The Chadwick girls basketball team is on to the Class 1 quarterfinals.
A win would send the Lady Cardinals to their first final four in nearly ten years.
Rae Little might not be the most vocal.
“Rae is one of those quiet type girls and she really doesn’t talk a lot,” said Chadwick head coach Shawn Guerin.
As a sophomore, she’s a critical part of Chadwick’s backcourt.
“She’s a phenomenal player that has a bright future ahead of her for sure,” Guerin said.
“I think she sees the floor very well and she’s probably one of the least selfish players I’ve ever seen,” said Chadwick assistant coach Jessi Little.
Rae and her teammates are trying to win Chadwick’s first state title since 2005.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to go to the quarterfinals and I want it so bad. I want our team to have fun with it and we just want to win it so bad,” said sophomore Rae Little.
This team has no experience playing for a state title, but assistant coach Jessi Little was on that 2005 team.
“I can’t even explain how awesome it was, we wanted it our whole lives, we went to state three times and then our senior year we won it all,” Jessi Little said.
Something Rae’s been hearing about her whole life, and now she wants to follow in her mom’s footsteps.
“She’s (Jessi Little) told me stories about how she went to state and all these stories with her teammates and like the hotels and stuff and I thought ‘well when I get older, I want to go to state like she did,’” Rae said.
That goal is just one win away. As the Lady Cardinals look to go all the way, they have a coach, and Rae’s got a mom with that championship experience.
“It’s hard to share it with them but I tell them ‘you have to want more.’ You can’t teach want to and these girls want it, they want it just as bad as my teammates and I did,” Jessi Little said.
“She tells us like ‘I’ve been in that situation, and you can do this or this,’” Rae added. “She gives us options and we can practice it in practice or try it in a game and it helps because she’s been in that situation before, and so I know that that can help me.”
Rae’s hoping that can help her be just like her mom.
“I just want to try my best, I want to be just like her because I know she’s a good basketball player and I want to be like her,” Rae said.
