All-Air Force women’s basketball team ready to rise for Armed Forces Tournament

  • Published
  • By Steve Warns
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --   All-Air Force women’s basketball coach Lee McGlown says his team will play hard and have fun in the Armed Forces Tournament July 1-7, but imparting readiness and resiliency are McGlown’s more important objectives.

For McGlown, the camaraderie and trust being built during the camp and at the tournament is something players take back to their units.

“This is going to be something they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives,” said McGlown, a member of the 502nd Civil Engineer Squadron at JBSA-Lackland. “Everybody has been supporting us 100 percent, and I think once they have that trust from everybody around them, they’re going to take that trust and build it wherever they go.”

The tournament tips off July 1, with the championship game July 7 at the Chaparral Fitness Center, JBSA-Lackland. The U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps also will participate.

Each team will play each other twice in a round-robin format. The two teams with the best records will then vie for the championship.

The team opened the Air Force training camp June 14, practicing sometimes as much as three times a day. They went 3-1 in exhibitions, beating semiprofessional teams Dallas Skyline and San Antonio Crusaders.

“It’s just kind of nice to play someone else besides each other,” said 2nd Lt. Linda Kuster, of the 20th Civil Engineer Squadron at Shaw AFB, South Carolina. “To run our plays against different teams who haven’t seen them and actually see them executed properly and catch the other team off-guard is a really great opportunity for us to say, ‘Hey, we know what we’re doing.’”

The Armed Forces Tournament has significance for Kuster, who grew up in San Antonio and attended nearby Reagan High School before attending the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she walked-on to the women’s basketball team her senior year.

“It’s really exciting to come back here,” she said. “Just to see my old stomping ground and to play basketball again is a really awesome opportunity.”

The home-court advantage isn’t lost on Capt. Lauren McCormick, of the 502nd Force Support Group Legal Office, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston.

“I know a lot of my co-workers and even some of the Army folks I work with might come out for our Air Force-Army game,” said McCormick, who played collegiately for Union College in New York. “It’s definitely nice to have people here.”

In 2014, the Army beat the Air Force 73-55 to win the Armed Forces Tournament at Camp Pendleton, California. Army again is expected to be the Air Force’s chief competition, but McGlown is optimistic about the Air Force’s chances.

“The competition this year is going to be intense as always, but I like our chances this year because I have a group of girls who have a lot of experience,” he said. “The girls have been open to a lot of knowledge, and they’re accepting and absorbing everything we’re teaching them. I think we’ve got a great opportunity to compete and hopefully come back with the gold.”

Among the former college players are Kuster and McCormick; Staff Sgt. Tiffanie Guthrie, of the 673rd Communications Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, who played for the University of Illinois; and Staff Sgt. Charmaine Clark of the 116th Air Command Wing at Robins AFB, Georgia, who played for the University of Miami.

“Clark brings a lot to the table, especially underneath the basket,” McGlown said. “Just her leadership in practice, getting all the girls to jell together is remarkable.”

The team also took a break from camp to watch the WNBA’s San Antonio Stars practice and watched the Stars play against the Indiana Fever June 17. The Airmen called the experience “awesome,” and the feeling was mutual for Stars coach Dan Hughes.

“I just love being around people who teach me, and I just hope we can give something back to them,” said Hughes, whose father was an Airman; whose daughter Sara is married to an Airman; and whose son Bryce will play basketball for the U.S. Air Force Academy. “My world … is games. Their world’s real. We share a love of basketball. Through basketball, maybe I can give them some moments that they can take away. I’ll tell you what, they give me a lot to take away.”

The lessons they can impart to WNBA players, Hughes said, is readiness and resiliency in the face of adversity.  “Persistence, focus and the ability to get up when you get knocked down,” Hughes said. 

These are the things successful people and teams rely on during challenging situations, Hughes added.