Now a senior, Sara Yarnell could count the number of games Hammond High School girls’ basketball won during her freshman season on one hand.
“It was not great,” she said of the Golden Bears’ 5-14 campaign during the 2021-22 school year. “We had people cutting class, not eligible to play at times. Bad culture. No one really liked each other.”
At the time, Yarnell had no intention of playing basketball beyond high school, despite being 6-foot-1 and having the potential to do so. It just wasn’t that fun.
“It wasn’t team basketball,” she said. “People didn’t value what others could bring to the floor.”
Then, Ayanna Jones took over the Hammond program in 2022, and things changed dramatically for the Golden Bears, almost overnight.
From the unorganized disinterest rose a team that was suddenly engaged, both with the game and each other. There was accountability. For example, if players showed up late for stretching, they ran laps during practice.
And, all of a sudden, two years after no one, Yarnell included, thought it was possible, Hammond won its first state championship in girls’ basketball since 1995 last March.
The Golden Bears beat Francis Scott Key, 65-46, at Xfinity Center in College Park to win the Class 2A championship and cap a 27-0 season. They were the only basketball team, girls or boys, in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association to finish the season unbeaten.
People like Yarnell likened it to “something out of a Disney movie.”
“To watch [the program] change and morph is something really beautiful as well,” she said. “Look at what we just did.”
Jones’ ability to connect with players and to get them to believe in themselves is what inspired the turnaround.
Jones once had to call upon personal faith and belief in the face of great doubt to overcome a pair of ACL tears, one in each knee in consecutive years, that plagued the end of her playing career at Arundel High School.
A team leader and defensive-minded point guard, Jones went on to play at Furman University before deciding she wanted to get into teaching and coaching.
“It really taught me about perseverance, about being strong and having a certain mentality to stay in it,” Jones said.
“It was a very difficult time, just thinking how things could change based off of injuries and worrying about those things,” Jones said. “All in all, it was about staying grounded and knowing that I put in the work to be there. I put in the work to get to where I got, as far as getting a college scholarship.
“It was all instilled in me from my parents, to coaches I had when I was younger and just an unbelievable background of people that supported me and believed in me. Going through all that, I had to hold on to that. And I think that’s kind of how I am operating, coaching-wise, trying to instill that belief. It’s what I had to keep me going. I would love for just half of the people I coached to experience that.”
Prior to getting the call at Hammond, Jones spent six seasons as the junior varsity coach at River Hill High School, where she got to watch and learn under the guidance of longtime Hawks varsity coach Teresa Waters, who now has more than 600 wins.
Through that experience, Jones felt she was ready to be a head coach herself. And she made an immediate impact on her players.
“One of the hardest things to do as a leader is get someone to believe in themselves. She did that for me,” said Yarnell, who is now interested in playing basketball in college as she pursues a career in civil engineering.
“She genuinely has a care for each one of her players and has a role for them on the team, whether it be big or small, offensive or defensive. The way she carries herself translates to the rest of the team.”
Hammond’s self-belief will be tested once again this season, as the Golden Bears attempt to defend their state championship with a largely new cast.
“I hear the doubters. Some of them are in my own house,” Yarnell said. “There’s always going to be doubters. It’s about having the confidence and self-belief to overcome them. Coach has instilled that in us. I believe anything is possible. It’s just a matter of working hard and leaving it all out there on the court.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Ayanna Jones