Austen Hamler couldn’t hide her amazement when she was told that the Cheltenham Lady Panthers – as a result of their most recent American Conference title – have now won 23 conference championships in the last 25 years.
“Wow, that’s a lot,” the Lady Panthers’ senior co-captain said. “That’s a long time.”
Hamler is right. That’s a lot of championships over a lot of years.
“We’re trying to keep the legacy going,” she said. “It’s really fun.
“If you ask around about Cheltenham basketball, they’ll mention coach Schaefer and what a great job he’s done. It’s pretty much an honor to carry on and play for him and be able to succeed like the teams before us have.”
The one constant in the 23 championships has been coach Bob Schaefer, and Hamler acknowledged that no one does it better than the Lady Panthers’ coach.
“It’s a combination of Schaef’s energy and how he pushes us at practice,” the senior co-captain said. “We really come together as a team.”
Schaefer coaches from the opening tap to the final whistle, and while some might find his demanding style intimidating, his players are not in that number.
“He always says that the time you should worry is when the coach stops yelling,” Hamler said. “He’s kind of harsh when he yells sometimes, but we understand it’s because he wants to make us better and play at the level he knows we can play at.
“In the moment, it’s kind of like, ‘Yeah, Schaef,’ but when you think about it, you know he’s only doing it to make us better.”
“Schaef’s a great coach,” senior co-captain Tiffany Johnson added. “His philosophy – he teaches you stuff not only in basketball but stuff you can use in your life.”
And at the end of the day, it’s the life lessons the players take with them that matter most.
“He gave us seniors a paper to fill out about what we learned,” Johnson said. “It’s different things. It’s time management, how to be a teammate, how to be a team player. He teaches you a lot.”
The Lady Panthers head into their final regular season game a perfect 11-0 in conference play (18-3 overall). Not bad considering they were 4-3 at the end of December.
“We know every year that we’re going to be a totally different team by the end of the season,” Schaefer said. “Our players are always a work in progress.”
The veteran coach insists he can’t name one player who attended a basketball camp last summer, and just three varsity and jayvee players were involved in AAU.
“We have to do a lot more home cooking to develop our players,” Schaefer said. “We play spring, summer and fall.
“The kids have bought into the program. They know it’s successful, and along the way, they’ve gotten into the whole plan and they’re learning and improving rapidly.”
Cheltenham’s early-season losses must seem like a distant memory to a Lady Panther squad that has reeled off 14 straight wins since then.
“We’re a totally different team,” Hamler said. “I think we work better together, we jell better together, and we understand how everyone else plays.
“We know what to expect from each other and we play better together because we’ve played some tough games against North Penn and Abington. We know we can do it now. Now we know what we’re capable of and how we should be able to play the game.”
After back-to-back losses in the West Chester Holiday Tournament with the Lady Panthers boasting a 4-3 record, Johnson sent out a text to all of her teammates.
“I said, ‘Okay, this is it. This is our third loss. We’ve only loss like six games in the last two years – we’re not losing no more for the rest of the regular season. We need to pick it up and get it together,’” Johnson recalled. “Ever since then we have, and we haven’t lost again.”
The change has been gradual but evident with each passing game.
“We’re more of a team now,” Johnson said. “We play together, we know where each other is going to be on the court. We have really good chemistry at this point.”
A defining characteristic of this year’s Lady Panther squad is its ability to create havoc with its trapping defense. A key has been the play of Cheltenham’s back line players of Hamler and Christina Coleman.
“Christina and Austen are both very athletic,” Johnson said. “They just play it like a type of football player playing back on defense, and they can always pick off the ball.
“It helps us run, and when we’re in transition, that’s when we’re at our best.”
Schaefer acknowledged that his team’s defense has improved over the course of the season.
“We’re always known for playing good defense,” he said. “Our trap has terrified teams in the past, and this year I was almost afraid to put it on, but we’re getting to a point when we do put it on, it can really rattle a team pretty good.
“The best teams out there can usually handle things a little bit better, but when teams get tired, they’re certainly susceptible to presses and traps.”
Schaefer credited several players for his team’s ability to trap more effectively in recent outings.
“Christina Coleman might be the fastest backline person in our trapping defense we have ever had,” he said. “Boy, she can get out there and get the ball real quick. A player thinks somebody is open, but she’ll get there and tip it out or grab it.
“Shayla Peoples has gotten better putting pressure on the ball and the other players are denying the ball. I’ve been real happy. They’re finally starting to understand the rotations and where they belong.”
But there’s more to the Lady Panthers’ improved play than just their defense.
“We also aren’t turning the ball over as much,” Schaefer said. “We’re making better decisions, and our offensive fast break game is getting there. It’s difficult to fast break when you’re not a real big team, but our girls are getting a little better at getting rebounds and getting out and going.”
Leading this year’s Panther squad are its captains, Johnson and Hamler. Johnson is the only player in Cheltenham history who has been part of the program for five years. The senior point guard played for the ninth grade team as an eighth grader and then for the jayvee as a ninth grader before stepping into a starting varsity role as a sophomore.
