LOUDONVILLE — In the game of basketball, there’s a ball. Everyone wants this ball. The orange, riveted sphere is coveted — among the open shooters, the squared post player in the paint, the passer who sees an open teammate.
The ref calls for it at the end of a play. The coach yells on its behalf following a bad call. The defensive player scratches for it. The crowd boos for it, cheers for it.
That ball — with all its desirability — comes with clamor. Noise.
But three words muffle it all for Jena Guilliams, a senior guard on the starters Redbird squad headed for a state title.
“Catch, step, shoot.”
The 5-foot-4 senior guard uses the phrase — drilled into her at a young age from her dad — to drown it all out. And right now, there’s a lot of noise.
Loudonville hasn’t had a shot at the basketball state title since 1992, when the girls team fell to Coldwater in a 63-47 scrap at St. John Arena in Columbus.
Guilliams’ squad is the first Ashland County basketball squad to win 26 games and the first Ashland-area team to advance to the Final Four since 2005.
So there are a lot of eyes on Tyler Bates’ bunch. Lots of pressure.
How is a high school teen to deal with it all?
“The nerves are always there,” Guilliams said. “Even during warm ups — the music, the crowd, the smell of popcorn, all the eyes — the pressure is on.
“My dad always told me, ‘just focus on your footwork.’ Just ‘catch, step, shoot.’ And when you’re thinking about that, it takes your mind away from the game and all your nerves,” she said.
Guilliams’ journey
Guilliams first entered Loudonville’s basketball program as a freshman, after moving from Smithville, a small village in neighboring Wayne County. That year, she played on the Redbirds’ junior varsity team.
The following year, she played on the junior varsity team again. That summer, though, something clicked. She said she found her confidence.
“Just getting in the gym, getting in the weight room and then the progress showed out on the floor,” Guilliams said.
Coach Bates has taken notice.
“She’s put in a lot of time,” he said. “And she’s earned the respect from her teammates because they know she’s worked hard. She’s there for all of it — in April, October, the middle of the season. She’s reliable … and that’s important if she’s going to lead.”
Assistant Coach Rex Conway said Guilliams blossomed into a reliable shooter on the floor during the last couple of seasons.
“She’s one of our real good 3-point shooters,” he said.
Conway called her an asset, especially when her teammate, Corri Vermilya, gets double-teamed.
“(Jena has) done a really good job improving her shot — they have to guard her. They can’t start double teaming others. She’s a threat,” Conway said.
But coaches wanted her to ramp up her defense, especially during tournament time.
So she did.
She and her teammates’ effort was obvious against New Middletown Springfield in a Division IV regional championship game Saturday night at Massillon Perry High School.
The Redbirds smothered the Tigers defensively, allowing only 14 points in the 26-point victory.
“I think during the tournament run we’ve seen (Guilliams) play some of the best defense in her career,” Bates said.
A huge task
But it’s going to take both a strong offense and defense heading into Thursday’s 11 a.m. state semifinal. The Redbirds face No. 6 Waterford (23-3), a team with a history of winning at the state level.
Bates is confident the squad can accomplish the huge task.
“Last spring, we decided as a group — players, coaches, parents — that we were going to do everything we could to make a run at the state championship this year,” he said.
He said they all acknowledged the difficulty ahead, even then.
“But we felt like we had the talent in the room to make it happen … when you decide that you wanna do something and you have the right people to help you do it — that’s when big things can happen,” the coach said.
Guilliams’ approach?
“I gotta keep my person in front of me, be there on help side — the gap,” she said.
As a senior, you can bet she’ll be one of the loudest on the floor, vocalizing everything on the floor for her teammates.
Oh, and “catch, step, shoot.”