Timeout from practice helped Bedford girls basketball reset heading into D1 playoffs

Everyday that the Bedford High School girls basketball team enters the gym for practice, there is a single sheet of paper taped to the bleachers that the players gather around before getting to work.

At the top is a phrase or a quote that serves as a theme for that day. On this particular day, it reads "to be described as a good person is the greatest compliment."

Below is a breakdown on what will happen that day, followed by other details, and a schedule for what is on the horizon.

But when the Bulldogs gathered to practice on Feb. 19, that paper wasn't there. Instead, a text message went out to the players the night before about what they were to bring the following day.

The list included a favorite basketball item and a favorite basketball memory, and perhaps most importantly, a why.

As in, why do you play basketball?

“We had no idea what to expect,” senior Sarah Muir said. “All it said was just bring one memory and one thing related to basketball that makes you happy. We just walked in with our sneakers on thinking we were going to play basketball, and then it was like, ‘no, take your shoes off.’”

Trying to find an item to bring to practice sent some players scrambling, not sure what exactly they were supposed to have with them.

“I was a little confused,” sophomore Juliet Laws said. “It was ‘bring in your favorite thing’ and I was like, I don’t know what that is. I definitely thought it was different, but I think after I realized it was needed. We needed to have a break.”

Bedford had finished up a stretch of four games in six days, with the final game the day before ending in a 59-52 loss to Wachusett, of Holden, Mass. That game not only ended the Bulldogs' 33-game win streak at home, it felt like a bit of a wakeup call and a time to reset.

“Rather than going in, having another practice and grinding, let’s just talk,” Bedford coach Kevin Gibbs said. “Let’s take a step back. We set up chairs in a circle around center court and we just started. I said at the beginning what we wanted to do, but then just kind of let it flow from there.

“As a facilitator, you ask questions and let them go, because they are the ones that are playing the game.”

So the Bulldogs took that practice time to share and reflect, but also think about what was still ahead of them.

“Having to bring in a tangible item isn’t really something that we would even think of or that we’ve ever done before,” junior Mel McCarthy said. “It was definitely a new experience. I think the reason why we did that was kind of to remind ourselves of our why and what our reason actually is that we want to have success and what we really play for.

“It brought back old memories that push us and give us motivation to keep working hard and eventually get that success that we’ve had.”

Once the assignment was handed out, Muir knew her item had to be something to do with where it all started for her.

“I knew exactly what I wanted to do, I brought in my third-grade basketball jersey,” she said. “It kind of just brought everything back. I think everyone brought in a championship medal because that’s what we’re striving for, that’s what we want. That’s what everyone plays for.”

While this current group of players has had their own share of success, there was a lot of it for the program before they arrived. Since Bedford moved up to Division I before the 2012-13 season, the program has played in nine of 12 championship games, winning four, including the last two.

Although the win streak at home came to an end a few weeks ago, Bedford's in-state win streak continues. After Monday night's playoff win over Nashua North, the Bulldogs have won 58 games in a row against New Hampshire opponents, with the last loss to Bishop Guertin in the championship game in 2023.

That long-term success brings with it expectations and pressure, whether from the outside or within the program.

“We get so caught up in what game is next and then we sometimes look too far ahead,” sophomore Eva Zink said. “I think it’s important to just re-center ourselves and get back to remembering why we’re playing this game.

“When we were talking, we really got to the point where we’re playing for each other. We just love each other so much, and I think having that conversation really was important for us in our growth.”

Those bonds come not just from playing a lot of basketball and spending a lot of time together. They're also rooted in family connections.

Eva Zink and her older sister, Annie, a senior, are the only siblings on this year's roster. But Muir, McCarthy and sophomore Ella Allard, who has been out all season with an injury, are following an older siblings footsteps, and Laws also has an older sister who used to play basketball.

“For me coming in as a freshman (last year), I feel like the transition was definitely easier for me, knowing I have some of my best friends already on the team, and that my sister was already on the team,” Eva Zink said. “I knew that I was going to be surrounded by a great group and that really helped me come in as confident as I was freshman year. I knew I was going to be supported in that community.”

The familiarity with so many people on the team makes it easier to ask for help when it's needed.

“I was able to not be scared to ask the seniors for help,” Laws said of how she felt as a freshman. “I could be like ‘hey, what am I doing wrong? Can you help me with this? I wasn’t intimidated because I knew them from a young age.”

Having a group of players who can help themselves doesn't just have benefits for those on the court.

“Peer-to-peer teaching is so much more impactful and we’re very blessed,” Gibbs said. “They’re very thoughtful and there’s almost nobody out there, who at one point or another, hasn’t been in the middle of running through something and stop to say ‘I need to understand this better.’”

The Bulldogs now also have a reminder of why they've been together, playing and practicing, since the start of December. That reason is a few games away.

“Us as a team, we have that mindset where we want to be at UNH on that day and we want to win the championship,” Muir said. “I think sitting down, reflecting on the past season, realizing what went well and what went wrong, it’s just good to sit down and have those conversations.”

Bedford continues its playoff run at 6 p.m. Thursday when it hosts No. 10 Salem in the D1 quarterfinals.