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Albany High earns first sectional championship in 15 years
Posted at: 03/05/2013 5:20 PM
| Updated at: 03/08/2013 11:18 AM
By: Abigail Bleck
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ALBANY--If freshman Ayanna Hunter is any indication, the Albany High girls' basketball team has some great years ahead of them. The guard is one of the Falcons' star players already and 1/5 of the Section Two championship team.
"It (playing at the Times Union Center Monday night) was amazing. Especially the crowd and the intensity on the court. It was wonderful," says Hunter.
By all accounts--players, coaches and fans--the show of support for the game was amazing. And let's be honest, female athletes, especially in high school, don't often receive the rock star treatment their male counterparts enjoy.
"Filling the Times Union Center for a girls' game was unbelievable. I didn't think anyone would do that to see our team do it, it's awesome," says Cara Waterson, a junior player.
The win itself was sweet. But to be the first Albany high team to win a sectional championship in 15 years felt pretty nice too.
"When you are little and play basketball, you always see people talking about Sectionals. To be here and to win it's something I've wanted for a really long time," adds Waterson.
It's something the often embattled school needed also.
"It's what you make it here. If you come in with a negative vibe it's gonna be a negative but when you come in positive, we got a lot of positive things here," says Head Coach Decky Lawson who also played basketball for and graduated from Albany High.
Eleven of the twelve varsity players are on the honor roll. In fact, departing senior and team leader Emia Willingham-Hurst, wasn't available to NewsChannel 13 today because she was on a college interview.
The Lady Falcons play the defending state champions, Cicero-North Syracuse, at Onondaga Community College this weekend. If they win, the next game will be in the Albany area March 16 or 17.
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