Lakewood Ranch's journey to the girls basketball state final four began nine years ago

LAKEWOOD RANCH ­-- When Tina Hadley took over the Lakewood Ranch girls basketball program nine years ago, the last thing on her mind was winning a state title.

The first thing was getting enough players to have a scrimmage and teaching them how to make layups.

The word most used to describe the Lakewood Ranch girls basketball program was "irrelevant."

Sometimes the team had to practice outdoors.

"That's what people thought about girls basketball here at the time," Hadley said.

It certainly is relevant now. The biggest difference is that she has people who are basketball players instead of people who want to play basketball.

When she took over in 2007, indifference was Hadley's biggest obstacle.

"I had players on the varsity that couldn't make layups, let alone shoot," Hadley recalled. "I was like, 'How can I play a varsity game with players that aren't varsity potential?'"

After three years of suffering some bad loses, Hadley emailed all the schools that fed into Lakewood Ranch and told them she was having open gym.

After a slow beginning, attendance grew, and she eventually started a travel team, which she credits for a turnaround that has the Mustangs playing in their inaugural state final four on Friday at the Lakeland Center.

"In the beginning, I never thought of quitting. I just had to figure out a way to win," Hadley said. "After three years of getting beat badly, I said to myself, 'There has to be a better way.' I had to teach these girls to play basketball, and that's when I started open gym. Then I decided to take them on the circuit and started a travel ball team."

Hadley created Next Level Hoops in 2009, and things started to take off. The nonprofit organization trains, coaches and operates basketball teams for elementary- to high-school-age kids.

Hadley says the turning point came when this year's three key seniors on the varsity entered Lakewood Ranch as freshmen for the 2012-13 school year: Kailyn Scully, Elise Spiller and Kyra Klarkowski.

She has been coaching them since sixth grade.

In 2011-12, Hadley had what she felt was good team, but it was hit with a lot of injuries and finished 8-12.

When Scully, Spiller and Klarkowski were freshman, Ranch finished 13-9 and has not had a losing record since. The Mustangs won 20-plus games the next three seasons and are 25-6 heading into Friday.

Lakewood Ranch almost made it the state final four last year. The Mustangs lost at Fort Myers 55-51 in the region final, but Hadley came away from that game believing she had a legitimate state contender.

"I felt we were ready. We didn't play well at Fort Myers. We kind of crumpled under pressure and then gathered ourselves," Hadley said. "We were down by 12 with two minutes left and tied the score with 40 seconds left before they beat us. We beat them at their place (58-46) during the season."

This year's team centers around 6-foot-3 junior LaDazhia Williams, but Scully, Spiller and Klarkowski have been key factors with all their experience and court savvy.

Scully is averaging 8.9 points and five rebounds per game and shooting a team-high 38 percent from beyond the arc. Spiller (7.2 ppg/4.1 rpg), Klarkowski (7.3 ppg/4.1 rpg) and Scully have a combined 162 steals.

One of the most impressive things about Lakewood Ranch's region final victory over Palm Harbor came in the final 42 seconds. The Mustangs missed the back end of three straight trips to the foul line and got the rebound every time.

"I came here because I wanted to do something people said couldn't be done, which is build a girls basketball power in East Manatee County," Hadley said.

Alan Dell, Herald sports columnist/writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 11:57 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch's journey to the girls basketball state final four began nine years ago ."