Q&A with Girls Hoops Senior Jaida Burgess

At the beginning of the season, I girls basketball head coach Jeff Rinehimer about the team - who would the senior leaders be? Any upcoming surprises or impact players we might not know about.

Rinehimer stated the obvious in that and would take the team on their shoulders this year, but he also told me to watch out for a new senior, who comes from Idaho: Jaida Burgess.

Small in stature at 5-foot-4, but huge in heart, Burgess comes off the bench in every game and has surely assisted her teammates in the remarkable season that is 2011-12.

Burgess doesn't have the traditional athletics career, but she's come to for her senior year and reported she was welcomed with open arms by her teammates.

The girls play in the quarterfinals of the PIAA District One Class AAAA State Championship Tournament against Cheltenham tonight. It is a rematch against a team that came out and beat the Lady Rams in the first game of their season.

Burgess took some time out of her busy practice schedule to chat with LRSC Patch Editor Kevin Haslam about the incredible season the girls have had, her past and her future in this special edition of Q&A.

LRSC Patch: You have a pretty unique path in your basketball career. Could you tell us how you got started and where you went from there?

Jaida Burgess: I started playing when I was younger, in second grade. I used to play Park and Rec. My dad always coached me. As I got older, I started to play pickup games. I was in and out of school basketball throughout high school. Some years I played and some years I didn't. Then, this is my first full year of high school basketball.

Patch: You come from Idaho, right? How long did you live there for?

Burgess: Yes. I lived there since seventh grade.

Patch: Where were you before that?

Burgess: I was in Pottstown.

Patch: What was it like transitioning from all these different school districts and then ending up here?

Burgess: I've transferred schools since third grade. I'm kind of used to it. Moving from Pottstown to Idaho was definitely a big change - from weather and people and scenery. And then from there to Spring-Ford - even from Pottstown to Spring-Ford - is a huge change too. The school is definitely different, and bigger. People are just different. I don't know how to explain it.

Patch: What are the people like out in Idaho compared to the people in this area?

Burgess: Well, it's definitely less populated. It's very open, surrounded by mountains everywhere you go. There are no mountains around here, unless you go up north. Once you move out there, you forget about out here. Now that I've been here for a while, I'm forgetting about out there. It's definitely different.

Patch: Do you still keep in touch with your friends out there?

Burgess: Every now and then, it's like 'Hey, what's up?' on Facebook chats. But, not really.

Patch: So, we've been through your untraditional basketball history. But, what's it like to play with these girls, who have played with each other for years?

Burgess: It was hard trying to adapt to the way Spring-Ford plays, not that it's a bad thing. My style of play is more based on playing pickup ball. It's a lot of just doing it yourself - everytime you get the ball, you drive. That's what I was attempting to do, but on a team, you move the ball around more.

They definitely helped me learn how to learn the game a lot better. Playing with these girls, it's like I feel like I've been playing with them for years the way they accepted me. Of course, there are the rocky points of them not understanding how I play, and me not understanding how they play, but eventually we all just meshed. It feels like we've known each other for a long time.

Patch: You obviously come off the bench, but when you get out there, you show tremendous leadership skills. Where does that come from? Where did you learn how to take command of the court?

Burgess: Thank you for the compliment, but I don't really think of it as me taking leadership. I just get out there and try to work my hardest on the court, as does everyone else on the team. Sometimes teammates need to talk to another teammate and be more focused, I'll go over and do that, as would someone do for me and help refocus me. [Sammy] Stipa and Brittany [Moore]'s done it many times for me. I can't really say that I get it. It's nothing that's been practiced. I think we all take leadership when it's needed.

Patch: Every time I talk to you guys, it's team, team, team. They say 'There's no I in team' and that's the mentality the winners have, but you guys have been the epitome of that. Is that a coaching thing? You guys are one big family, I know. So, is it just by osmosis?

Burgess: The reason we say that is, we play as a team, we win as a team, we lose as a team. We lost to Cheltenham the first time as a team. We lost to as a team. The other 28 or 29 games we won, it was as a team. Before every game, we have a talk about being a team. This is not a one-man show. I don't care who's out there watching. Mariah [Traywick] will have a talk with the whole team and say, 'We are a team!' That's the talk we have.

