Special Turnaround

Shelby Miller was not ready to walk away.

Four months ago, the Sarasota High senior, who is home-schooled, formed a bond with seven players, who, like herself, were all searching for a place to call home.

With tears in her eyes, Miller walked back toward the bench, where she was quickly surrounded by her teammates — each one offered a hug and words of encouragement.

Following the Sarasota High girls basketball team’s 47-36 loss to Harmony in the FHSAA Class 7A state semifinals Feb. 20 at the Lakeland Center, Miller, the lone senior on the team, struggled to put into words what this season meant to her.

“It’s tough, because now I have to leave my family, but I feel like next year they are going to come out harder and they’re going to get to this point,” Miller says. “I think that they can do it.”

In addition to Miller, Sarasota’s roster featured six other new faces this season in Camille Giardina, who transferred from Cardinal Mooney, Jer’Myla Trebles and DeQuandra Hill, who played JV, and freshmen Madison Pack, Ja’da Bennett and Josie LeBlanc.

With only one player returning from last season, junior Zharia Grable, the Lady Sailors did not have the benefit of a summer program or other organized activities.

Instead, the Lady Sailors focused on what they could control.

“We never worried about anything around us,” coach Rob Jutras says. “We just worried about what we needed to do — come together quickly, get in shape and compete every single game. And that’s what this team did.”

Sarasota (26-5) lost its five games this season by a combined 29 points and allowed more than 50 points in only one game — 56 to Fort Myers in the regional championship.

And that was without the benefit of offseason conditioning.

“I see a lot of potential,” Giardina says. “Time has really helped us. As we’ve progressed throughout the season from each game we’ve gelled more, and with another year added on we’ll only be better.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].