“I grew up watching my cousin Andrea (Jones) play, and she’s the one that influenced me to play basketball,” said Johnson, who wears Jones’ familiar number 14 uniform.
Johnson has accepted a basketball scholarship to West Chester University.
“Tiffany is always there,” Schaefer said. “She’s at every game spring, summer and fall and doing what she does.
“She’s a very unselfish payer and is one of the top three to five assists players ever in school history if not the top two or three, but when she’s had to, she’s come up real big with points. She has been the one to keep us in game when we could fall apart in the beginning. She’s certainly determined and tough. There’s no whining or complaining out of her. She’s out there rebounding with the six footers.”
Hamler has been an emerging player for the Lady Panthers. She did not play in ninth grade but came out as a sophomore.
“Austen has come a long way,” Schaefer said. “If you took her weight and compared her to the other forwards and centers in our area, she’s probably the lightest kid out there.
“She’s made herself tougher. She represents herself and the team very well on the court.”
A third senior – Asia Dan – is the first guard off the bench for the Lady Panthers.
“Asia has been a trooper,” Schaefer said. “She has been in the program for four years and always been successful.
“This year she was a little further down on the depth chart, but some events turned things around, and she’ come in and made contributions and done a great job for us. She hung in there. No one is ever happy not playing, but it worked out. When the opportunity arose for her to step in, she represented herself well.”
Dan admits that she struggled with her role as she languished on the bench.
“It was kind of hard for me to stick with it – me being me because I’m used to getting playing time,” she said. “There was a point in time where I felt I wanted to quit, but I kept telling myself – I don’t have that mentality. I’m not going to quit.
“With Tiffany and Austen being captains – Tiffany is my best friend and Austen is one of my really good friends, and they kept encouraging me, telling me not to quit. This is my family, so I just thought – I can’t give up on my family.”
Now that she’s found her way into the lineup, Dan has a greater appreciation for the playing time she does receive.
“It means an awful lot to me because I went from sitting on the bench and watching everyone else playing and cheering them on – now I’m getting playing time, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect this day to come,’” she said. “When I go in, I’m going in hard.”
Winning a championship has only made things better.
“Winning a championship is just a wonderful thing because they’re my family,” Dan said. “I’m glad I didn’t give up. I’m glad I didn’t quit, and I’m glad I stuck with it to get the opportunity to get playing time. It means a heck of a lot.”
On Friday night, the American Conference champions will celebrate Senior Night when they face Wissahickon in their regular season finale.
“I have sat through so many Senior Nights, and it’s kind of weird realizing this is my Senior Night finally,” Johnson said.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Hamler added. “This is the last regular season game. It came so fast.
“I’m sad, but I’m excited for playoffs, a whole other season.”
The players acknowledge there’s a sense of pride involved in being part of a program defined by its excellence.
“That’s what Schaef instills in us – you have to have that Panther Pride when you put on your uniform and play,” Johnson said.
No one exemplifies that pride better than the team’s senior captains.
“Our team overall is limited in experience,” Schaefer said. “They have added a certain maturity and quiet leadership to the team. I think they have grown and learned a lot about being leaders this year.
“They’ve stepped up off the court and on the court to represent the team and be leaders.
It’s added up to another championship season the Lady Panthers, and number 23 feels pretty good to everyone involved.
Just the Facts
This year’s record: Cheltenham 11-0 SOL (18-3 overall), Wissahickon 4-7 SOL (9-11 overall)
Last year’s record: Cheltenham 13-1 SOL (27-3 overall), Wissahickon 12-2 SOL (14-7 overall)
Last meeting: Jan. 18, 2011 – Cheltenham 51, Wissahickon 35 (Cheltenham: Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews – 22 points, Shayla Peoples – 10 points, Christina Coleman – 9 points; Wissahickon: Dominique Earland – 14 points, Rachel Stone – 9 points)
Last game: Cheltenham 69, Upper Moreland 32 (Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews – 21 points, Christina Coleman – 17 points, Shayla Peoples – 13 points)
Council Rock South 51, Wissahickon 22 (Dominique Earland – 9 points, Casey Bill – 6 points)
Cheltenham Lady Panthers
Projected starters:
#10 – Ciara Andrews (5-8, Jr., Guard)
#14 – Tiffany Johnson (5-4, Jr., Guard)
#15 – Christina Coleman (5-10, Jr., Forward)
#34 – Asia Dan (5-4, Sr., Guard)
#35 – Austen Hamler (5-9, Sr., Guard/Forward)
The rest of the Lady Panthers:
#3 - Taylor Wing (5-4, Soph., Guard)
#12 – Sabrina Cassius (5-8, Soph., Guard)
#13 – Jovon Petty (5-4, Jr., Guard)
#25 – Shayla Peoples (5-5, Jr., Guard)
#30 - Seraiah Robinson (5-7, Soph., Guard/Forward)
#33 – Jiana Clark (5-10, Jr., Forward)
#42 – Kristina Nally (5-10, Jr., Forward/Center)
#00 – Ming Seawright (5-11, Jr.,Center/Forward)
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