Soaring Eagle girls claim state 3A basketball title

Friday, Mar. 10, 2017

DRAPER — After a harrowing final game against Richfield High School, the Juan Diego Catholic High School girls basketball team took home first place in the Utah High School Activities Association’s 3A Girls State Championships.

The game against Richfield “was very nerve-wracking,” said Becca Curran, a senior and point guard/shooting guard for the Soaring Eagle. “But we had to just worry about playing our game and staying focused.”

Tim Turpin, the coach of the girls basketball team, said that at the time, the game was all business for him, no nervousness allowed. But, when he watched it on television later on, “it was much more nerve-wracking then than it was when I was actually there,” he said, laughing. 

The road to victory was not an easy one, said Turpin, who began as the team’s coach this season. “I had never been around these kids, so I had never gotten to see them play a whole lot.”

He also had to get the girls used to working as a team under new management, he said.

“The hardest thing I had to do was have the kids buy into my new system,” Turpin said. “This team needed to trust that I was their guy.”

Although the team had a solid start, they suddenly began to lose game after game, he said. Their fourth loss in a row came in a game against Richfield, the team they would eventually play in the state finals. But the team never gave up hope, he said. 

Although they knew they couldn’t win every time, before each game, Turpin would write on the board “We do not lose.” “Every time we walked out there, we planned on winning,” Turpin said. “When coaches and players have that mentality, they start to believe in themselves.”

The coaches’ message to believe in themselves, that they could be state champions, was motivating, said Anna Ewomiuk, a senior and shooting guard. “This year it was up to us whether we would win or not,” she said.

That belief started winning them games, Turpin said. In a game against Ridgeline that would determine if they would be guaranteed a championship berth, the Soaring Eagle team was down by seven points with a minute left to go, but the girls rallied and cemented their spot in the state bracket, Turpin said.

This year’s team is only the second girls basketball team in the school’s history to be named champions. Trista Vawvrey, a senior and center, said the reason they won was because “we just played really good team basketball, and we just got better as the season went on.”

The first Soaring Eagle girls state title was in 2015.

Although the team was full of good players, two stood out, Turpin said.  “Becca Curran is such a competitor, such a tough kid. She got hurt (during the season), but she played through it.” 

Ewomiuk also had a noteworthy season, Turpin said “I’ve never coached a player who’s so good defensively, who had so much fight.”

Of the entire team, Turpin said “They’re really good kids, smart kids. I never had to worry about their academics. They handled the pressure really well … and they believed in themselves.”