Corbett girls basketball’s championship was for the whole Gorge

Published 1:47 pm Sunday, March 17, 2024

No moment better encapsulates what made a group of Corbett girls basketball standouts special than an embrace at center court.

After four years of hard work, which included twice falling heartbreakingly short, seniors Ally Schimel and Ella Howlege finally achieved a goal they had dreamed of nearly their entire lives: winning a state championship.

So as the large contingent of Corbett fans roared in the stands, and the players leapt and shouted for joy, those two found each other. They didn’t say anything, didn’t have to. Instead it was a tight embrace, foreheads pressed together, to mark perhaps their final time on a basketball court together.

“It was a lot to take in — my last game as a Cardinal, last time playing with my sister and for my dad, last time playing with Ella and all my other friends,” Ally said. “We just looked at the clock, looked at each other, and knew.”

“Watching those final seconds tick down, it was happy and sad tears,” Ella added.

No. 1 undefeated Corbett beat No. 3 Amity 77-51 for the 2024 OSAA 3A Girls Basketball State Championship. Ally’s 42 points smashed the previous modern-day record for most points in a state title game, as did her 8 three-pointers. Add to that Lilly Schimel’s 30 points and it made for quite the onslaught from the sisters.

“I was really shocked to win. I forgot it was a championship game,” Lilly said with a laugh.

The Cardinals led by 14 after a quarter, 24 at the half, and were up 64-44 after three. It was a nice respite from how intense the quarterfinals and semifinals had been.

“Before the game I turned to Ally and said, ‘Can you just score 40 points and make this a blowout,’” Assistant Coach Aaron Holwege said with a laugh.

The coaching duo of Bill Schimel and Holwege have been talking about a moment like this for years. They first got an inkling seeing their daughters star on a co-ed Corbett basketball team as 6 year olds.

“It was the best the Corbett boys have ever looked,” Coach Schimel said with a smile.

They saw how talented their daughters were, and how willing they were to put in the work. The senior duo always had that in their DNA — working outside of practice, straining their eyes far into the night putting shots up in the backyard, conditioning and training.

“You can’t just come to practice, you have to do all that behind the scenes work,” Coach Schimel said.

Even recently, when the winter ice storm shut down the Columbia River Gorge for two weeks, Ally, Ella and Lilly were all working out in the freezing cold to keep that edge. You have to, when a team like Banks looms and you are fighting to hold onto the top spot in the state.

“Because we were ranked No. 1 the whole way, and undefeated, every team gave us their best shot,” Coach Schimel said.

“Billy and I would be sitting around the hunting camp when the kids were young, and talk about, ‘One of these days,’” Coach Holwege said. “All of that finally paid off.”

Community Championship

If you don’t think this championship means the world to Corbett, you haven’t been paying attention.

The pressure on the two-time runners-up was immense. It’s what happens when you change the course of a program.

It started with the older sisters — Sydney Schimel and Sydney Holwege — when the Cardinals were less than impressive. To be blunt, they were bad — like, bottom of the standings, two wins a season bad.

But the seeds were planted. That group brought a work ethic and camaraderie required as a foundation for any winning program.

“The gym was empty back in those days, and we just told the girls to be patient,” Coach Schimel said. “Then we started winning, and all those Gorge hillbillies started coming back to the gym.”

Coach Schimel knew how special the fans could be. He was part of back-to-back state champs in ’94 and ’95. So when he took over the program four years ago, when Ally and Ella were freshmen, it was with championship aspirations.

As the girls hit the stratosphere, piling up wins, the expectations changed to match Coach Schimel. A championship was on everyone’s mind.

In 2022, at the 4A level, a No. 11 underdog Corbett lost 46-35 to No. 1 Philomath for the title. Last year, at 3A, the No. 3 Cardinals fell 47-38 to in-league rival No. 1 Banks.

“Last year, after losing, I remember looking into the stands and seeing all the students crying,” Ally said.

The team started to literally wear that pressure. Someone had made up wrist bands with “Last Chance” written on them, a somewhat ominous reminder that Coach Schimel wore the entire season.

But when they finally achieved that championship, the fans gave a proper reception. When the team returned from the Oregon Coast, hundreds lined the Historic Columbia River Highway to cheer, holding signs, balloons and flowers. The welcome back to the Corbett High hallways was just as good.

“I was getting high fives from all these people I had never met before,” Ally said.

Unapologetically Corbett

What made Corbett special is it always unapologetically played its own way. That meant lots of deep threes, with every player on the court getting the green light to shoot.

“We would take criticism from a lot of people, but we were always the smaller team,” Coach Schimel said. “This is how we have been since the girls were little, and it wasn’t like we had a 6-foot-2 post to dump it into.”

