“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it.” Mary Oliver
This story is completely different than what I usually write here. It is not a story about hiking, but it is a commentary on nature, human nature, and how Spirit weaves into our lives and transforms them. My profession is teaching and I am also an Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach at Sierra Community College in Northern California. On Sunday, March 13, 2022 our team won the California Community College State Championship by beating our fierce rival, Delta Collage 76-71, a feat we weren’t able to do twice earlier in the season. It was a magical run in the playoffs, and one that won’t be forgotten. For me, it was a true reminder of the power of the universe and how Spirit is always present. I wasn’t going to share this with anyone but my closest friends, because it seems so “out there”, but it is too powerful not to share.
Two years ago, our team made it to the coveted State Tournament, only to attend the Banquet of Champions, get to do our shoot around at the arena, when the call came in that it was cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic. The girls were devastated that they didn’t get the chance to compete. Four of our core players, Kiki Griffen, Devon Lewis, Jenna Duley and Rachel Loya played on that team and were eligible to return the following year, only to be told that there would be NO season as the Pandemic raged on. During that time of Zoom meetings, and eventually outdoor workouts, additions were made to complete the line up for this year’s team. They include Jesse Miller, Chris Oliva, Emily Climenhage (who had red shirted with us the previous year), Bri Lambey, Kim Quicksall, Tiffany Brewster, and Aijah King. Natalie Bennett also joined us as our team manager. When we returned to play this season, this team had a lot of skill at every position and everyone was excited to get going.
As all seasons go, there were ups and downs, particularly with some players getting Covid, and others dealing with injury. We won two preseason tournaments and tied for the Big 8 League Championship with Delta College. Going into the playoffs, we only had three losses, a 1 point loss to Fresno City, a 9 point loss to Delta and another 38 point blowout loss to Delta. So as we were heading into the playoffs, we were now at full strength and ready to go. The team had a resolve to get back to the tournament and win it all. So much so that they wrote it as their mission statement as a reminder of their goal.
Here is where my tale comes in. I am a believer and seeker of God, the Universe, Spirit Guides and Signs. I had just read a book about signs (Signs by Laura Lynne Jackson) and had recently given each of my closest loved ones a sign to let me know they are with me. So let me outline briefly, who they are and what the signs are. Sasha Brown (a beloved ex-Sierra player passing away at 23 years old) is a presence that I have felt since she passed away. This season, we honored her by giving one of our players the Sasha Brown Award after each game. She loved slurpees and rainbows, so my sign for her was a rainbow. Coach May was my college basketball coach and an outstanding one at that. She loved to fish and the sign that came up for me was fish hooks (like I’ll ever see any of those since I don’t fish, but okay). Carol Welch was one of my closest friends and teammates in college. She was an all-American post player and offered to be my pseudo mom after my mom passed away when I was 19 years old. She was also a very good artist, and had drawn me a picture of eagles with my favorite bible verse, Isaiah 40:31 and framed it. I still cherish that. So her sign for me was an eagle. My grandmother passed away when I was 5, and is probably the strongest presence I sense in my life. I loved her as a little girl. I had decided that her sign is the third eye, due to my strong connection with her. My mom who passed away the day before my 19th birthday, loved birds and collected bird statues. I decided that my sign for her was large clusters of small birds flying through the sky. Finally, my dad, who was extremely athletic but also kind and gentle (he passed away when I was 35), reminded me of a deer because they are beautiful and athletic, but gentle. So my sign for him was a deer. That night I was scrolling through Facebook and the first post I saw was a picture of a deer looking up at hundreds of birds flying above and I instantly knew that they were with me. Needless to say, I was a little stunned but felt the presence of Spirit and it was calming. So, I asked all of them for a little help to watch over us and guide us through this journey of the state tournament.
So here we go. On Thursday, March 3, 2022, we hosted our first playoff game against Folsom Lake College. As I was driving to work that morning, out of broken cloudy skies, there it was, a rainbow. I took a photo and texted it to the coaching staff, saying “Sasha says we’re gonna win tonight”. They all loved that, and indeed we did crush them, playing great defense and outscoring them 84-39!
On Saturday morning, I was thinking about those signs and looking forward to our 2nd round match up against Merced College who had been playing really well and were going to be tough. The coaches were texting the day before and Coach Scott Pisik said, “we need a sunrise rainbow” in reference to Sasha and giving us a little extra for the game. That was going to be a tall order since the skies were clear. However, on Saturday morning, I was watching a show on the Disney channel about Europe when up on the screen is a giant rainbow sitting over the city. My jaw dropped, and I took a photo, texted it to the coaches, and said, “here you go Scott, Sasha says we’re going to win tonight”! Later that morning to my astonishment, I was scrolling through Instagram, and the first photo I see, is three fish hooks! (one for Coach May, one for Carol, and one for Sasha, my basketball guides). That was the first time I had ever seen fish hooks on social media! And yes, that night we did beat Merced 67-59! So now we were back full circle, to the state tournament where 2 years ago, it had been cancelled. I was so thrilled and my confidence and intuition was building…we are not going to lose.
On Monday, March 7th, it had occurred to me that even though I thought I would never see fish hooks and yet I did, I hadn’t seen Carol, my eagle, my pseudo-mom yet. It didn’t take long as I was looking through Facebook (yes, I’m probably on social media too much), and there it was, a photo of an eagle feeding it’s young one. I started to tear up, and thought, this is crazy, but I’m going with it. We had two days of practice before going to our final and biggest tournament of the year.
On Wednesday, March 9th, we boarded the bus and headed down to Lemoore, California where the tournament was being held. That night was the Banquet of Champions, where all of the teams dressed up, had dinner and were honored by the governing body and coaches to be there. It was a celebratory night as the excitement was building for the tournament to begin.
