Superior graduate leads her new team to a title

Last weekend, the Saco-Whitewater girls’ basketball team won their first state basketball championship in the history of either school, as a co-op team in Class C. And though the team isn’t from Mineral County and probably isn’t even familiar with the area, the team’s coach, Amber Erickson, is.

Erickson, formally known as Zylawy, grew up in Superior and graduated from the Superior High School in 1998. She played four years of basketball for the Lady Cats and ended up going to MSU-Billings on a full ride basketball scholarship.

“I really enjoyed the competitive nature of the game,” Erickson said. “I really enjoy the family-type atmosphere that begins to develop within your team when you play sports.”

Erickson said that she knew she always wanted to get into coaching. Again, she said she just had a real passion and love for the game and wanted to instill that same love in younger players.

“I was blessed to have a lot of different coaches throughout my time playing,” Erickson said. “They all had different philosophies and different ideas. As a coach, I think I have a deeper understanding of strategy for offense and defense, and I try to teach my kids to understand that. It’s not just going out and playing, but playing and understanding the game.”

Erickson said that her own style is a mixture of all she’s picked up through her years of playing. She said that she would describe herself as an up-tempo coach who stresses a solid defense. She said that on offense, she looks at who she has for personnel and tries to arrange things from there.

“I’ve ran into a lot of coaches who will try to press every single year even if they don’t have the team for it and they don’t do it very effectively,” Erickson said. “I try to look at my personnel and then use them to the most of their ability.”

 Right out of college, Erickson started coaching at Saco in 2002. Her first year went really well. She said that they won a challenge game in the district tournament to go onto divisionals, but couldn’t quite make it out of there to state.

This year, of course, things turned out a bit differently.

Because of the school’s enrollment, the two schools of Saco and Whitewater decided last year to co-op so they would have enough members to field a team.

From the beginning of this season, the team had faced quite a bit of adversity. Two of the teams  three seniors Brianne DePuydt and Jessie Davis were down with injuries, leaving a lot of young players to step and fill their starting roles. DePuydt, who is a 4 year starter for the Lady Panthers and a three time all-state selection, had mono and didn’t come back until after Christmas.  Jessie Davis, their post player went down on a jump ball and hurt her ankle and was also out until after Christmas break.

“We suddenly went from a veteran team to a young team,” Erickson said. “I ended up starting a senior, a junior, two sophomores and a freshmen.”

Erickson said, however, that those early games for the younger players gave them the confidence they needed. By the time the team got to divisionals, another player, Macey Cox, the team’s senior point guard, hurt her knee. Once again, the younger kids had to step in as Erickson tried to just use Cox as little as possible.

“That’s what special about this team. They just kept working hard. They have a lot of heart. It didn’t matter what we faced, they stepped up to fill the missing shoes,” Erickson said.

In the last three years, Erickson said that they have had to survive the fateful challenge game after finishing second at Divisionals the first two years, but this year they were the challengers, taking on the second place team of Scobey, of whom had beat them in the 3-C District Championship game by 1 point in overtime, after finding themselves in third place.

It was on to state.

Last week, on Thursday, the girls started out with a game against the highly rated and undefeated team of Belt. Macey hit three, three point shots in the first twelve minutes before penetrating past a defender and injurying her knee again.  Macey was unable to return to the game, but her teammates and younger players stepped up the way they had all season and the team beat Belt, 48-44.

With the win, they were off to play Joliet on Friday in the semifinal game. Cox was suited up but knew she would be playing little if any in order to give her the rest she needed.  The Lady Panthers were able to pick up the win without using her and under the strong play of DePuydt, Davis, and junior guard Angie Crowder.

“It was back and forth there for awhile,” Erickson said.

With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, the girls went to the free throw line and Angie nailed a three from the top of the key which helped them grab a 14 point lead, just what they needed to win, 45-31.

The girls were in the championship game for the second year in a row. They thought they might be up against Fairview again, a team they had played in the Divisional and State Championship last year, but Harlowton ended up beating them in the second semifinal game by one point.

“I felt bad for the Fairview girls,” Erickson said, “but it was exciting to be playing someone different. We knew Harlowton had one good scorer that we were really going to have to focus defensively on.”

Erickson said that the team had been in this situation before, one game away from claiming a state championship.

“We knew going in what it felt like to lose the big one and it’s a gut wrenching feeling,” Erickson said. “We didn’t want to feel that again.”

The girls keyed in on Harlowton’s shooter early on. The game was tied 29-29 going into the fourth quarter. Cox, DePuydt and Davis were on all the court, playing their hearts out. DePuydt put her team ahead 38-33 with 1:46 to play. Harlowton scored a three-pointer, nearly taking the lead, but in the end, Saco-Whitewater prevailed, winning 38-37.

“Throughout the entire tournament, both Divisionals and State, it didn’t matter if shots didn’t fall or calls weren’t going our way,” Erickson said. “My girls rose above it. They stayed positive and focused and they all had that look in their eye.”

Erickson said that when she played for Superior, they never brought home a state championship. But she didn’t mind being on the sidelines coaching either when she watched her girls pull off the feat.

“I enjoy coaching every bit as much as I did playing,” Erickson said, who couldn’t have been prouder of her team. “It’s just as satisfying if not more.”

DePuydt was named the MVP of the girls state c tournament and Erickson said that she has plans to attend and play basketball for MSU-Billings just as she did.

Looking back to her own days of high school basketball, Erickson said that she feels very lucky to have played for the Lady Cats.

“We had some great teams,” she said. “There are alot of special memories there. I always felt like I got a lot of support and I just want to say thank you to the community where I grew up and started my career in basketball.”