Show-Me shooters bring fun

Even in warm-ups they looked formidable. Their shooter shirts emblazoned with the team logo in black and red and last names written on the back. Their coaches huddled together wearing nylon warm-up jackets and pants in the same black and red. Their fans, some wielding video cameras and others scribbling on stat sheets to prepare for the opening tip-off.

When it came time to start the game, the 5-foot center with the pigtails tipped it to the 4-foot-8 point guard with the blonde ponytail and knobby knees.

The 46-0 victory ended when the coach’s daughter, Molly, a ten-year old with a surefire two-handed jump shot, passed it to the 5-foot center for a layup.

That’s right. This powerhouse of intimidation is made up of fourth grade girls.

The AFLAC Lady Panthers, from Nixa, Mo., were just one of 70 teams participating in Saturday’s fourth-annual Show-Me State Games Youth Basketball Tournament. The participants were fourth, fifth and sixth graders from Missouri and Kansas. All games were played at MU’s Student Rec Center and Lange Middle School. Proceeds will fund this summer’s Show-Me-State Games.

The Lady Panthers have played in the tournament for the past three years. When the girls were in second grade, they played up a division against fourth graders and took second place. Last year, the team won it all.

“We have a lot of fun playing in Columbia,” coach Kary Walker said. “This team has a lot of chemistry. “Other teams may have better individual players because they recruit from all over, but our girls stay together.”

Walker said the girls are all three-sport athletes, playing volleyball and softball in addition to basketball. Even in their other sports, they aren’t accustomed to losing.

“These girls haven’t lost in anything in two years,” Walker said.

The team relies on AFLAC’s sponsorship and fundraisers to take the financial pressure off the girls and their families, which marks another difference from the expensive elite teams.

Walker said they had sold flip flops, calendars, candy bars and baked goods so far this year, and that he enjoys working with all the girls, including his daughter.

“This is the nicest bunch of girls you’ll ever want to be around,” Walker said.

That may be true, but the Lady Panthers’ opponents, the Lloyd Belt Mustangs from Eldon, Mo., probably won’t want to be around them on the basketball court anytime soon after suffering a shut-out.

“I’m gonna blow my top,” their coach said just minutes into the first half.

He yelled at his team and even some of their fans during the game, perhaps auditioning for the role of Bob Knight as a fourth grade girls’ basketball coach. It wasn’t a flattering role.

In general though, throughout the MU Rec Center on Saturday, the focus seemed to be on fun and competition, rather than winning. College students, headed to the weight room, had to fight their way through the throngs of kids clad in nylon shooter shirts and rip-away warm-up pants, as well as parents carrying fold-up chairs and coolers.

Over 1,000 youth will participate in this year’s tournament.

The Show-Me State Games Youth Basketball tournament will conclude today, with championship games in each division played this afternoon.