RINGGOLD, Ga. — There are still three weeks to go in the basketball regular season and the Ringgold Lady Tigers already have gone through three separate seasons.
First-year coach Kristee Griffin’s team surprisingly began the season with seven wins in eight games but then lost four consecutive games before winning its last five. The up-and-down campaign has brought the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player’s team together and, she hopes, has them prepared for the final stretch run.
“The girls got that early taste of winning, then the taste of not winning, and decided the taste of winning is a lot sweeter,” Griffin said. “I like to say we lost our mojo and had to go back to day one to find it. We’re still getting there, but they’ve shown me a lot.”
One telling moment came during the recent extended Christmas break caused by the winter storm. Catoosa County students were out of school one month. During the snow week, teams weren’t allowed to practice, though that didn’t stop the players from trying.
“They kept asking me, ‘Can we practice, can we practice?’ That was encouraging that they wanted to be in the gym practicing,” Griffin said.