A legacy of girl power in Bealeton

The baseline brought back memories.

Six women stood on that thick black line under the basketball hoop in the southeast end of Liberty’s gym Friday night. Most thought about their high school playing days as they waited for their names to be announced during a ceremony honoring all the 1,000-point scorers in the 18-year history of Liberty basketball.

Marie Washington, a 1996 graduate who scored 1,269 points, looked down at the baseline beneath her feet and remembered the “suicide” sprints she ran during practices led by former Liberty head coach Ellen Allen.

Ashley Storm, a 1999 graduate who scored 1,041 points, gazed at the wall on the opposite end of the gym. She focused one of many district championship banners on that wall and remembered being part of the Liberty Eagles team that won the 1996 Northwestern District title, which was the school’s first championship in any sport.

Britani Carter, a 1999 graduate who scored 1,039 points, absorbed the energy produced by the people packed into the bleachers and remembered how Allen would ask players to leave the gym if they weren’t practicing with enough energy.

Randi Jones, a 2002 graduate who scored 1,074 points, thought back even further. She recalled how, as a middle school student, she had a deep desire to play for Liberty and be part of its tradition and legacy.

Iris Gwathmey likely thought about her daughter. She served as proxy during the ceremony for Jazmon Gwathmey, who could not attend because she was in Harrisonburg practicing with her James Madison University women’s basketball team. Gwathmey, a 2011 graduate, finished her career with 1,285 points, which is second only to all-time leading scorer, Liz Wood.

A senior, Wood became Liberty’s latest 1,000-point scorer Dec. 10 and then broke Gwathmey’s points record Jan. 31. She received a vociferous standing ovation Friday as she walked from the baseline to half court.

“I was really surprised by the turnout,” Wood said of the crowd. “I almost started crying.”

At half court, Wood hugged Liberty head coach Lauren Milburn as well as assistant coach Gary Carter, former Liberty assistant coach Sarah Frye, and Allen.

Soon after, Wood pulled the rope that unveiled a banner on the gym wall. It listed the names of all six women who have scored 1,000 points.

“I think it’s a big honor,” Carter said.

“I’ve been looking forward to it all week,” Washington said.

Wood’s name was the only with “TBD” written next to it instead of a point total. Following the ceremony, she scored 18 points in a 59-23 victory over Kettle Run to increase her total to 1,328 career points.

The legacy

As a middle school student, Randi Jones campaigned to have her parents’ home built in the Liberty school district.

She had a simple reason: basketball.

“I wanted to play there” at Liberty, Jones said. “I didn’t want to live in Fauquier [High’s district]. I wanted to be a part of this.”

Part of a Liberty girls basketball program that has won 74 percent of its games, never had a losing season, won eight district championships, won a state title and produced six 1,000-point scorers.

“We have a lot of pride in what we did,” Carter said. “I look at the Eagle and I get proud.”

Liberty has a 321-115 record under only two head coaches. Allen had a 253-93 record during the Eagles’ first 14 seasons, while Milburn, in her fourth season, has a 68-22 record.

“It says a lot of the coaches,” Storm said.

“It shows what a great program we’ve built here,” Wood said.

Milburn, who previously coached at Osbourn, has 99 career wins heading into Liberty's regular season finale Wednesday at Sherando.

After Liberty games 18 years ago, Jones would go to a gas station near her home and buy a copy of the newspaper.

“I used to look forward to reading the paper every week to read about these guys and what they were doing,” she said of the Eagles. “I’m really thankful to be able to watch those guys before me.”

Jones ended up playing one season (2001-02) with Carter and Storm. Similarly, Carter and Storm played one season (1995-96) with Washington, who was part of the second graduating class at Liberty. Like Jones, Storm and Carter grew up idolizing the girls who played before them at Liberty.

Washington’s father, Willie, even coached Carter and Storm on youth basketball teams.

“He was the one that gave us our drive when we were 10 and 11,” Storm said. “There’s a lot of [local] basketball that wouldn’t be as good as it is now” without him.

Wood never attended a Liberty girls basketball game before she joined the team in 2008-09, but she went to basketball camps at the school and got to know Jones, who was an instructor.

“So to be honored with her is great,” Wood said.

Not every link between Liberty’s 1,000-point scorers is basketball related, though. Carter, for example, was a babysitter for Gwathmey.

“So it’s just so funny to have her achieve all these things,” Carter said.

Gwathmey is now a redshirt freshman on scholarship at JMU and studying sports management.

Meanwhile, Washington owns a law practice in Warrenton after graduating from the College of William and Mary and then Washington and Lee School of Law. Carter works in sales at Kohler Co. after playing basketball and getting a master’s degree at Queens College of Charlotte.

Storm is a teacher at Falls Church High after playing basketball on scholarship at Saint Leo University and getting her master’s at Shenandoah University. Jones is the resident director and assistant women’s basketball coach at Eastern Mennonite University. She played basketball at Marymount University, for which she was a 1,000-point scorer and conference Player of the Year.

Wood has a basketball scholarship from the University of Maine and plans to study biology.

“The things they’ve accomplished in their lives is awesome,” Milburn said.

“It was really special as a coach to come back,” said Allen, who is now the assistant athletic director at Kettle Run, “and see how successful they are. That’s one of the reasons we coach….These young ladies that I coached for four years represent what I would want an athlete to become.”

Winning ways

Ellen Allen left Liberty at the wrong time.

In basketball terms, at least.

She went to Kettle Run following a 2007-08 season in which Gwathmey had emerged as a unique freshman talent. Plus, Wood and 6-foot-4 center Bri Croushorn were rising freshmen when Allen departed and Milburn arrived.

Liberty posted only an 11-11 record in Milburn’s first season, but then the Eagles went 15-5 in 2009-10, won the Evergreen District title and qualified for the state tournament for the first time in history.

Last season, Liberty won the Group AA Division 4 state championship with a 22-5 record after winning another Evergreen title.

“You could see that success coming and I was just thankful that they were able to achieve their potential,” Allen said. “Coach Milburn and Coach Carter did a great job of getting them there.”

Of course, Liberty’s first four 1,000-point scorers also missed out on that ultimate glory of winning a state championship.

“I wanted that so bad,” Washington said. “I thought it was awesome” they won.

The Eagles are doing their best to defend that state title, too. They again won an Evergreen championship this season and have a 20-1 record as the postseason nears.

“I still think we could beat the team out there, though,” Washington said with a laugh, comparing her former teammates to the current Eagles.

“I’d wipe off my shoes” and try, Jones said.

Liberty’s new 1,000-point scorers banner hangs on the same wall that holds the Eagles’ lone state championship banner. Milburn got the idea to plan a reunion ceremony after watching Gwathmey and Wood break the all-time scoring record in consecutive seasons.

“It just doesn’t happen that much in many programs,” she said.

Friday was also senior night at Liberty, and a breast cancer awareness night, so there was a sizable crowd. It included Wood's future coach at the University of Maine, Richard Barron, who was in the area for a Saturday game against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Barron made the drive to Bealeton to watch Wood with Maine assistant coach Jill Poe, which added one more historical local basketball link to the evening at Liberty.

Poe was a coach at Fauquier High in the early 1990s.

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