James Valley Christian is ready to once again play in a state basketball tournament. The Lady Vikings defeated Lemmon last week in the SoDak 16 to punch their ticket to the state ‘B’ tournament.
Throughout the season, James Valley finished 16-6. Three of their losses were also to teams who qualified for the girls ‘B’ tournament this week. They lost by 13-points to Ethan early in the season, lost by six to Lyman right before New Year’s, and then lost to top seeded Arlington by just two-points in February. It’s a testament to how solid the Lady Vikings are a as an eight seeded squad.
“[The girls are] super excited to be here. We started this program when I took over five years. We started from scratch, and we knew it was important to build a solid foundation, and a lot of these girls we’ve had for a long time,” explained James Valley Christian head coach Krista Robinson. “We just kept saying “you gotta keep working, you gotta keep following our plan, we’re going to keep pushing you.” Every time we pushed them, they went. Every time we pulled them, they came along with us. We told them last summer, “what happens in March is determined now,” and our girls really bought into that.”
It's been fourteen years since James Valley Christian has made it to the state girls basketball tournament, but as a squad, from top to bottom, this is a new stage from them.
“The only state tournament experience we have is my assistant coach LeAnn Bartholow, she went with De Smet when she was a freshman, and so, otherwise, the rest of us have zero state tournament experience,” Robinson said. “It’s fun. I never got here as a player, and I always wanted to, but now to be here as a coach, and be part of the memories with these ladies for the rest of their lives, it’s something special I’ll never forget.”
Coach Robinson was a standout basketball player for Iroquois during her high school days. Known as Krista Dejong back then, she also became an elite college player. She holds the all-time scoring record at Presentation College for women’s basketball with 1,743 career points.
“I’ve always loved the game of basketball. It’s always been a passion. You know, having a successful high school career and then college career at PC,” exclaimed Robinson. “My dad coached me when I was young and coached my brothers as well, so it’s always been in my family. I love coaching, I love teaching the game of basketball, the fundamentals.”
During the teams practice session on Wednesday afternoon in Rapid City, you could hear coach Robinson’s voice, in a joking matter, as she watched practice saying “no Curry three’s.”
“We have a couple girls that tend to get a little deep, and that’s kind of our joke on our team, “no Curry three’s.” Get yourself up to the line, we don’t need to be shooting any deeper than we need to,” she chuckled. “It’s kind of a team joke, no Curry three’s please.”
Coach Robinson also spoke about a special shirt that she’ll be wearing on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
“I have a yellow velvet shirt that I’ve been wearing the last five games, because we keep winning and I’m a very routine person, and so the girls always give me a bad time. So, I’ll be wearing the shirt for the first round of the state tournament,” she said with a smile. “One of the refs that we have quite a bit, he asked me if I have a closet full or just one, and I was like “I just have one, but the girls think I need to wear it.” I promised them one game at the state tournament, so I’m wearing it [Thursday].”
This year, Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City will host the ‘B’ girls tournament. It’s the second largest venue in the state with a maximum capacity of 10,000 seats.
“To have these girls have this experience. We’ve been pushing them hard for a few years to get ourselves here, and just to see, this is why we do it,” Robinson explained. “It sounds like we’re going to travel well, everyone you talk to is coming to Rapid. That’s what we talked about beginning of summer, Road to Rapid, and it sounds like we’re bringing a full bus load with us.”
James Valley Christian will play top seeded Arlington in Thursday’s quarterfinal round at 12 pm MT.
