A little less than a year after clenching the state title, girls’ basketball has something to show off: championship rings. 

Presenting the personal keepsakes to the girls was both rewarding and gratifying for head coach Ross Reedy.

“Being able to kind of officially put a cherry on top of the season last year, and what the goals accomplished and being able to see them in their rings and enjoy them and be celebrated, that was a whole lot of fun,” Reedy said.

For state championship MVP junior Jazzy Owens-Barnett, the ring holds the memories of all the work her team put in all season.

“It felt really good to finally have the one thing that will always remind me about the championship memory and my teammates who I won it with,” Owens-Barnett said.

The championship season memory is brought to life for junior Ashley Anderson.

“It was an amazing feeling, it just made winning so much more real,” Anderson said. “To be able to have that hardware on my hand or in my room just reminds me of all the hard work not only me but the team put in that whole year.” 

Though COVID-19 restrictions inhibited the team from having any sort of gatherings or ceremonies, they still found a way to safely and personally present the rings to their fellow teammates.

“We thought that it’d add more of a personal touch if they received it from one of their teammates, even if it was just laid on the doorstep,” Reedy said.” Normally we’d like to do something during a game or have some kind of ring ceremony, but we’re not able to do that right now, but we still wanted to try to in some way make it special.”

And no matter the restrictions, the thrill of it all was all the same for Owens-Barnett. 

“I loved the COVID safe way they were presented and loved how we all got to do a sort of hand out gesture with the rings,” she said. “It was definitely a fun and loving way to give them out.”

Getting the rings for some players, like Anderson, was a way for the team to finally get to celebrate.

“It was definitely strange at first but it was super fun seeing everyone’s reaction and just celebrating our accomplishments with each other since we didn’t totally get to do that when we got back,” Anderson said.