Camas girls make history

Camas wins league in everything, right?

Well, the girls basketball team was always on the outside looking in until Feb. 1.

Meghan Finley, Emma Jones, Stephanie Knight, Teague Schroeder, Courtney Clemmer, Madison Freemon, Jillian Webb, Maggie Wells, Jordyn Wilds, Hannah Booth, Haley Hanson and Marianna Payne checked the league championship off their wish list after the Papermakers defeated Skyview 42-24.

To cut down the nets was satisfaction for the Camas girls after watching Skyview celebrate against them the past two seasons.

“That brought out the fire and passion in us,” Schroeder said. “We didn’t want to see that again. We wanted to be the ones to cut the nets down.”

Finley wore a trimmed basket around like a necklace.

“When we were sophomores, Teague and I picked up a piece of the net and said ‘that’s going to be us, one day,'” Finley said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, but we finally got up on that ladder.”

Jones was the first one climb the ladder and make an incision.

“I just went up there and cut the first thing I saw,” she said. “It’s so gratifying cutting down something that you earned.”

Schroeder rose to the occasion. The CHS senior delivered five 3-pointers and finished the game with 16 points. Afterwards, she got big bear hugs from her father, Tom, and sisters, Tenielle and Tatum. They both played basketball for the Papermakers for four years and never won a league title.

“My dad did just win a state championship in football,” Teague Schroeder said. “We are who we are because of our parents.”

Tom, Tenielle and Tatum remain invloved in CHS sports by coaching. Teague sees a future in that after her playing days are over.

“We all love people and we love basketball,” she said. “Maybe you’ll see four Schroeders on that bench one day winning state.”

But first, the CHS girls basketball team must get to the Tacoma Dome. Finley, Jones and Schroeder believe this is the year.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication,” Jones said. “We can all get to the dome if we take every practice seriously, every game seriously and every time we’re together seriously.”