With an 11-1 record, the Verrado Vipers girls basketball team tied the 2015-16 season for the best start in program history.
The Vipers are rolling through their competition, winning nine of the eleven by double-digits and defeating defending-champion Millennium, 31-28, for the first time in over a decade. Coach Vernon Beard knew this would be a talented squad after returning each of last year's starters from the team that went 20-9 and reached the 5A playoff quarterfinals.
What's scary for the competition, though, is that all of them will be back again next year, too. The starting unit is comprised of juniors and seniors.
Despite their age, the group has plenty of experience together. Many of the girls were teammates as far back as YMCA youth ball. Beard said his girls have remarkable chemistry and basketball intelligence after years of camaraderie. He noticed it two years ago when the team competed for the first time together at a 2019 summer tournament in San Diego and played well against some of the west coast's top high school teams.
“Sometimes I feel like all I have to do is give them the ball, get out of the way and don’t mess it up. They know what to do. My job becomes not just having them go out and do the drills I say, now it’s more the ‘why’ because they have the basics down. They know how to play together, so it’s adding those new things," Beard said.
The success, thus far, has been predicated on the Vipers' defense. Beard's girls rotate well in the half-court set, as the guards attack ball handlers while the forwards protect the rim. Through 12 games, the Vipers have not allowed more than 44 points in a single game.
After steals and rebounds Verrado's guards, especially sophomore point guard Hannah Beard, can facilitate fast breaks and hit streaking teammates for easy baskets.
"We always want to run transition, so in order to do that you have to play good defense," said Verrado's top scorer (13.3 ppg), junior Kaisha Henry.
Beard said the team's defensive ability comes from study and film habits he has not seen from the Vipers in all his team coaching. And he has been the coach at Verrado since the school opened in 2006.
Following a dominant 56-33 victory over Williams Field on Feb. 16, Beard planned to send the tape out to his girls. And he fully expected that each would watch it and have ideas on how to improve in future training, a practice he has not seen so consistently before.
“They’ll come in with their notes without me even saying anything. No team in the past ever had that much preparation for film the next day,” he said.
At No. 2 in the AIA 5A conference rankings with a young core, there is a lot to be excited about for the future of the Vipers. The focus is still on the 2021 season, though.
There has already been delays and suspensions of games due to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout Arizona, and the girls know at any moment the season could be taken away. The younger girls also want to succeed in this season for the seniors that come off the bench but have provided excellent leadership.
“This could be our last year, we don’t know if COVID will shut everything down again in the future. But also it’s the seniors’ last year anyway, so we want to win for them, too," junior Janae Byrd said.
The Vipers have just four games currently remaining on a shortened schedule, before they take on the playoffs and potentially face some of the high-level teams they have not competed against yet.
But for now, Verrado is rolling, and the girls are excited about their progress.
"The work's paying off right now," Byrd said. "We always knew we were a good team. We just kind of unlocked it now.”
Verrado (11-1) is set to visit Independence (3-4) on Feb. 23.
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