By Aaron Allen
The Seattle Medium
The Franklin High School Girls basketball team is going through a renaissance. Under third-year coach Tavar Proctor the Lady Quakers have embraced a new and exciting culture.
The team, which is off to an impressive 8-3 start (5-1 in Metro), has bought into coach Proctor’s philosophy of aggressive defense play, smart offense and trusting in your teammates. But, according to Proctor, defense is the foundation of the team’s success.
“Defense is our strongest asset,” says Proctor. “We have great guard play and when they are defending at a high level, everybody starts to defend and it becomes contagious.”
When he took over the team three years ago, Proctor inherited a team that was coming off a 0-20 season. He slowly ushered in a new mindset of the team, family and community – trust each other and anything is possible.
Over the course of his tenure, the culture has changed and the community has taken notice, and according to Proctor, the girls are feeling more confident about themselves both on and off the court.
With a team nucleus consisting of senior guard Celia La Guardia, junior guard Shaunice Reed and sophomore forward Mya Jones, Proctor has built a foundation with winning results.
La Guardia, who is averaging 11.3 points per game, and had a season high 25 points against Thunder Mountain earlier this season, has fully embraced her role on the team and likes to lead by example.
“I feel as a senior I am just trying to set an example for everybody,” says La Guardia. “So, whether that’s working hard on every possession or building my team up, I just want to work as hard as I can and hopefully the younger players can follow me or look up to me [and do the same].
Franklin’s girl’s basketball has championship pedigree. Metro League champions as well as capturing a couple of district championships between 1983-85, Proctor is working to regain that swagger and this season he is making the best out of this opportunity to do just that, and this year’s team has the Quaker faithful optimistic about returning to the winning ways that has been a part of the Quaker legacy.
Reed, the daughter of former Franklin girl’s basketball standout and three-time Metro League champion Shaun Kemp, and the younger sister of Proctor, is the energizer on the team. A triple-threat player who can score and rebound, Reed has already recorded a team-high 38 assists this season, and it’s her ability to deliver the ball to teammates that is a key component to the team’s success.
Reed’s energy and awareness of her role compliments La Guardia’s leadership in the back court and according to Reed she relishes in lifting the team’s spirit during competition.
“It all depends on my energy,” says Reed. “If my energy is really high that makes my team’s energy high. When my energy is low then my team’s energy is low and I have to fix that so we can be together on the court and play our roles and win.”
Jones, who caps off the trio, is a double-digit scorer averaging 10 points per game. In addition, Jones, who averages 5 rebounds per game, brings size, strength and tenacity to the post. Although she is a sophomore, she brings a maturity and leadership that has the future of the program looking bright.
“We trust each other to do different things on defense and offense, we just work together as a team all the time,” Jones expresses.
While the team plays well together, Jones knows that it’s the little things that make the difference in the overall success of the team.
“We can take it to the Dome [the state championships played at the Tacoma Dome],” proclaims Jones. “It is the little things boxing out, rebounding, talking on defense, it’s the little things that count throughout the season and I think if we keep it up, keep working on the little things, we will get there.”
Franklin is off to a positive start. With ten games to go the road will not be easy, but with trust in each other like family, hard work and paying attention to the “little things”, aggressive defense, smart offense and effective communication the Quakers feel that they can come out of this renaissance on the winning side.
“I see the culture coming back to what it used to be,” says assistant coach Mychal Ladd. “It fell off for a while, but Coach Tavar has come in and implemented that tradition, you know that tradition, that if you run it this way you’re going to get good results.”
The Franklin girls are getting a taste of winning but the season is just beginning and there is still a lot of basketball to be played. Of course, with every sport winning a championship is the goal of a team and this is no different for Franklin. Making it to the Tacoma Dome for the state tournament is a team goal.
“I think they can write their own story,” says Ladd. “We have all the pieces to get to any level, Metro, district or the Tacoma Dome.”
