Lady Rattlers team chemistry leads to success during non-district play

The San Marcos Lady Rattlers are off to one of their best starts in years with a 13-4 record. They are coming off of handing San Antonio McCollum their first loss of the season, last Tuesday.

With the help of Ezra Tobias, Azariah Fennell, Melayna Perkins and Brooklynn Harris, the Lady Rattlers are finding success compared to last year where they saw their fair share of struggles.

“We are finally fitting in and clicking together,” Tobias said. “Last year we were a new group of people [meshing] with another group coming in from volleyball. But this year we were clicking during the summer and offseason.”

During the early part of the season, one of the key turning points for San Marcos and Head Coach Jermaine Ervin was participating in the Allen Hoop-fest which marked the first time the Lady Rattlers had ventured outside of the Austin-San Antonio area in over ten years.

Despite the loss to McKinney North in the opening round, San Marcos defeated both Arlington Martin and Bishop Lynch to qualify for the Consolation Championship Game before falling to Highland Park.

“We played in the Allen Hoopfest against high end basketball players and really good teams,” Ervin said. “They never flinched. We took spanking from McKinney North, but it woke us. Not sleep walking but that we have to show up to every game. The more we were there and the more competition we were in, we reveled in it. We won two one-point games [despite] playing the bigger, stronger and faster teams. The whole time we looked like the better team. They gelled so much and interacted so much despite being down a girl or two. They don’t falter.”

Since the Allen Hoopfest, San Marcos has won seven out of their last nine games with both losses coming within a one point margin.

One of the keys to the success of the Lady Rattlers has been communication.

“We are definitely communicating more,” Fennell said. “We know how to communicate with each other. Last year we were just freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, but now we are more together and built together.”

But the communication doesn't just happen during the games either.

“We are communicating with each other not just on the court but off the court as well,” Perkins said. “We used to be separated, but now we can get along with each other and be one [team].”

It was a stark contrast from last year, which saw the Lady Rattlers struggle with communication leading to problems on the court.

A reason the communication has been stronger for the Lady Rattlers has been the team’s chemistry, which in turn has been stronger.

“Last year there were more people closer to some than to others,” Harris said. “This year it feels like we are becoming one together. It definitely helps in the game because we know each other, and we have chemistry. We know how to read each other, which definitely helps.”

Much of the team chemistry the Lady Rattlers have exhibited throughout the season was built during the offseason.

“It definitely picked up during the summer,” Fennell said. “We were competing in one-onone, two-on-two, threeon- three and five-on-five. Playing with different styles of people and learning how to play each oth- er was a big part of what helped us.”

With the players in constant communication with each other, it has allowed the Lady Rattlers to also learn about one another.

“Just getting to know each other,” Tobias said. “During the summer, with workouts, we had to communicate on what time we had to be there or when practice was so communicating was key.”

Much how their communication with each other also comes off the court, the Lady Rattlers team chemistry does as well.

“We are also around each other a lot more,” Perkins said. “We knew each other but only certain things about each other. But this group knows everything about each other. How we can talk to each other or when someone gets upset, we just know more which has made our chemistry much stronger.”

As San Marcos continues to go on their long six game road trip, the Lady Rattlers look to push through into district play using their past experiences to help themselves compete for the district championship.

“I believed the Allen Hoopfest helped us 110%,” Ervin said. “We were on the road in Dallas. No San Marcos team had been up there in over ten years. I thought it was big for us to go up there and be on that waiting list. That helped us understand who we were, how hard we had to play and how hard we would fight for each other.”

San Marcos returns to play next Tuesday against San Antonio Cole.

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc