CVU seals fourth straight perfect season
When the streak was only a handful or so games old, supporters told Champlain Valley Union High School girls basketball coach Ute Otley that losing a game might be best as playoff time neared.
It’s impossible to go undefeated, they told Otley.
“I was like, ‘Well, I can’t … What do you mean? I’m not going to ever not prep my kids to go out and play as well as they can,’” Otley said.
Four years later, the Redhawks still don’t know any other way. They don’t know how not to win.
So they won them all.
Top-seeded CVU knocked off No. 10 BFA-St. Albans 40-28 in Tuesday’s Division I championship game at Patrick Gym, putting the final touches on a run powered by Laurel Jaunich and Sadie Otley and six other senior teammates who never tasted defeat at the high school level, varsity or JV.
Four perfect seasons. Four D-I titles. 95-0 — a Vermont hoops modern record.
CVU’s Hoop Phi lives on.
“The idea that they would eventually get to the point that they would be untouched through high school is astonishing,” Otley said. “I told them that there is not a girl playing high school girls basketball in Vermont that knows what it’s like to beat you or beat this team — ever.
“That’s a pretty incredible thing — beyond our wildest dreams.”
The Navy-bound Jaunich put up 12 points and six rebounds and Sadie Otley, the coach’s daughter, fought through foul trouble to post 11 points, six boards and two steals as the Redhawks (24-0) put the clamps on pesky BFA (12-12) in the third quarter to pull away for the program’s seventh crown.
“I’ll never forget this. It was a team for us and that’s what made it special,” Jaunich said. “I’d never imagine that 95 games later, we’d be here with all wins.”
Andi Esenler drilled a trio of 3s and finished with 12 points for the Comets.
“We had a couple lapses and it doesn’t take much against a team of this caliber,” BFA coach Shawn Earl said. “They gave everything they could and that’s all we asked.
“They don’t have anything to hang their head about. No one expected us to be here.”
But the Redhawks were not only expected to be here, any loss along the way would have been breaking news.
“I’m sure the kids felt it from the community,” Ute Otley said. “No one was going to be satisfied unless we had an undefeated season. That’s the reality of the situation.”
Players heard it from opposing fan bases, too. Even Jaunich’s twin brother would also tease his sister of the defeat that was likely around the corner.
“They would say 94-1 or 93-1, just whatever game you were on they would add a one to it,” Jaunich said she’d overhear from the crowd at games. “Even from my own brother said, ‘Oh you are going to lose this game.’
“I think that was just motivation for all of us.”
Hardened by doubt, prepared for every obstacle, the Redhawks persevered for four years.
And the common theme for the Redhawks? That intangible evidence for the Redhawks to go 95 up and 95 down? Team depth and balance.
When Emily Kinneston, a two-time Free Press Miss Basketball in 2013 and 2014, took the court, it wasn’t about scoring 20 points a game. The same for Jaunich, the reigning player of the year.
“We all work together. There is not one star. I mean, Laurel is amazing, but she gives us our chances too,” said senior Annabella Pugliese, who totaled eight rebounds and three blocks in her last game.
A long bench paid off again Tuesday.
Already without starting guard Laura Durkee (knee), Sadie Otley picked up her fourth foul with 3:01 to play in the third quarter, CVU clinging to a six-point lead. It then dropped to a 22-18 advantage on a Kelly Laggis layup 30 seconds later.
Coach Otley called upon Madison Randall, another senior, to run the point as Sadie Otley went to the bench.
“I have a lot of faith in Madison Randall,” Ute Otley said.
After holding BFA to two third-quarter points, Amanda Daniels drained a long jumper, Jaunich hit both foul shots after grabbing a key offensive rebound and Randall also sank two foul shots, pushing CVU to its biggest margin, 32-21, with 2:45 left in regulation.
Ball game.
“Did I have the best five in the state this year? Maybe,” Ute Otley said. “But I didn’t want to win that way. I wanted to win with 10, 11. I wanted those other kids to contribute.”
The players were all in with Otley’s system. Why? They believed in each other.
“I keep saying these girls, what I love about this is they’ve been doing it right since Day 1,” the fifth-year coach said. “They’ve never backstabbed each other, they’ve never been petty or jealous of each other. They’ve never tried to beat somebody out for playing time, they’ve always just tried to be their best. It’s the way it’s supposed to be done.”
The night before their final game together, Sadie Otley told her mom she didn’t want to just win, but play great in their curtain call.
“Sadie told me, ‘We want to show what we can do in our last game,’” Ute Otley said. “I said, ‘We aren’t going to play perfect basketball, you can’t have those expectations, you are going to be disappointed.’”
Who said perfection wasn’t attainable?
This story was originally published on March 8, 2016. Contact Alex Abrami at 660-1848 or aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/aabrami5