Brewer star Shyan Flack went down with an injury but still finds a way to motivate her teammates. | Caleb Suggs

Lady Patriots find motivation in playing for fallen teammate

Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

To say that the Brewer Lady Patriots’ season has taking an unexpected turn would be quite the understatement. Two weeks ago, the Lady Patriots were sitting with a 19-2 record and heading into the Morgan County tournament as the number 1 seed with aspirations of not only winning the county title, but also making a run at the state title. However, their season was turned upside down when star player Shyan Flack suffered a season ending knee injury in the first game of the county tournament.

Flack left the game in the third quarter and still finished as their leading scorer with 20 points, just to give an example of the star power she brought to Brewer. “When she went down I thought she had just rolled her ankle or at least that’s what I was hoping.” McCarley Northway, another star player and longtime friend of Flack, said. “But when she started screaming I knew it was bad because she’s not an overly emotional girl.” With the injury, players will have to take even bigger roles on the team, including Henslee Brindley, Jacie Andrews and Madisen Adams. While most are writing the Patriots off for the rest of the season, the players are using it as motivation. “When it happened coach (Ron) Smith asked her why she came here (Flack transferred from Arab prior to the school year) and she said because they were a good team.” Northway said. “And we are a good team and capable of going far.”

When the injury happened, just a game before the county championship, the players wanted to come up with some motto to let Shyan and the fan base know they were playing the championship for her. “It started out as do it for Shy.” Brindley said. “But we wanted to simplify it so we came up with do it for 4.” The Lady Patriots fell short in the county championship, as Hartselle hit a go ahead basket in the closing seconds for the win, but the motivation was still clearly there. From there, the motto took on a much larger meaning. “Now it’s for everything.” Brindley said. “It’s for area, regionals, state and all that. This is what is going to drive us to get there.” That motivation has paid off so far. The Lady Patriots were able to rebound and get a revenge win over the Hartselle Tigers last week on the Tigers’ home court.

While the motivation is clearly there for the Lady Patriots, replacing a player like Flack is still a task easier said than done. “We’re going to miss her points tremendously. She was a great rim protector and just a presence inside.” Coach Smith said. “She did so much for us and now everyone is going to have to take on a much bigger role.” One of the players who will be forced into a bigger role is sophomore Madisen Adams, who steps in to take Flack’s starting spot. Adams saw extensive action both this year and last year as a freshman, and she is confident that experience has prepared her for this moment. “Having the experience from last year definitely helped.” Adams said. “Shyan pushed through so much and is such an inspiration. I know if I can just play the best I can it will work out.”

The situation may be tough, but the Patriots are choosing to take the positives out of it. Despite holding a 19-2 record before Flack’s injury, Brewer still felt overlooked by many. Now that most people have written them off, they look at it as an opportunity to fly under the radar. “People underestimated us to begin with, and when the injury happened coach Smith talked about how no one thinks we can do it.” Northway said. “That really hurt my feelings and now we know we have to work together and I know we can do it.” Most of the Patriot’s work since then has been towards proving just that. “We’re all capable of carrying the load.” Andrews said. “This just forces to step up even more spread the ball around and take bigger roles.” Along with Adams, other players expected to take on larger roles are Katelyn Childs, Leisha Steger, Abby Hufnagle and Olivia Gullion. Childs has been a sharpshooter for the Patriots behind the three point line this year and Steger, who is just a freshman, has already shown flashes of stepping up when she scored 12 in the win over Hartselle.

There is no doubt the situation is tough, not only from a basketball standpoint but for friendship as well. “When it happened we didn’t really know what to do.” Northway said. “We just put our arms around her and cried with her.” However, while she may be sidelined for the rest of the year, Brewer is focused on using Flack’s motivation to push them even further. “We have to keep going.” Smith said. “And Shyan would be the first to tell us that.”