Sometimes the stats don’t tell the whole story about a player’s value on a team. And for the Marshfield girls basketball team, that’s the case for senior Quinn Aldridge. She has Lady Jay hoops in her blood, and she’s got her number-one-ranked squad flying high. Marshfield Head Coach Trish Marsh says Quinn is the glue that keeps her team together. “She does a lot of the little things that maybe sometimes don’t show up in the stat sheet,” said Marsh.
But the coaches who vote for all-state sure notice. And it’s the reason she’s all-state in both basketball and volleyball. We’re telling you because she probably wouldn’t. “She’s not always the most vocal, but she’ll do the right thing by example, and the younger kids can always look up to her,” said Peyton Ward, a junior on the team.
The stoic senior was once that younger kid herself. “I don’t remember much but I remember all the energy at the games was super cool,” said Quinn.
She was looking up to her sister Lauren Aldridge, who helped Marshfield take home Final Four hardware and eventually play with WNBA star Sophie Cunningham at Mizzou. “Lauren was such a workhorse and could shoot it,” Marsh said. “Quinn I think comes a little bit more naturally gifted. And she’s able to score in a multitude of ways.”
“I know I just took pride in how she played,” Quinn said. “She was just big on the three-pointer and she knew that if she wasn’t producing on offense she was going to produce on defense.”
The Lady Jays have grown accustomed to Quinn playing her best when her team needs it most. “In clutch moments Quinn wants the ball,” Marsh said.
That’s when Quinn’s play does the talking. “She’s pretty even keel,” Marsh said. “She doesn’t get too high or too low.”
Which means it’s pretty funny when she does speak up. Like when coach Marsh was explaining to the team how many years she’d been coaching. “I said, ‘You know, I was a Falcon for this many years and I was a Blue Jay for this many,'” Marsh said. “She added them together and made me older than I was.”
“Oh my gosh, she’s been telling everyone about this,” Quinn said, with a laugh. “She was talking like she was 65 years old in our team huddle. And I made fun of her and now she’s telling everybody around the school that I think she’s this old woman.”
“Everybody started laughing and it was great,” Marsh said. “She just makes the mood so light.”
For a team with heavy expectations, that’ll come in handy this postseason.
