SAN ANTONIO — For the third straight year, the Judson girls basketball team heads to the state tournament looking for its first-ever championship.
"We're beyond that stage of just being happy to be here," Rockets head coach Triva Corrales said.
Corrales has spent the past nine years building a program. Two years ago, Judson made its first Final Four. In 2018, the season ended in the state title game.
The players are ready to make the final step.
"It's a big dream of mine, only because we've been here twice and lost twice," senior forward Kyra White said. "That feeling of winning (a championship) is going to be way greater than losing it."
"It's exciting, but we know we have to finish what we started," added fellow senior Corina Carter.
Carter is heading to New Mexico next year while White is off to USC. These two seniors give the Rockets a great shot in the Alamodome.
"As a coach you are only blessed, that's the only word I can think of to have athletes like that," Corrales said. "Some coaches never receive that type of gift."
White's ready for the spotlight; she's been there before, having played in her school's last three state appearances.
"I'm ready to go out there with my team and get two (wins) this weekend," she said.
Maybe progression will lead to precedence. Not just at Judson, but for our area, where a girls' basketball team has never won a state title.
"To get to that level and actually win it all would probably just be the most amazing feeling," Corrales said. "It's something I thought about and dreamt about ever since I became a coach."
"We all want to make history and I want to go out with a bang my senior year," White added.
With the tourney looming, Carter was all but assured of what her team could do.
"We're trying to put our city on the map," she said. "And we're going to do that this year."