ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — High school girls' basketball fans, beware – there's a team in the nation's oldest city quietly putting together one heck of a year. The St. Augustine Lady Yellow Jackets are 16-2, and they've won four straight.
Alayla Terry, shooting guard and forward for the St. Augustine Yellow Jackets, shared her thoughts: "When we step on the floor, you're going to see, you're going to feel it, the crowd feels it," said Terry, a shooting guard and forward for the St. Augustine Yellow Jackets.
The team believes in strength in numbers. "I feel that we are stronger together than individually," Terry added.
They describe this season as a journey. "The time it took for them to mesh, but I feel like they're getting it together, and they're starting to trust each other now," said Shain Bagley, the assistant coach for the JV and Varsity teams at St. Augustine.
Head Coach Eric Hancock, in his 9th season at St. Augustine, has a simple motto: "Don't mess it up for the seniors. This might be the last time they play basketball. They stood up to that," said Hancock.
Hancock noted that his players have bought in, and somehow the Yellow Jackets have quietly got the job done under the radar. Teams around the First Coast are beginning to take notice.
"It's our last year; we have to prove a point. We have to prove everybody wrong," said Ivory Kearse, point guard and shooting guard for the St. Augustine Yellow Jackets.
The team attributes their success to a few effective keys. "Once our defense is working that's when our offense turns on," Bagley added.
The Yellow Jackets will hit the road, putting their four-game win streak on the line against the Palatka Lady Panthers. Tip-off is at six o'clock.