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Bond remains strong for Stingarettes' 1986 state championship team

Former Victoria High Stingarettes coach Jan Lahodny and members of the 1986 state championship basketball team reminisce.
  • by Mike Forman
  • Originally published March 4, 2011 at 6:42 p.m., updated March 4, 2011 at 10:55 p.m.

  • 1986 Victoria High School StingarettesRecord: 33-3

    Finished: Class 5A State Champions

    Head Coach:Jan Lahodny

    Assistants:Debbie Garner, Noma Kremling, Sandra Jimenez

    Players:Glynna Alkek, Tisha Boldt, Michelle Britton, Karen Gaskin, Elizabeth George, Michelle Perez, Michelle Schmidt, Darla Sparkman, Teri Tyner, Alexis ...

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    • 1986 Victoria High School StingarettesRecord: 33-3

    Finished: Class 5A State Champions

    Head Coach:Jan Lahodny

    Assistants:Debbie Garner, Noma Kremling, Sandra Jimenez

    Players:Glynna Alkek, Tisha Boldt, Michelle Britton, Karen Gaskin, Elizabeth George, Michelle Perez, Michelle Schmidt, Darla Sparkman, Teri Tyner, Alexis Ware.

Time has dimmed their recollection, but strengthened the bond between them.

Whenever former Victoria High coach Jan Lahodny gets together with coaches or players from the Stingarettes' 1986 Class 5A state championship basketball team, it's like they just walked off the court at the Erwin Center in Austin.

Twenty-five years have passed since the Stingarettes' 57-44 win over Tyler Lee in the state final, but they remain very much a group forged through hard work, determination and success.

"I take pride in being a Stingarette under Jan Lahodny," said Elizabeth George Rosenblum. "She made me a strong athlete and a strong person of character."

Rosenblum traveled from San Antonio, where she recently served as director for the Street2Feet 5K Run/Walk, to join Lahodny, former teammates and coaches Debbie Garner and Sandra Jimenez to celebrate the anniversary of the last state championship won by a Victoria school district basketball team.

They came to Lahodny from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, but when they took the court, they did so as one unit.

"The only color we saw was red and white," said Karen Gaskin Camp, who is an administrator at the George Gervin Academy in San Antonio and remains as competitive as she was when she sank a pair of free throws to beat Houston Yates 57-55 in overtime of the 1985 state semifinal.

"We were beasts on the court and ladies off the court," Gaskin Camp said. "She prepared us for then and she prepared us for the future."

Lahodny knew a bright future was in store for members of her third state championship team when she watched them play on the junior high level.

"That was the first team I had where all five of my players were involved in the offense," said Lahodny, who runs basketball camps and speaks at clinics when she isn't busy with her duties on the Flatonia city council. "This was one of the best offensive teams I've ever had.

"They were excellent at blocking out and getting offensive rebounds. We also had two low post players who could flash to the high post and (former Texas coach) Jody Conradt and I have talked a lot about this. When you have a player who can do that and make that mid-range jumper you can be in the national tournament. We had two of them in Gaskin and (Tisha) Boldt.

"We were just all like one," she added. "Michelle Perez was my ball-hawker and Glynna Alkek stepped in and scored for us in the playoffs, and when we lost Teri Tyner to an injury, Darla Sparkman came on."

The seeds of the state championship were planted when the Stingarettes left the Erwin Center after their 60-46 loss to Dallas South Oak Cliff in the 1985 state final.

The Stingarettes saw the South Oak Cliff fans celebrating in the parking lot and came up with the slogan, "We shall return."

"The focus of this group was unbelievable," Lahodny said. "I am convinced we lost in 1985 because we were exhausted and out of gas after the semifinal. These were such great kids that it hurt me so much. I wanted to make sure that I had done everything I possibly could to get back and win it in 1986."

Not that Lahodny took anything for granted.

She didn't let up in practice, once sitting and munching on pieces of ice while vowing to run her team until she got tired.

Lahodny remained as sharp-tongued as ever, especially about her players' defensive stances, telling one of them, "I am 38 years old and I could guard that girl better than you in high heels."

Lahodny became so incensed with her team's inability to hold onto the ball in a loss to Tyler Lee at the Conroe tournament that she made every one of her players carry a basketball with them to class and warned them not to let it hit the ground.

"We hated to lose," Garner said. "We were all in it to win state. That's all we talked about. When we lost, we felt like we had failed as coaches. We talked about what could we do better."

The Stingarettes' loss to Lee was their last of the season. They won 24 straight games, including a 70-43 win over Yates in the state semifinal before avenging their loss to Lee in the final and finishing with a 33-3 record.

The Stingarettes held their playoff opponents to an average of 39.3 points per game, never allowed a postseason opponent to score more than 44 points, and never trailed by more than three points in a playoff game.

"We started something and we were going to see it through," Gaskin Camp said. "We prepared well and we didn't quit."

The Stingarettes wouldn't think of quitting on their coaches or themselves after working so hard to reach their goal.

"A lot of players do things because they fear their coach," said Jimenez, who led Victoria West to the District 30-4A title this season. "With Lahodny, it was all about respect."

The respect, like the pride the 1986 state champions carry with them, will never fade away.

"Coach Lahodny has a gift," George Rosenblum said. "People love to perform for her. It doesn't matter what it is. People want to do well for her. We respected her and our coaches so much we didn't want to disappoint them."

Mike Forman is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361- 580-6588 or mforman@vicad.com, or comment on this column at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.