money 'Special and unique': Waupun's state girls basketball title a 'blessing' for the Aalsma family
ASHWAUBENON – The dream that began a decade ago playing basketball in the driveway came to life on the court at the Resch Center on Saturday.
Waupun’s victory over Freedom in the WIAA Division 3 girls basketball state championship game brought the first title for the Warriors program and was a shining moment for the Aalsma family.
Head coach Tim Aalsma and his three daughters on the team — senior twins Abbie and Naomi and freshman Lydia — felt “blessed” to be able to experience the state title together.
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“To share this moment is certainly a blessing and one that in a year or two we’ll look at a little more probably,” Tim Aalsma said after the 63-42 victory over the Irish. “It’s hard for me to even kind of look at them as my three daughters because when I coach them I just coach three players. That’s truthful. You want to put your team in the best situation to win and so if it means all three girls are on the court at the same time, then that’s what we were going to do. It’s certainly special and unique and I’m going to cherish it forever.”
Abbie, who will play in college at Illinois State, scored 22 points in the championship game on 9-for-17 shooting. She added five assists, three steals and three rebounds. Naomi added seven points, three steals and five rebounds. Lydia didn’t have her best shooting game and scored just two points, but she contributed six rebounds.
Tim said Lydia was already fighting back tears in the second half when it became clear Waupun was headed toward its first championship.
“That’s a little bit extreme,” he said with a laugh.
Yet there's no denying it was an emotional moment for the entire family.
“It’s really special,” Abbie said. “It’s a blessing not many teams or families get to have. To be a part of that is just incredible. It was amazing.”
The enormity of the moment hadn't hit Naomi until another family member came out of the crowd to join in the celebration.
“When we were all celebrating my brother came down and he was crying and that’s when it hit me and then I started crying,” Naomi said. “I think eventually at some point, probably when we’re all home and everything is settled down, it’s going to be like, ‘We did it.’"
For Tim, the memories of the family basketball games in the driveway came back to him after the title was secured.
“You have the older two that when they were little, I used to play 1-on-2 in the driveway against them as 5- and 6-year-olds and I’d always call them the ‘Pesty Petes’ because they would just be trapping me and doing all those different things,” he said.
Naomi remembers those special moments in the driveway, just like she and her sisters will remember raising the gold ball forever.
“It’s incredible because we’ve been dreaming about this since we were young,” Naomi said. “Being able to do it with both my sisters is an amazing experience. It’s definitely something that we’re never going to forget.”
Contact Mike Sherry at msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.
This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Waupun's state girls basketball title a 'blessing' for Aalsma family