We have a list of goals written on our board. The number one goal is to play as a team. So, it's a mentality we have to have or we're going to get nowhere. One person on this team is not going to win the game. One night, someone will score 15 or 16 points and someone else will score two points, but have six steals and five assists. They may not be getting the offense, but that's how we win on defense: as a team.

Patch: Looking back at this season, what was your favorite game?

Burgess: I have a few. When we won , that was my ultimate favorite game of the season. I would have to also say [South], but only because they were undefeated until we played them.

Patch: On the other side of things, was there a game that you didn't play so well and took a step back and learned some things from your mistakes?

Burgess: Yeah. Actually, every game, I feel like you should never feel like you played your best. There's always room for improvement. Not that I didn't play well, but I can always play better. Against Council Rock, I scored 19 points, but even that game, I didn't feel like my defense was at its best. I watched the film, and it wasn't. My mind got too caught up in the offensive end. I lacked a defensive end.

Every game, you learn something from, and that's what we do. When we played Methacton in the , and blew them out, that was not our best game. We knew we could play better. We went to practice the next day and pushed it. We played better the next game.

Patch: With Cheltenham, what do you see as the differences between Spring-Ford then and Spring-Ford coming into the rematch this week?

Burgess: Credit to Cheltenham. They played a great game. Of course, we weren't expecting C.C. [Andrews] and their rebounding. It was on point. We weren't really playing up to our potential. Granted, it was the first game of the season and they're a good team. But, we could have played better.

Our rebounding, our help-defense, our communication - watching the film, it just wasn't there. As to now, where we block out our man, we're getting rebounds, we're helping on defense - that's basically the difference.

Patch: If you move past Cheltenham and the next two games you're at Penn State in the finals. That's awesome! That Bryce Jordan Center is a great place to watch a basketball game. If you get that far, how excited are you guys to play in a venue like that, and go out there in the middle of the mountains and play your hearts out for the championship?

Burgess: It's hard not to, but we don't think about it. We take it one game at a time. It's too far ahead. You might be more disappointed. Of course, when you think about it you can't get excited over it. There's little nerves in your stomach that make you wonder 'What if?' But I don't like to think about it at all. We don't think about it at all. One game at a time - that's all we tell each other. It's a refocusing thing. You can't think about next Tuesday, or next Friday. We think about tomorow. Bryce Jordan means nothing for us.

Patch: What's the future hold for you right now? Are you planning to play in college? Have you made a decision on a school yet?

Burgess: I'm still looking, but yeah, I plan on playing basketball collegiately. I'm looking at Alvernia, Arcadia and Rosemont.

Patch: They've all been in contact with you?

Burgess: Yes.

Patch: Is the process exciting for you? Have you been out to visit yet, or talked to any coaches?

Burgess: I went to visit Alvernia, but it's tough with basketball going on. We'll get more visits in when the season ends. It's very exciting. I graduate in three months! Not even three months. It's crazy.

Patch: Are you going to play a spring sport?

Burgess: I'm probably going to run track.

Patch: Did you run track in years past?

Burgess: Yeah.

Patch: What's your niche?

Burgess: I do long jump and 4x100 relay.

Patch: That's cool. It's a good track program here. You'll join Nikki [Lynch] and a few other teammates, so that's going to be nice, right?

Burgess: Nikki's amazing. A lot of girls are doing track: Brittany and Mariah. It will definitely be nice.

Patch: Have you thought about a major or career path?

Burgess: I'm going to major in criminal justice.

Patch: What do you want to do with that?

Burgess: I want to be a lawyer.

Patch: I think you'll be good at that. You're personable and can talk well.

Burgess: Thank you.

Patch: Wrapping up, would you like to say anything to the community in support of you guys this year?

Burgess: Definitely. I just want to say thank you to everyone that's been to our games and supported us. Even other teams have come to watch us play. It means so much to us. It makes us so happy. They've helped us. We wouldn't have made it this far without our community. They travel miles and miles a week and spend so much money on us.

It's great, helping out with snack stands. The parents of athletes and even the parents of non-athletes coming out and setting up. It's great to be in this environment. I really appreciate it and Spring-Ford really appreciates it.