Lake Wales High School Basketball Team Wins District Title
by James Coulter
There is no ‘i’ in ‘team’, the old saying goes. This is a saying that 16-year-old Jameria Robinson and her teammates not only keep to heart, but which has allowed them to win big.
Jameria and her teammates won big last week after the Lake Wales High School Women’s Varsity Basketball Team won district title with a total season wins of 18 to 4.
Jameria has been an athlete since the 5th grade, when she and her cousins would visit Kirkland Gym and sign up for sports teams. They would often play drills outside, which allowed her to train herself in the game and perfect her sportsmanship.
However, at the end of the day, she owes her success not to her own individual ability, but to the teamwork and cooperation among her teammates. Both practice and chemistry allow them to work together as a team and overcome any obstacle facing them.
They do not focus on grandstanding their own talents on the court. Instead, they focus on supporting each other. At the end of the day, they refuse to play what Jameria calls “selfish ball.”
“With my teammates, we grew as a team and learned each other’s skills and play each other and share the ball,” she said. “That is what got us the championship…Practice and chemistry got us so far, and our chemistry has been way better, no drama in our team, we are friends on and off the court, and we always go hard in practice, if you don’t go hard in practice, you don’t go hard at the game.”
Her mother, LaKendra McMath, as with all good parents, feels nothing but pride for her daughter and her teammates. She attributes her daughter’s success to her keeping her eyes on the prize.
“We owe her success to her hard work and being extremely dedicated to basketball,” McMath said. “She let’s nothing distract her…[and] I am hoping she gets a scholarship to go to college.”
Even though they lost four games, Jameria and her team remain determined to go out on the court and do their best. Their best already allowed them to win more than 18 games and counting, and Jameria hopes to continue playing and winning championships back-to-back.
“My expectation is to get another championship for my team next year, and for the future, keep our champs going regularly,” she said. “The job is not done. We will go to the state and be the first team in Lake Wales girls to make it out, because we want to be the word around town.”
