GREENLEAF, Idaho — Faith. Hope. Resilience.
Three of the qualities that the Greenleaf Friends Academy girls basketball team showcases on and off the hardwood.
The Lady Grizzlies are preparing for their first Idaho State Tournament appearance since 2009. But their season was suddenly changed last Thursday, when their two coaches were involved in a car crash.
Assistant coach Loma Bittick was killed. The team's head coach - Loma's husband Jim - was hospitalized.
As the team looks ahead to the first round of the 1A DI girls basketball state tournament on Friday, they'll be playing with their coaches in their hearts.
"As a team, we're definitely like, 'We can do this, we're going to do this for them.' It's not about us anymore," Shaelyn, a senior on the Greenleaf Friends Academy girls basketball team said. "We worked hard to make it there, they were so excited when we got to state. We're playing for them now, we're not even playing for ourselves."
Jim was hospitalized in the crash, and is recovering. The team has been able to visit their coach.
"You never think you're going to have to see your coach in that position, to where you have to tell your coach, 'Okay, you're gonna be okay.' Like, that's what he tells us, and now just like roles are kind of reversed," Shaelyn said. "I'm glad it comforts him knowing that we can be there for him. And he just knows that we have his back and that he has ours. So I think it was a relief when he saw us the first time we went and saw him. Now I think he just wants to be better because he wants to be here for us."
Loma taught math at Greenleaf Friends for years. Shaelyn says it was the best math class she's ever had.
Loma was also the head coach of the school's vollyball team. Hope, a junior at Greenleaf Friends, was coached by Loma on the basketball and volleyball teams.
"She was pretty amazing," Hope said. "Something I remember that I think will stick with me, and probably anyone you talk to, is she was incredibly uplifting. She was absolutely always positive. She will always point out the positive in whatever you're doing, whether that be in the classroom or on the court."
Players say the husband-and-wife coaching duo were always by each other's side.
"They were just a dynamic duo that you wanted to be around. You could see their love," Shaelyn said. "They showed you all their love, and they were just a huge impact in my life and just in the community at the school and everything."
An impact that was made clear the night of the crash, when the 1A DI district championship game was called off. Greenleaf Friends and Livery Charter were named co-champions of the district.
Greenleaf Academy fans stayed to support the team and community. They all prayed together, and a chapel service was held at the school's church the following day.
"There were so many people there just wanting to make sure we felt loved and that we felt supported," Shaelyn said. "And I think that just shows that Greenleaf is a huge support system."
Their support system extended across the state. Other teams from across the conference sent Greenleaf Friends cards, flowers and candies.
"It just shows that it's so much more than basketball," Shaelyn said. "It's a community not just within the school, or the like our community next to us, but statewide and anywhere they feel our pain. They're with us. And I think that just shows that sports bring us together in ways we can't imagine."
As they look ahead to the state tournament, the Lady Grizzlies aren't just playing for a trophy - but for Jim and Loma.
"I just want to go and play my heart out for them," Hope said. "Because that's how they coached us. And they're excited for us to be here. So I want to go and do that, and I think that's how the team is feeling too."
Greenleaf Friends' first game of the 1A DI Idaho High School Girls Basketball State Championships is against Prairie. Tip off is at noon Friday at Columbia High School in Nampa.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the Bittick Family.
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