“We live and die shooting the three ball,” he added.

What balances that break-neck, new-age style of offense was a meticulous, brutal defense that often left opponents heads spinning.

To be a part of this state champion squad, you had to be willing to play defense, rebound, and do all the little things that don’t show up in the box score.

“Our defense this season was special,” Coach Holwege said.

The player who best embodies that mindset is Lilly, the quintessential younger sibling playing out of her age group all those years to be with Ally and Ella.

That constant pressure to play up helped her become great at battling in the paint, rebounding, and taking on the challenge of staring down opponents despite giving up inches.

While Corbett had its stars, the roster was thin heading into the season. Thus the recruitment of non-basketball players that has become something of a legend.

The Cardinals star duo of Ally and Ella went to fellow athletes with an enticing pitch: come win a championship with us.

It resulted in a bolstering of the depth chart, without which this team probably wouldn’t have reached that title summit.

“We were on a razor-thin edge,” Coach Schimel said.

Rounding out the starting lineup were two soccer stars, seniors Ava Blatchford and Carly Hardie.

Both had zero basketball experience when they joined the team last season. This year they were key components on the court.

They were elite defenders and rebounders, and Blatchford was more than capable of knocking down open jumpers when defenses overcommitted to the star trio.

In the semifinals, the Cardinals watched a 21-point lead evaporate. As the clock ticked down, Hardie was fouled and sent to the free throw line to break a tie game.

Coach Schimel talks about it like a moment out of “Hoosiers.” That improbable star hitting the biggest shot of their life on the biggest stage.

“Carly has always been down for everything, she is one of the hardest working people I know,” Ally said. “We even convinced her to play softball this year.”

Hardie had only shot four free throws all season. She had never been a player interested in scoring, instead looking to set screens, crash the boards and defer to teammates.

“In the huddle before taking it she asked if someone else could step up in her place,” Coach Schimel said.

But she persevered and knocked down the first free throw. It wasn’t a pretty shot, but when Coach Schimel describes it he gets sparkles in his eyes.

“Hit the side of the rim, no business going in,” he said. “Then it bounced to the front of the rim, no business going in. Then it pops up and goes down. The crowd erupts, had to be restrained from storming the court. Her parents were in tears in the stands.”

“That was a special moment,” Coach Schimel said.

The recruitment brought more than just those two key seniors. Corbett added six players that completely changed the dynamics of practice.

Those players never had to be convinced to buy in, despite joining those intense sessions. Because of the championship aspirations, many of the girls were thrown into the basketball fires.

“In some ways it was, ‘You got a pulse, you can come play for Corbett,’” Coach Schimel said. “But having them join our team changed everything for us.”

One of the best parts for Coach Holwege was being able to take a breather from always being the defender in practice.

“I was getting tired going against these girls,” he said with a laugh.

An uncertain future

No one is quite sure what the future holds.

Both Ally and Ella want to continue playing collegiate ball, but neither has committed to a school. Many Oregon colleges and all the local community colleges have come knocking, and both like the idea of continuing to play together if possible.

“I’ve never played a Corbett sport without Ella,” Ally said.

Things are more up in the air for Lilly and her senior season. The Cardinals lose four of five starters, and she is already trying to recruit more athletes to join her on the court. Plus there is some talent coming up from the middle school level. But it will be strange for her to be without her sister.

“She will be double and triple teamed, but will have fun,” Coach Holwege said.

As for the coaching duo, the future is nebulous. These past two years have been brutal on the first responders, whose schedules are tight at the best of times. Both coaches had to burn all of their vacation days to make these past two seasons work.

“It has been really hard,” Coach Schimel said. “But dang, no matter what has happened these past few weeks, it hasn’t mattered. I just think to myself, ‘We are the state champs.’”

Coach Schimel talks about returning one final year to be with Lilly, but even that is uncertain. And beyond that it is likely a new coach will have to be found.

“I will be here to help Billy, no matter the sport,” Coach Holwege said. “I will always be grateful and miss this time of our life.”

And while the Schimel/Holwege era of Corbett hoops is coming to a close, they have set the stage for future stars to wow those Gorge crowds.

Ally, Ella and Lilly have all loved being ambassadors for the sport, interacting with kids and inspiring so many to pick up a basketball.

“So many little girls text us and say they want to start basketball because of us,” Lilly said.

Their suggestion: find that group of friends you can cling to.

“Find a good group of girls, have each other’s backs, and put in the work,” Ella said.

“That is the best part, the girls you play with,” Ally added. “The friends we made is why we were able to win.”