Otleys share one more undefeated run with CVU
Sometime soon, probably when it begins to get cold again next fall, Ute Otley will need to have The Talk with her daughter.
Sadie Otley understands.
“It’s just reality,” said the Tufts-bound senior. “It’s not going to ruin my life or anything,”
Sooner or later, Sadie Otley is going to lose a basketball game.
“I’m going to have to talk her through it over the phone,” Ute Otley said. “Like, ‘Hey, get back on your horse and get in there.’”
The Otleys, and the Champlain Valley Union High School girls basketball program to which they’ve been so central, haven’t had much practice in that department the last four years.
Or, put more directly: The Otleys have no practice losing.
The tale of the tape with mom as the head coach and Sadie as a backcourt fixture: Four Division I state championships, 95 wins, zero losses. The final page of their storybook run came Tuesday night with the Redhawks’ 40-28 win over BFA-St. Albans at Patrick Gym.
One more net trimmed and twirled in victory, her mother-coach title finally reduced by half, Ute Otley — the mom — gave in to a moment of astonishment.
“Like, oh my God, my kid just went through high school undefeated,” she said. “How does that happen? I can’t, I couldn’t have drawn it any better.
“I’m sort of worried college won’t live up to this. She’s going to lose in college. It’s going to happen. Those things happen.”
Attempting to find a spot for the accomplishment on a scale of 1 to 10, the 10 registering somewhere in the realm of wildest dreams, CVU’s point guard offered the following:
“I’d totally give this a 10 — an 11, maybe,” Sadie Otley said. “It’s so unreal.”
While Ute Otley’s leadership and vision for the Champlain Valley program set it on its current trajectory of dominance, Sadie Otley’s athleticism and intensity have been a priceless trait on the court during the Redhawks’ staggering run.
The pair’s most noticeable similarity?
“There’s an ‘I got this’ kind of attitude,” said CVU assistant coach Cathy Kohlasch, assessing Sadie Otley’s influence. “And guess what, that comes from her mom. Like mother like daughter for that piece — ‘We’re going to win this, of course we’re going to win this. I got this, we are going to do this.’”
CVU senior forward Laurel Jaunich — another four-year stalwart— sized up the Otleys in one-word responses: “Intense” (coach) and “feisty” (teammate).
“There’s a lot of good chemistry between them and it transfers on to our team,” said Jaunich. “Coach Otley was a great player in high school and college, and Sadie’s a great player in high school, and I think all of their wisdom put together really helped our team grow.”
With Sadie, the Redhawks’ coach knew precisely what she had. When Ute Otley told her daughter in elementary school she didn’t have to play basketball just because mom did, she piped up that it was exactly what she wanted to do.
“She is the point guard every coach wants as far as being competitive, tough, physical, very skilled and very capable,” Ute Otley said. “But she’s just that kid that refuses to lose. And that competitive drive in her is not something that I’ve had to (push) — if anything I’ve had to temper it a little bit.”
Without tacking on another win to its 95-game winning streak, CVU has already staked out a formidable place in Vermont high school sports lore. And that, Sadie Otley said, is enough –– it shouldn’t weigh down future Redhawks teams.
“I think what we’ve done the last four years is really rare and that shouldn’t reflect on the next team,” the undefeated senior said.
As for Otley and Champlain Valley’s other seven seniors, the numbers speak for themselves yet are only part of one unbelievable story.
“I couldn’t ask for a better group,” Sadie Otley said. “We’re all so close, on and off the court, and having my mom as the coach obviously is a really awesome experience. It’s just something we’re never going to forget and it’s been amazing."
This story was originally published March 8, 2016. Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eadanforth