Bradenton Christian’s girls prepare for state semifinals, with help from boys team

Balls and bodies of all shapes and sizes fly around the Bradenton Christian School gymnasium before the Bradenton Christian girls basketball team takes the court for Thursday’s practice.

The Panthers are back on the floor for the first time since beating Naples First Baptist Academy, 63-38, to win the Class 3A-Region 3 title and with only two wins separating BCS from a state championship, the team is looking for every edge it can find.

When BCS tears down to one end of the court, it finds Kevin Etienne, a 6-foot-3 point guard for the boys team who goes for a highlight-reel dunk in just about every game. Go to the other end of the floor and there’s Dominick Otteni, a back-up guard for last season’s Bradenton Christian team that finished as the 3A runner-up.

“Chaos,” head coach Janelle Hochstetler says as she walks along one baseline with a broom to sweep away a bit of dust and dirt that has accumulated before practice can finally begin.

She pulls her team into a huddle at midcourt and the boys linger a few feet away, tall enough to peek over most of the girls and listen to Hochstetler’s message. During the next few days, the Panthers (28-1) will prepare for Tampa Carrollwood Day, the opponent in Tuesday’s Class 3A semifinal at 8 p.m. in Lakeland.

Carrollwood Day (26-2) will provide a challenge BCS has not faced this season. Carrollwood Day is taller and more athletic than any other team Bradenton Christian has met this season. The goal during the days leading up to the Panthers’ trip to the Lakeland Center is to simulate the problem.

“Their size and their speed helps us get in that mindset of what it’s going to be like,” said guard Sophie Giardina, who leads the Panthers with 13.7 points and 4.8 assists per game. “That’s helped us a lot.”

The idea of practice as a community event isn’t foreign at BCS. When ex-players are home from college for holiday breaks, they often drop in to provide extra bodies. Bradenton Christian’s boys typically practice after the girls team, and it’s not uncommon for players to show up early and drop in for the end of the girls’ practice.

Hochstetler doesn’t always call upon these reinforcements — it usually amounts to players dropping by whenever they’re around. The benefit of getting a different look than the tedious familiarity of practicing against the same teammates every day is simple enough. It only increases when an opponent like Carrollwood Day is on the horizon.

“The girls that we’re playing, I know that they’re going to be fast, they’re going to be quick,” forward Amy Van Ryn said. “The guys that we’re playing — they’re fast, they’re quick. They help us to prepare.”

The difference is most obvious when BCS tries to run its offense. Bradenton Christian thrives in transition and the boys are tough to beat down the floor. When the Panthers are forced to set up in halfcourt, their lanky part-time opponents punish every careless pass on the perimeter and make entering the post brutally frustrating.

There was one practice this season when Van Ryn, the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.9 points per game, found herself matched up against Nate Schewe, a junior varsity player for the boys team. He hacked and hacked at her, and fouls weren’t called unless they were blatant.

Van Ryn took her revenge on the other end of the floor. She draped Schewe on defense, matching his physicality with a peskiness of her own.

“He didn’t touch the ball one more time,” Van Ryn said.

The days leading up to the state semis, Hochstetler promised, would be filled with unorthodox exercises like bringing in these outside faces to practice.

The next step, she said, was finding a new venue for practice. BCS’ gym is a great homecourt advantage, but the court is about as small as it gets for high school basketball. Jenkins Arena at the Lakeland Center is a standard 94-foot court. So Hochstetler was putting in some calls. A trip over to Lakewood Ranch High School’s gymnasium might be in store.

“I don’t know,” Hochstetler said. “We’ll see if it works.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Bradenton Christian’s girls prepare for state semifinals, with help from boys team."