CVHS Girls JV Basketball Team Puts Up Perfect Season

The game was a dogfight as the Centreville girls JV basketball team struggled against cross-town rival Westfield High School, hoping to scrape up enough points for a win to preserve a perfect, undefeated season.

Without one of their starters, the Centreville team found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being behind late in the game. At the seconds ticked away, there was no panic as Katie Blumer, 14, the team’s point guard and “quarterback” brought the ball down the court. She quickly called a play, the “four-low,” a standard one designed to free up one of team’s showcase three-point shooters.

 Blumer passed the ball into center Amanda Linthicum, 15. As the Westfield defenders took the bait, Linthicum kicked the ball out to guard Ashley Brusick, 15, who calmly hit the shot, putting Centreville up for good.

“When she took the shot, I remember saying, ‘that’s in,’” Blumer said.

The team then breezed through the last four games of their schedule to finish with a perfect 16-0 record when the season ended earlier this month.

Even during the most difficult times, Coach Tom Watson had no doubts. The team was fast, determined and blessed with three hot-shot three-point shooters. The team scored 1,004 points in 16 games, while allowing about 450 to be scored against them.

“I have never coached a team like this,” Watson said. “I never felt they were going to lose. If we got behind by a few points, I knew we could get one of our shooters to hit a three (point-play).”

It was not a team blessed with superstar talent or athletes gifted with extraordinary ability, Watson said. It was simply a well-coached team full of dedicated players who practiced hard and played even harder, he said. 

Practice sessions ran two hours a day, six days a week. The shooters were expected to sink 100 three-point shots every practice before they went home. All of the three-point shooters worked with personal trainers outside of practice to improve their shot. The work showed because they got much better as the season progressed, Watson said. 

The game seemed to come naturally to Lindsay Egbers, 16, who grew up playing two-on-two basketball with her younger brothers.

“I’ve always had a strong passion for the game,” Egbers said. “I’m always nervous during a game. It doesn’t go away until after we win.”

It helped that all the players said they genuinely liked each other. “They didn’t have any cliques, there were no fights out on the floor,” Watson said. “It was unbelievable.” 

“We are like family,” Blumer said, who only knew a few of her teammates before the season started.

The girls’ achievement is even more noteworthy because it is the second Centreville High School sports team to record an undefeated season this year. The boys’ freshman football team finished with a.