Lakewood Ranch girls basketball travels out of Florida for the first time

The first time on a plane for some of the Lakewood Ranch High School girls basketball team came during the summer. Megan Veneman and Shauntavia Green were playing with the Florida Girls Basketball travel team when it traveled out of state for a tournament.

Veneman was nervous about her first flight, but it was nothing compared to Green. Veneman looked back to where her teammate was sitting, and she can’t help laughing when she thinks back on it.

“She was really scared,” Veneman said. “She was about to cry back there.”

Green can laugh about the story now, too.

There will be plenty of firsts for Lakewood Ranch this weekend as the Mustangs traveled Thursday to Maryland for the She Got Game Classic. For some, it’s as simple as the first time on a plane or first trip out of state. For others, it means a first trip to Washington D.C. For Lakewood Ranch, it’s a first time playing in an out-of-state tournament.

Fresh off a trip to the Class 7A semifinals, the Mustangs will play on their biggest stage yet Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Games take place at eight gyms across Washington and its Maryland suburbs with more than 100 teams from around the world scheduled to participate, a field that attracts college coaches from across the country.

“A lot of girls haven’t even been out of the state,” said Veneman, who moved from Ohio during the summer and visited Washington on an eighth-grade class trip. “It’s going to be a real good experience for us, being up North-ish in the cold. We’re super excited about the talent that’s going to be there, and we think we’re going to be able to compete well.”

High-profile tournaments, though, aren’t new for Lakewood Ranch under Tina Hadley. The head coach typically has the Mustangs in some of Florida’s best Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments. Two weeks ago, Lakewood Ranch won a pair of games at Florida Prospects’ Girls Basketball Thanksgiving Invitational in Orlando and the Mustangs are scheduled to play in the Rob Moramarco Shootout in Palm Coast in January.

At the Thanksgiving Invitational, college coaches saw Green, Veneman, Kaitlin Bell, post player Cierra McKinon, and guards Sarah and Emma Fazio — all of whom should be able to play collegiately. The She Got Game Classic will provide another forum for the Mustangs with collegiate aspirations, including Green, whom Hadley considers a Division I prospect.

“I always want to get the girls exposure, so I want to go where the college coaches are,” Hadley said. “That’s the point of playing, especially if you have players that you think can play at the college level.”

Hadley has targeted this winter as a time to take her team out of state for a few years. Forward LaDazhia Williams, a top-50 prospect according to ESPN, is a senior and she alone could make the Mustangs compelling and competitive. With Green and small forward India Searls, who is sidelined with a sprained knee, Lakewood Ranch has a trio of Division I prospects and state-title aspirations. Hadley originally wanted to take her team to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for the Beach Ball Classic, but the field was already too crowded. So Hadley pivoted to Maryland and decided to pair it with a day of sightseeing in Washington.

The entire trip will be paid for through the Mustangs’ fundraising efforts. Lakewood Ranch raised about $12,000 to pay for flights and hotel rooms through some of their typical fundraisers. The Mustangs played host to basketball camps during the summer and held a free throw shooting contest at the school. Lakewood Ranch has a new digital scorer’s table this year, too, and selling advertisements to display there during games helped the team’s fundraising efforts.

“We’ve done weird fundraisers before,” Williams said. “I think we would’ve done it eventually.”

The Mustangs flew to Maryland on Thursday and play Pennsylvania’s Boyertown on Friday at 7:10 p.m. Lakewood Ranch has games scheduled through Sunday and then will take a tour of Washington on Monday before flying back home on Tuesday.

The Mustangs will miss a few days of class, but the experience of seeing a new city and playing in front of hordes of college scouts they hope will make it worth it.

“We’re going to be OK,” Veneman said. “We’re probably going to have to work a little harder and probably do some work while we’re gone, but I think we’re going to be fine. We’re a smart group of girls.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Lakewood Ranch girls basketball travels out of Florida for the first time."