Instrumental senior class looking to end on high note

Following the Chelsea High School girls basketball game against Pleasant Grove on Dec. 19, the Lady Hornets filed out of the locker room at Spain Park High School.

There was nothing remarkable about the scene — as Chelsea had just suffered a loss to a stout Class 5A team in the Jag Classic tournament — except for standout player Jordan Parker, who couldn’t stop sneezing.

“I think I’m allergic to the basketball,” she said, laughing.

The basketball may cause Parker’s allergies to go haywire, but it doesn’t affect her or her team’s performance on the court. The fact that a 47-33 loss to a team like Pleasant Grove, which took 7A power Spain Park to the wire the following evening in the tournament final, speaks volumes about the quick ascension of the Lady Hornets program.

Just two years removed from a 5-22 campaign, Chelsea flipped the calendar to 2020 with a 15-4 record in non-area play. Jason Harlow took over as the team’s head coach prior to the 2018-19 season, and the team put together a 16-13 record, including a trip to Montgomery for the regional tournament for the first time in nearly two decades.

Last season, Chelsea sat at 5-10 before it clicked just before Christmas. The Lady Hornets ripped off eight consecutive wins and won their area. Harlow credited last year’s lone senior, Ali Richard, and this year’s group of five seniors for helping turn the program’s tide.

“They’re just special more than anything because they’ve been there in the times that we really struggled as a program,” Harlow said. “They could’ve just accepted what was perceived to be the norm at Chelsea, but instead they decided they wanted to do something different.”

Parker, Pressley Rains, Suzanne Ridgway, Emily Lamberson and Callie Smith were determined to make that 5-22 season during their sophomore year an outlier.

“They want to leave a legacy that’s different,” Harlow said. “We started moving things in the right direction.”

The five seniors have all played together since fifth grade, Parker and Rains estimated, with the two of them and Ridgway playing together as far back as second grade.

“The chemistry is very good,” Rains said. “We’re so close and have known each other for so long, we can be honest with each other.”

That chemistry proved key last winter. Just as the Lady Hornets hit their stride, they were dealt a hand of adversity. Parker was already having a great season but took her game to another level in area play, when she averaged a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds per game.

However, an injury ended her season just before the area tournament. That forced everyone to step up.

“A key to our success was we’ve been balanced, and we play good team basketball,” Harlow said. “Those were two of the messages that were being spoken in the locker room.”

Rains and Ridgway, in particular, were determined to elevate their play and not let the season end on a sour note.

“I just knew I had a big role on the team, I had to pick them all up and be a leader,” Rains said. “Even though [Parker] was hurt, she would pat everyone on the back.”

Without Parker, the Lady Hornets found a way to win the area tournament and a 6A sub-regional game. Parker didn’t care for being sidelined, but she gained a greater appreciation for her teammates’ abilities and an excitement for the prospects of her senior season.

She recalled thinking, “It wasn’t in a bad way like, ‘Oh, they don’t need me.’ It was like, ‘OK, that’s even better,’ knowing they all have my back and seeing how good of a team we are.’”

Parker, Rains and Ridgway are all versatile players, able to play multiple positions well. Lamberson suffered a knee injury last year and provides strong leadership and depth along with Smith.

Harlow appreciates what he has in this group, particularly Parker.

“If I get to do this for 20 to 25 years as a coach, over the course of those years, you get just a handful of Jordan Parkers,” he said.

Lamberson and Smith may not be starters or leading scorers for the Lady Hornets, but Harlow insists their contributions to the team extend far beyond the box score.

“As a senior, everybody wants to start, everybody wants to play a bunch and go out and put up numbers, but those two make us better because you know what you’re going to get from them every day with how hard they work,” Harlow said. “I know that we’ll get good looks in practice because they are going to run what we give them on the scouting reports and they are going to give us great effort [in practice and in games].”

Parker is likely the only one who will be playing college basketball this time next year, but Chelsea’s five seniors have helped put the program on the map. Even if “everybody still underestimates us,” as Parker suggested, the Lady Hornets are not likely to be an easy out in postseason play.

The seniors had a goal of winning 20 games this season,and they were on pace to do that by late January and have the potential to make noise in the playoffs.

The basketball may cause Parker to sneeze a few times, but she and the Lady Hornets are certainly not allergic to winning.

“We have a lot we still want to do,” Rains said.