In her sanctuary
- Updated: February 24, 2016
Saks junior post Jenkins has a lot on her mind when she’s away from basketball, but she finds a release on the court
Saks junior Tee Tee Jenkins uses the basketball court to get away from outside pressures. She let herself be free Wednesday and came off the bench to have a career game. (Photos by Kristen Stringer/Krisp Pics Photography)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE — When Saks girls basketball coach Michelle Lively talked about the game TeeTee Jenkins had Wednesday in the Class 4A Northeast Regional final, she couldn’t keep back the tears.
Losing the last game of the season, so close to the Final Four, was painful enough, but Lively knows how tough a time her junior post has it off the court so it was hard not to get emotional when considering what she just witnessed.
Jenkins came off the bench and, in her sanctuary between the lines, played as big a role as anyone in keeping the Lady Wildcats in their 91-76 loss to once-beaten and top-ranked Locust Fork. She scored 18 points and fought for eight tough rebounds in 19 minutes.
“The thing about Tee Tee … she’s probably … she’s going through a whole lot right now,” Lively said, her voice cracking with emotion. “We lost her for a little bit of the season in the earliest part. She’s going through so much that a teenage kid shouldn’t have to be and for her to … come out and put these girls first … shows a lot about her character. And I can’t imagine us without her.”
Or her without them. It’s a complicated world out there getting moreso every day and team sports can provide an avenue for their players to escape the pressures of the day.
“That’s kind of why you want it so bad for some of these kids because a lot of them don’t have the most money or the most support or even just a mom and a dad there half the time,” Lively said. “That’s what makes it so hard for me is my team is kind of full of those (circumstances).
“But there are a lot of good times. There’s tons of stuff … There are three or four kids’ lives that are going to be changed for just being a part of the team. They may not have been a player or may not have been the best basketball players, but they’re family now and they’ll always be taken care of.”
Jenkins left the arena shortly after the Lady Wildcats broke from the dressing room probably not knowing she evoked such an impassioned response from her coach.
Junior guard Maiya Northard is perhaps Jenkins’ closest friend on the team and knows more about the backstory than needs to be discussed in polite conversation.
Suffice to say when Jenkins gets on the floor she’s in her happy place.
“She’s been through a lot and it’s not the best … but she lets basketball be her release,” said Northard, an all-tournament pick after scoring a team-high 19 points in the game. “A few times we’ve lost her this season and when she did get to come back with us it was what we’ve been missing.
“I’ve grown up playing with TeeTee ever since sixth grade; we were the only two girls playing against the boys in P.E. (gym class), so we have a bond. Everybody on the team knows when she hits the court that’s her release where she doesn’t have to think about anything, she can just play.
“When she gets off the court she has to worry about other things, but when she’s on the court she’s carefree, she’s worry-free, she can do what she wants to do.”
And Wednesday she gave the Lady Wildcats a chance on their biggest stage.
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