The flyest girls on the court
WEST POINT, Miss., (WCBI) — The Fly Girls AAU Basketball team has been making waves. The West Point-based team is for girls fifth through eleventh grade.
In the AAU circuit, the Fly Girls are considered a young team. Having only been around for five years. But they’re making waves. Many of the girls on the team are now helping their high school basketball team battle in the Mississippi High School Activities Association’s Final Four.
And for Tamara Tippett, director and founder of the Fly Girls, that says a lot. It shows that there is talent in the Golden Triangle, you just have to be willing to work with them.
What started as an idea, has turned into something much bigger.
“It started back in 2020 when we just had the idea to do an AAU team for fifth and sixth graders at that time my daughter was in the fifth grade. When we got them together to do a tryout, we had over 100 girls to show up. So, we’ve been running since then with about four teams sometimes five teams each year.
Tippett says you don’t have to know anything about basketball. They just want you to “want it.”
All you have to do is want to. We don’t expect fourth graders, fifth grader coming in to already having skills or already knowing but if they want to, if they’re hungry you know anybody can be taught. Just time and effort is all it takes.
For the fly girls it goes beyond basketball; they care about the whole girl. And that’s important for parents like Justin and Kasenda Martin.
“It’s awesome because what it does is teaches them that it’s not only basketball it’s about learning teamwork, learning to be a part of a group, learning how to battle adversity, lose and still be able to — even though you lose know that it’s not losing its learning.
Tippett says many of the girls reach out them and talk to them, ask them if they can pray for them. Even if they are no longer on the team, they still reach out to them.
It shows the impact that Tippett and her coaches have on the girls. They’re not just ready for basketball; they’re ready for the game of life.
