Young Guns: Tartan Girls Basketball Players Loading Up on Confidence

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. In the case of the girls’ basketball team, that saying applies to their 1-10 record.

In her first year at the helm of the Lady Titans, head coach Charlita Williamson has a message for the rest of the Classic Suburban Conference: Get ready.

“In another year, we’re going to be a tough team to beat,” said Williamson, a 15-year veteran coach who came over from the Minneapolis City Conference.

“Our conference right now is a tough conference, but soon the conference is going to have to come after us, because we’re coming.”

Despite the mounting losses, there are plenty of signs to indicate Williamson’s team will soon walk the walk that the head coach talks.

Featuring a lineup that includes two sophomore captains and a seventh-grade starting point guard, the Lady Titans have three players among the state’s leaders in some key statistical categories and Williamson has the Tartan squad playing a fierociously entertaining brand of basketball.

Sophomore phenom Ta’Kendra (Tia) Elbert is the top scorer in the state averaging more than 32 points per game and is also fifth in steals on the defensive end. Seventh-grader Anissa Krause is among the top assist leaders in the state while senior Sierra Keys is among the top shot-blockers.

So, with stats like that, why is this Tartan team 1-10? 

“They’re a young team and they haven’t really played together,” said Williamson. “They’re learning how to play together. The biggest challenge is just getting the players to believe they can play. Right now, they’re playing not to lose, not playing to win.”

Williamson believes that attitude, and record, will change quickly as the team gains confidence on the court.

“These girls right now, they’re so strong, they’re learning how to play together, they’re bonding, they’re having fun with the game,” said Williamson. “We’re just going to play our type of basketball and make the conference come to us. I incorporate having fun on the court along with trying to win and eventually, it’s going to come.”

“It’s hard right now,” said Elbert after a hard-fought holiday tournament loss to Cretin-Derham Hall in which the team looked like the dominant team through much of the game. “We just have to keep our confidence up, game by game, win or loss, we just have to keep it up and keep working hard. If we just keep playing our game, we’ll be fine.”

Elbert, a third-year varsity starter who recently went over 1,000 career points, gained considerable experience over the summer while playing for a North Tartan AAU team that won a national championship. Her continuous tap of energy and confidence easily spills over to the rest of the team and her leadership belies her youth.

“I just try to lead just by stepping up, on offense and defense,” said Elbert. “I try to make sure the team doesn’t put their heads down and make sure we stay up together as a team.”

“Tia is a leader on the court,” said Williamson. “The girls look up to her. She’s somebody who’s not just about points. She wants her teammates to be better, too. She’s an all-around player.”

College recruiting letters are already starting to flood the Elbert mailbox and many players of Elbert’s caliber might decide that losses were burdensome and flee for a traditional winning program, but the talented sophomore is committed to building the wins with her Tartan teammates and to having fun while doing it.

Elbert almost gave up playing basketball at one point, and her ability to push through some early discouragement to blossom into an elite player makes her the perfect example of what the Lady Titans could be able to accomplish as they mature as a team.

“I’ve been playing since I was 6, but when I was younger, I wasn’t the best player,” Elbert said. “I couldn’t even make a layup. I wanted to quit.”

Elbert may have been afraid of layups before, but she makes plenty of them now. And she frequently does so by speeding into the heart of the opponent’s defense regardless of size or numbers. She has gone from fearful to fearless, something Williamson thinks will also happen to seventh-grader Krause.

“She (Krause) is going to be something else. She feeds off of Tia a lot,” said Williamson. “Those two can work together in a great way and they’re starting to work together real well. Right now, she (Krause) doesn’t want to make a bad shot, but I tell her, you gotta take shots. She’s a three-point shooter and she can hit that 15-footer consistently, but she won’t. She’d much rather feed the ball to Tia. But she’ll get it. I would say by the time she’s a ninth-grader, you’ll be seeing another Tia.”

That prospect should be enough to scare a few conference rivals in the near future. But when you combine that with other players such as team rebound leader Abby Langer, co-captain Shaniah Haugen, defensive force Nailah Whitlock, Rachel Brooks and others all returning for the 2012-2013 season — and (for many) beyond that — the same team that is now 1-10 could soon be downright frightening.

“In the next few years we’re going to be good,” Elbert said. “I’ll send the message out to everybody right now: Tartan’s going to be good.”