Prep Voices : Ladycats Ride Two Words to Emotional High

The room exploded.

It was set off by such a little comment, barely above a whisper, from Lee Moulin’s mom.

“Pickerington lost.”

The two words sent Brea-Olinda’s girls’ basketball team into hysterics--and to the top of the USA Today national girls’ basketball poll. Brea, No. 1 in the nation, proved that it doesn’t always happen to someone else.

Sportswriters aren’t supposed to root for winners and losers. Typically, we root for stories. Brea’s unbeaten State championship run was a good story. It was the Ladycats’ fourth in a row and fifth in six years. It galvanized Nicole Erickson’s position as an Orange County legend--four years as a starter, four years as a State champion.

It was easy to understand why she jumped out of her chair inside the Oakland Coliseum Arena interview room, yelling “I told you all, I told you all,” and then crumpled to the floor in tears as her teammates bounded up and down, knowing that the loss by Pickerington of Ohio was Brea’s gain by one position in the poll.

They bounced off the walls in their elation. All except Susan Rhodabarger, who sat in her chair, stunned. Coach John Hattrup walked over and whispered something in her ear, no doubt about how proud he was of all she had accomplished.

It was a celebration in front of grown men and women who were there to record what happened on the court, and it was a celebration that made the on-court jubilation outside, in front of their fans, timid by comparison.