A pregame routine of prayer and devotion has Bradenton Christian girls basketball in the final four

The routine before games for the Bradenton Christian School girls basketball team isn’t much different than any other high school team around Florida, whether it’s for a public school or a Christian private school. They go through their pregame warm-ups and then retreat the locker room for the final moments before the game. They do their last-minute game planning like any other team and then have a pregame prayer — something the Florida High School Athletic Association discourages for secular public schools, but tends to happen anyway.

Then comes the big speech from the head coach. Janelle Hochstetler is in her second year with Bradenton Christian and she came to Bradenton with experience in a similar situation. She spent years as the head coach at Sarasota Christian School before joining the Panthers in the summer of 2015. She isn’t pulling a page out of the Al Pacino playbook, though, or ranting and raving like Bob Knight. She’ll pull out a book or a story someone sends her for BCS’ daily devotion.

“It’ll be something about how our team can come closer together and work as a team,” forward Amy Van Ryn said, “and that’s something she’s really focused on and it’s something that’s so needed for a team to become good.”

Bradenton Christian has always held a strong reputation as a basketball school and during the past two seasons the Panthers have reestablished themselves as having one of the premier all-around basketball programs in Manatee County. With the girls’ win in the Class 3A-Region 3 championship Thursday, BCS is sending a team to the final four for the second straight season. Only Lakewood Ranch High School, whose boys are two wins from reaching the Class 8A semifinals, has a chance to match Bradenton Christian after its girls reached the state semis in 2016.

Neither of the Panthers’ two state semifinalist teams leaned exclusively on a single player, either. The boys didn’t send a single player to the Division I level from last year’s team and the girls’ junior-laden roster this year doesn’t have a guaranteed D-I star—certainly not one who will play at that level next season. Chemistry is always important in a sport which requires all five players on the court to play both offense and defense as a cohesive whole, and BCS’ pregame routine builds the bonds needed to become a contender in Class 3A.

“We’ve played teams, and I have friends that go to those schools and they’ve told me, ‘Yeah, that team — they have really bad team chemistry and there’s all this drama,’ ” Van Ryn said. “Hoss has worked really hard to relieve that.”

The Christian devotional literature Hochstetler reads doesn’t necessarily have a strict theological bent, but it always relates to sports. The book of devotionals she reads from is specifically one of stories tied to the sports world.

One story which stands out to Van Ryn comes from another legendary high school basketball coach, although she couldn’t recall the name. On his first day with a new team his first lesson was teaching his players how to put their socks on correctly to prevent blisters. If the base isn’t properly established, everything else falls apart.

The stories don’t necessarily relate to Christianity in any way more explicitly than how anything in life ultimately ties back to some sort of faith. They serve as anecdotes or small sermons to illustrate the lessons they can take from Biblical teachings and apply to basketball. Usually they emphasize teamwork and collaboration — the sort of lessons that apply beyond the court.

“This really isn’t just about us,” Hochstetler said. “It’s about the opportunity God’s given us, too.”

On the court, the benefits are obvious. Bradenton Christian entered the postseason as the top-ranked team in 3A by the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches/Source Hoops poll and won each of its games in the region playoffs by at least 25 points. The Panthers are 28-1 entering their 3A semifinal against Tampa Carrollwood Day on Tuesday in Lakeland.

They have a handful of individual standouts, but have morphed into a contender this season because of a team-oriented style. They press whenever they can and search for the player farthest down the court whenever they force a turnover to score an easy transition layups.

Hochstetler spent a number of years coaching at public schools before settling on her transition to private schools in area code 941. She is, at heart, a teacher, and with basketball she has her vessel to share a message and impart wisdom on a younger generation.

“It goes beyond the game of basketball,” Hochstetler said. “It’s about developing young ladies. They’re eventually going to be moms, have jobs and we want them to be strong in who they are.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 4:55 PM with the headline "A pregame routine of prayer and devotion has Bradenton Christian girls basketball in the final four."