really sure what the newer teams had to offer, so there were a little bit of unknowns with that. I think a big turning point for us was the Millbrook game that we lost. It allowed us to see that, ‘Hey, we’re not perfect, and we’ve got some things that we can definitely improve upon.’ Certainly we would have loved to have had that game, we made a valiant effort to come back in that game, but the time expired on us and we just dug ourselves in a little bit of a hole to be able to get back out for that game. But I think the Panther Creek win really gave us some momentum, too, realizing that, ‘Hey, we just beat a really tough team.’ They’re 4A, they’re one of the top teams in the state, so I think that kind of boosted the girls and helped them realize we’ve got something special in this group. That was a big turning point for us. We had a tough conference, too. Williams and Eastern Alamance, they definitely put up a fight and they had some tough players and some tough games against us, so I think we really grew in those games, as well.
From the beginning, we kind of tried to set our expectations, just working together as a team by being unselfish because we’ve got talented players that needed to understand that, ‘Hey, if we we want to be able to make it to the championship,’ which was a goal they set themselves, ‘then we’ve got to work together, we’ve got to share the basketball.’ And one of the big things for us and I know I’ve probably said it many times, was that we’ve got to be able to defend. Seeing us grow on defense over the course of the year was just great for me to be able to see because we work on it every day in practice. Seeing the small things — like working with the post players, day in and day out — especially in that championship game, to see that all come to life was great. So I think from the start, just trying to work together. As a team, they were comfortable with each other. Olivia kind of jumped in and was familiar with a lot of the players from her time here years ago, so they seemed to mesh pretty well. We added Natalia (Whitaker) as a as a freshman coming in and she gave us good minutes, as well, so I think for us, it was just getting everyone to buy in to maybe some differences from years past, but to try to work together to get us where we wanted to be.
I just loved that they all came in with good attitudes, ready to work hard. Sure, at times, everyone needs a little motivation here and there for different days and different reasons, but they trusted me and they trusted each other and the rest of our staff, so that was a big piece for me. And then just making the time, off the court, to be able to be together as a team, whether that was just playing silly games or what have you. I think those are the things that I enjoyed the most. Obviously seeing them play every day, competing against some tough teams, was great to watch, but the other behind the scenes stuff, just being able to be together and spend time and boost each other up was a lot of fun.