Ponce de Leon girls learn from holiday losses

PONCE DE LEON — Tim Alford, as should be expected, saw signs for concern long before his players did.

Now in his 17th season coaching the Ponce de Leon girls basketball team, Alford watched his players head into the holiday break with a 14-0 record. Two stunning losses at a tournament in Freeport in late December, however, stripped away a layer of overconfidence that Alford’s players now readily admit was hindering the team.

“You can tell there is a big difference between the beginning of the year and where we are now,” senior point guard Kate Carroll said. “Those two losses during Christmas break got our attention.”

The Pirates haven’t lost since, rolling up a 21-2 record this season, including a 10-0 run through District 3-1A.

“Everything was different,” junior Jordan Thomas said of bouncing back from losses against Cookeville (Tenn.) and Paxton. “You could tell a whole lot changed. We were all on the same page, and it’s easier playing that way.

“You could watch our tapes (early in the season), and you could tell our defense was getting worse. Defense is our main priority. Like coach Alford said, ‘Defense never lets you down. Our shots will fall.’”

If PDL advances out of the District 3-1A tournament set to begin on Monday in Cottondale, it will extend a streak of seven consecutive years that the Pirates have reached regional play in the postseason. Since the 2004-05 season, PDL has qualified for two state semifinals, one regional final, three regional semifinals and one regional quarterfinal.

Ask Alford’s players about that string of success and they’ll give you myriad answers that all find their way back to the same central figure: Tim Alford.

Two key figures on this year’s Pirates team, Thomas and fellow junior Ashley Harper, once had reasons not to play basketball for Alford. That was before they got to know him, of course.

“Coach Alford, I consider him one of my best friends,” said Thomas, who lives minutes away from Walton High in DeFuniak Springs but makes the daily trip for school at PDL. “I can talk to him about anything.”

Harper’s older sister, Hillary, capped her own remarkable career in a Pirates uniform last year. Growing up behind her, Ashley was cognizant that expectations consequently would be higher for her, too.

“It felt like I was following in her footsteps,” Harper said. “I didn’t want to play basketball because of that. I didn’t want to be compared to her.”

Harper said she changed her tune after she saw how Hillary interacted with Alford on and off the court. Alford’s influence was a positive one, and Harper decided she would try to carve her own path on the basketball court at PDL.

“He’s always on me about being lazy or not doing something right,” Harper said behind a smile and a laugh. “He didn’t take it easy on me.”

Alford has benefited from Ponce de Leon’s long-standing merger of the town’s middle school and high school. He knows what sort of player he has coming down the pipeline as much as three years before that player has entered her first varsity game.

“I’m fortunate they’re on our campus in sixth grade,” Alford said. “Everything they do in middle school is leading up to what will eventually happen (on varsity). It’s not as advanced, but the things we want them to know, they get early.”

Jazz Flock, a 6-foot senior who can play in the post and step out and knock down shots from the perimeter, arrived at PDL in eighth grade. An Indiana native, Flock joined Carroll as ninth-graders on the Pirates’ varsity squad.

“He calls it out,” Flock said, “and we know exactly what to do.”

Flock’s all-around game gives the Pirates options on offense that most other Class 1A schools can’t duplicate. She can back down smaller players into the post, and she can take taller, slower players outside, where she can hoist a jumper or take her defender off the dribble.

Flock’s emergence as a go-to player offensively was made more important when the team’s expected starter at shooting guard, Jaicee Mayo, tore a knee ligament in the final practice before the season began. Carroll also is a stabilizing force on the floor, offering a wheelbarrow full of experience and leadership.

“It’s a big obligation,” Carroll said of living up to the program’s past success, which includes two state titles. “Definitely expectations are always high. But it’s not just the pressure of the past we put on ourselves. It’s this year, too.”

The Pirates are hopeful they will get another shot at Paxton, which plays in District 1-1A and beat PDL 49-36 on Dec. 30. If those teams do square off again, they’ll meet in the Class 1A state semifinals with a berth in the championship game at stake.

The Pirates, as they learned once (or twice) from their two defeats, are aware that considerable work remains before that opportunity potentially presents itself.

“Before we lost we thought we could get by with anything,” Harper said. “We went out there thinking we had it. When we got beat we realized we have to start working hard. It’s been tough, but it’s been worth it.”

Added Carroll: “I can’t say for sure where we’re going. ... But we’ll work for it every day.”