Four years ago, the Ponca City Lady Cats basketball team participated in the Class 6A State Tournament. That lofty achievement hasn’t been the experience of too many Ponca City basketball teams over the years. A huge crowd from Ponca City was on hand to follow the team’s progress which ended in a first round loss.

Three of the starters on that team are playing college basketball and are looking forward to at least one more year of competition at that level.

Julissa Garcia was a junior on that outfit. She has just completed her third year as a member of the Tabor College team. Madison BIrnbaum was a sophomore on the 2017 Lady Cat squad. She played for two seasons at Newman University in Wichita and has transferred for her third college year to the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. Baylee Fincher was a fresh man starter of the Lady Cat team. She has completed a banner year as a freshman at Cowley College in Arkansas City.

All three look back fondly at their experience at Ponca City High School under Head Coach Jody Fincher. They mentioned that the state tournament team was very close and had good chemistry.

By the way, during Baylee Fincher’s senior year at Ponca City, the Lady Cats qualified again for the State Tournament. But that team didn’t get to participate in the event, because the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association cancelled the tournament at the very last minute. It was never played.

JULISSA GARCIA

Garcia is a two-sport athlete at Tabor College, an institution in Hillsboro, Kan., affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren Church. It was Tabor’s willingness to allow her to participate in two sports that was attractive to her in choosing a college.

She had a pretty good year last year, which was her junior season. But like all other athletes in 2020-2021, there were unusual circumstances due to the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was weird,” Garcia said

“It was weird,” Garcia said about her experience. “Soccer was quarantined, because the entire squad was exposed. Basketball was quarantined. We didn’t get our feet wet until the end of November, beginning of December.”

Tabor had a pretty decent season and got the the championship game of the KCAC (Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference) before losing to Sterling by three points.

Garcia was a starter for Tabor after the fifth game. She is a post player and she said “the other post player and I work well together.”

She tore her ACL during her freshman season, but her recovery has been complete.

“I was defensive player of the week once. My favorite stat was eight assists and eight rebounds in the championship game,” she said.

Tabor is affiliated with the NAIA and Garcia and her teammates have set their sights on reaching the national tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.

“I think we will do really well,” she said about the prospects for next season. “We lost one starter from last year and most of those who return are seniors. We will keep the chemistry we had going.”

Why did she choose Tabor for her college experience?

My high school friends got me grounded in my faith,” she said. “I wanted faith to be an ingredient in my college experience. Tabor provides that. It also was one of the schools that let me play soccer and basketball both. And they were super welcoming. There isn’t anything the coach wouldn’t do for me.”

MADISON BIRNBAUM

After having a great start as a freshman at Newman University, Birnbaum struggled in 2021. In her initial season, she was nominated for Freshman of the Year in the rugged MIAA conference and was named Newman’s Rookie of the Year. “I shot the ball really well and hit big shots,” she said.

But COVID-19 reared its ugly head and produced a very rough experience for BIrnbaum and her teammates the next season.

“Half of the team got COVID,” she said. “I got it the worst of all. But after Christmas I started shooting the ball well.”

Those who remember Birnbaum as a high school player remember her defensive skills, rebounding and shot blocking. She could score, but many of her points came from close range. That has changed. She is a shooting guard in college and has registered a good percentage in shooting long range shots.

“At Newman I extanded my range and worked on it over the summer. Now I can shoot it consistently from far out,” she said. She said that her success is due in part to a quick release.

At the end of the season she made a decision to leave Newman and transfer to Sioux Falls.

“I felt it was a better opportunity for me,” she said about Sioux Falls. “The coach at Newman got fired. I felt it would be difficult for a new coach to coach right away in MIAA, one of the hardest conferences in the country.”

Sioux Falls is a member of the 16-school Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which like Newman is an NCAA Division II school.

“Definitely the coach,” she said in response to a question about why she chose Sioux Falls. “He was persistent and he stressed how good I could be. I went on a visit and loved the campus and the city. I think it is a place I can grow as a player and a person.”

BAYLEE FINCHER

Fincher just about sat out the 2020-2021 basketball season. She had been recruited to play at West Texas A&M, but things didn’t work out there and she transferred to Cowley with no intentions of playing basketball.

“I was going to quit and just go to school,” she said. But her boyfriend’s mother had connections with the Cowley coaching staff and she was invited to join the team in November. “We were able to start practice in December,” she said.

Fincher went on to have a banner year at Cowley including being chosen as a second-team All-Conference player in the Jayhawk East Conference. After the first few games, she got her first start in January and she played guard-shooting guard the rest of the year.

When asked what was the most memorable experience of her season at Cowley, she responded, “That’s a tough question. I think getting to have fans attend the home games was a big moment. We could only have 25 per cent of normal capacity attend, but those who did were mostly Cowley fans and they were loud.”

Attendance was not permitted at all at early games. That was especially frustrating as many of the early games were close to Fincher’s home base in Ponca City--in Tonkawa against NOC, and then the home games in Ark City. After February, her family got to attend games which was a spirit booster.

Fincher has lived with cystic fibrosis throughout her lifetime and has had to work around that disease during her basketball career. “it is sometimes difficult, as I get congested, but at Cowley, there was a bottle of oxygen ready for me when I needed it. I didn’t know that was possible,” she said.

At Cowley, she teamed up with a former teammate at Ponca City, Ryley Beard. “That was fun,” Fincher said. “We still had that connection we had in high school.”

When asked about the difference between playing in college and in high school, Fincher paused before responding with “pace and coaches.”

The college game is played at a much faster pace and by coaches she said she meant that the coaches in high school have to be more patient with their players.

“College players have to be good at more things. If you don’t produce, the coach has other girls who can produce. The coaches recruit you for a reason. You always have to show up,” she said.

As far as next season is concerned, she is optimistic about Cowley’s chances.

“Our goal is the nationals,” she said.

She has been identified as the likely team leader for next season. “That isn’t new to me,” she said. That was her role throughout her high school career.

Next season might be her last at Cowley. What are her plans for the future?

“I am keeping my options open,” she said.