Franklin GHoop Captains Take Reins as Their Season Turns Around

After finishing the 2015-16 basketball campaign with a 13-7 record and playing into the Quarter Finals of the Division 1 Central Tournament, Franklin Coach John Leighton figured that this season would be more of the same. Unfortunately, the Panthers girls’ squad ran into some problems and opened the season with six straight losses before they finally broke into the win column.
On any other year, Leighton would have chosen his captains prior to the season kicking off, but this year, he waited and eventually got the team together after the sixth game.
“I typically choose captains in pre-season. We had seven girls who had played the year before, but there was a lot of difference of opinion amongst the team on who should be captain, so I waited,” the Franklin Coach said. “After going 0-6, I figured it was time and met with the team. The decided on Grace McDermott and Erin Skidmore.”
Leighton was tremendously pleased with the choices, as he considered both to be very humble as leaders and good athletes that grew up in households that possessed sports all around them.
McDermott, a senior point guard, and Skidmore, a small forward, both believed that it was time for captains to be named and the ship righted.
“Having no captains at the beginning of the season, I felt that there was a lot of miscommunication on the court,” McDermott said. “At 0-6, it’s good to know that the rest of the team trusted Erin and myself to lead them.”
Skidmore felt pretty much the same.
“We just needed a win to get going. We had played in a lot of close games up to that point and were not getting blown out,” she said. “We didn’t come into the season expecting to go 0-6. We needed to play a full 32 minutes and not give in, just play our style.”
Prior to being named one of the team’s captains McDermott felt the squad, which is comprised of 5 seniors, 2 juniors a sophomore and a freshman, was not working as a team unit.
“We are now playing as a team and not individuals. All we really needed to do was get the team’s energy level up and move into a more positive state,” the Panther co-captain said. “We were ready to win, and once the Taunton game started, we picked up our play and pulled away. It was great to get that monkey off our back.”
Franklin grabbed its first win in convincing fashion as the Panthers took out Taunton 53-21. According to Skidmore, the team didn’t let up or play down to their opponent’s level as they knew that things could turn around quickly and they could find themselves on the wrong side of the score.
Since Franklin recorded that first win, the Panthers now find themselves at 7-8 and have climbed back into a possible tournament berth. And although it’s not entirely their doing the Franklin Coach likes what each of his captains brings to the table in terms of getting the team moving in the right direction.
“Grace puts people in a position to succeed. We were struggling at guard early on, but lastly she has taken control and as she goes so goes the team,” Leighton said. “With Erin, who also plays volleyball, we draw off her talents. She is surrounded by a lot of younger girls in the forward position, but she continues to work and help them all.”
With five games remaining in the regular season, Franklin needs to capture at least three wins to advance into the State Tournament. All the team’s hard work under the two captains has been paying dividends, but they know it’s still going to be tough to earn that playoff spot.
“We still have some very tough teams left to play,” Skidmore said. “Right now, it’s one game at a time, and we need to trust one another. It definitely will not be easy, but I have full faith in this team – just look at how far we’ve come.”
If the Panthers can earn that highly sought after playoff spot under the guidance of Coach Leighton and his two co-captains, it truly will have become a season of two halves. Early on, no one, outside of the locker room, expected Franklin to be knocking on the door of the State Tournament, but yet here they are. And once they get that invitation, who knows how far they can go, especially playing on the level they have been on as of late. Whether the Panthers get that call or not, McDermott and Skidmore can definitely go out on top knowing they did everything in their power to turn this season around.