Faith Academy girls basketball keeps busy summer with the goal of having a better season

CAPTION: The Faith Academy girls basketball team is playing in a summer league featuring teams in the area. The players are Madison Winsborough (left), Liv Kraenzel, Layla Terrell, Natalie Weems, Lilly Koziel, Jasmine Young, Selby Sanchez, Cuyleigh Zimmerman and Megan Burrows. Courtesy photo

The Faith Academy of Marble Falls girls basketball team isn’t resting on what it has accomplished.

Fresh off a season that ended in a Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools playoff loss to eventual Class 2A state champion Waco Live Oak 58-48, the Lady Flames have been playing in a Tuesday summer league against University Interscholastic League members.

The league includes Blanco, Dripping Springs, Fischer Canyon Lake and Marble Falls.

Contests will be conducted at Marble Falls High School at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 24. Each half is 18 minutes with a running clock. The honor system is used where “(the players) call their own fouls. No one keeps score,” Lady Flames head coach Harvey Vaughn said.

“We want the competition,” he said. “I like the idea of the format. They had no concept how it was going to work out.”

He noted the player who commits the foul typically calls herself out by stopping play and giving the ball to the opponent.

Needless to say, Vaughn has enjoyed watching his athletes play against opponents that feature larger enrollments.

“I like it,” he said. “We’re playing big schools with big teams. We can compete with them and get up and down the floor. Athletically, we can compete. They have shooters and more experience. The girls are having a good time.”

The Lady Flames aren’t changing their scheme on either end of the floor.

“They are running our defense, our half-court man,” Vaughn said. “We try to fastbreak. We run a simple read-and-react (offense). We try to play really good defense and fastbreak as much as possible. I think offensively, we don’t really run plays. We pass, we cut, we dribble and cause backdoor cuts. I would rather have something simple — have less things but do them better.”

He noted most of the 2024-25 team consisted of eight underclassmen, one junior and a senior. The underclassmen were learning the fundamentals while adjusting to the strength and speed of more experienced opponents.

“It took them the whole season to do the basics,” the coach said. “Now we can start to add certain actions to start the offense. It’s persistence, it’s competing. But you have to have the skill level to give them the best opportunity for success. We kept things simple. So by the end of the year, we could do things easier.”

Vaughn pointed out the Lady Flames have other opportunities to improve. They participate in summer workouts that began June 4 and end in mid July.

“We’re doing skills training at noon once a week,” he said.

The program is hosting a team camp July 14-18 for players in the fourth grade through the sixth grade from 8:30-10 a.m. and for players in the seventh grade through 12th grade from 10 a.m.-noon.

The Lady Flames are doing the work now to pave the way for more success during the season, and Vaughn commends his players for their efforts.

“Everything they do that’s basketball related, I’m in favor of,” he said. “They all seem to be enjoying playing together. The parents seem to get along well. It’s a good team camaraderie. They want to win and have the success they had at the end of the year. Against Live Oak, we gave them the best game they had in the playoffs; it was within their grasp. Another summer of hard work, and they feel we’re getting better and have a good season.”