We were up bright and early, Thursday, March 10th as we had a shoot around at the arena slotted at 8:15 am. It was a 30 minute bus ride from the hotel to the arena and I spent most of it gazing out of the window of the bus, grateful to be here and part of this journey. As we pulled up to West Hills College and disembarked from the bus, I see the big sign above the arena, WEST HILLS COLLEGE GOLDEN EAGLE ARENA. I almost fell to the ground in amazement! I didn’t even notice this two years before. Inside there are images of eagles everywhere! Once again, the voice inside me said, “we are not going to lose”. We were ready to play our quarterfinal round against Moorpark College at 3:00 pm. Our players came out focused, played great defense and defeated them 83-53, which turned out to be the biggest blow out of the tournament! That night I was joking around with one of our team leaders, Devon Lewis and we got on the topic of crystals. She keeps a little bag of them in her backpack, and I said that I did too, as well as around my neck! We laughed, took a photo and said we need these crystals to see us through.
The men’s teams played on Friday, so we had a day off. Instead of practicing, Head Coach Brandie Murrish decided it was a good day to do some team bonding. So in the afternoon, we all went to play mini-golf and laser tag. The humor of the universe wasn’t lost on me when I saw that the last hole of the course was a shack with a sign that said Robby’s Bait Shop and a fishing theme. To me, spirit and my spirit guides were everywhere! We were all immersed in the magic of the universe. Everyone had fun and it was time to get back and focus on the tournament.
We had another 3:00 pm game on Saturday, March 12, and we wanted to get some shots up for 30 minutes in the morning, but had no gym to go to. Coach Tom Tran knew the high school coach at Sierra Pacific High School and he graciously allowed us to come and shoot around for 30 minutes that morning. Let me preface first, the fact that I do have a spirit animal guide, the Bear, who represents so many things to me spiritually, and also that when I played basketball in college, our colors were green and gold. So, when we pulled up to Sierra Pacific High School that morning, there it was…their colors were green and gold and they were the home of the golden bears! I smiled and once again said, we are NOT to going to lose.
The semi-final game that day was against a very tough College of Sequoias who hadn’t lost a game since early January and were playing really well. We all knew it was going to be a battle. As both teams were warming up, the opposing team was warming up in front of our bench where I was sitting. One of the players was in front of me, with her back to me when I look down and saw the heel of her shoes. WAIT WHAT?? IT WAS A THIRD EYE! NO WAY! My grandmother is even in on this! As I sat there astounded, all I could think is, this is insane and we’re not going to lose. We went on to beat College of Sequioas 69-53 and punched our ticket to the State Championship game against, of course, our rival Delta College who beat Irvine Valley College in a big comeback from behind win 77-74.
For all of us at this point, the adrenaline is pumping. WE ARE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME BABY! As a result, it was tough going to sleep that night. I spent some time listening to soft music, did some meditating and praying, and yet sleep eluded me. At around 12:45 am, I decided that I would scroll through social media and maybe play a game on my phone until I got tired enough to go to sleep. Two photos instantly caught my attention, 1. an elk and the full moon with rainbow colors all around it and 2. a photo of a double rainbow. My dad and Sasha were sending me their signs, and not long after that, I fell asleep.
Our game on Sunday, March 13th was at 1:00 pm, so it was breakfast, packing and gearing up to play the biggest game of our season. On the bus ride over to the arena, I was thinking, how many more signs can there be? Will there be another one today? I mean, this is going to take everything we have to beat a team that had beaten us twice before. We certainly have the skill, so will this be our day? Inside, I felt like I already knew. Everyone was excited and focused for the task ahead. As I sat on the bus next to Coach Tamar Gruwell, I noticed that she was playing wordle on her phone. I had never played before and wanted to see how it was done. At the same time, I was scrolling through social media and saw a news headline that a rare Wolverine was spotted in Yellowstone National Park. I made sure to screenshot that as the Sierra College mascot is the Wolverines. I thought that was so cool. I continued to watch Tamar play the game, and she came up with the word. It was FOCUS! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Within one minute of each other, I see a Wolverine and the word on the game is Focus?!!! WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS GAME TODAY!
Tip off was at 1:00pm and was intense, but we started out slowly. After about two minutes, we caught steam and started building a lead. By halftime, we are up by 10 points and after the third period we are up by 21 points! We knew they had the ability to come back as they had won the night before after being behind by 17 points at the end of the third quarter. The comeback effort was coming and we had to withstand it. With just under 8 minutes left, Delta started their run, cutting the lead to 15. With 4 minutes left in the game, they got it to 7 points. At around the 2 minute mark, we were only ahead by 4. But that was the closest they would get, as our players were resilient, focused and determined to win the game. We won 76-71! WHAT A FINISH! WE ARE STATE CHAMPS! After all of the celebrations, and award ceremony, I took a moment to myself outside of the arena. I started to cry tears of joy, but also tears of gratitude to God and my guides for what was to me and to all of us an incredible journey. I had won an NCAA Championship as a player back in 1982 the season after my mom died and have never forgotten that exhilarating feeling. As a coach, I always wanted the players to have this experience and it happened in 1999 at Sierra and now in 2022. I couldn’t have asked for more. I have been blessed to be a part of these experiences as they are very difficult to achieve. When signs occur from the universe and the stars align, synchronicity is all around, where it reminds me of why I’m here…to connect with something far greater than myself. So when the stars align, and the connection is made, the universe answers.
“The power of the spirit is unlimited, and it is inside each of us. All you have to do is tap into it.” Diane Looker
