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Climax Springs was officially dissolved as a town by voters in 2015, but its school system remains.
Still, it’s small population presents some challenges, and when you watch the Climax Springs boys basketball team take the court, you can’t help but notice that a couple of players don’t fit the mold. Two girls, freshman Cierra Dake and Skylar Austin are on the boys team because there were not enough returning players from last year’s Lady Cougars to field a team.
“We thought they might have six and it turned into four pretty quick,” explained boys head coach James Butterfield. “So I just said come on.”
“He gave them the option of playing with the boys,” added girls coach and assistant boys coach Kirsti Saultz. “They all committed at first and we’ve had two stick with it.”
The 5-7 Dake, also known as C.J., has become a valuable member of the team, known for her defensive prowess and toughness.
“She plays just like one of us,” said Jake Reed, one of the boys on the team. “She’s tougher than most of us. Tougher than any girl I’ve ever seen.”
“The stereotype is she’s a girl so she’s not going to be that good,” Saultz said. “In the Skyline Tournament we put her on the best ball handler against Warsaw and she did her job. She made him tired.”
“By the time we were done with that game he didn’t want to see that long hair anymore,” added Butterfield.
There was some fan backlash.
“One time when I came out in a ballgame everybody was booing at me,” Dake explained.
But the team has readily accepted the newcomers.
“The boys concerned me because other people might make fun of ‘em,” Butterfield said. “But they just never worried about it.”
“We actually call them the ‘fellas’,” Reed added.
“At the beginning of the year we actually gave them boys names, Butterfield explained.
“Steve,” Dake replies when asked her assigned boys name.
“Before long I would yell C.J. and she would reply that her name was Steve,” Butterfield said with a smile. “C.J.’s not here”
“It felt like I was accepted onto the team,” Dake added.
While the integration of girls into boys sports is unusual, national studies have shown that co-ed teams can be beneficial to both genders. It enhances a girls confidence and resiliency
“I feel like going into the girls team and leading them will help me so much,” Dake explained. “I can build their confidence and tell them that they can be like the boys,”
And the studies also show that boys become more team-oriented and push themselves more with girls on their team.
“She does things that I want my boys to do,” Butterfield said. “And the boys don’t want to allow her to get ahead of them so they’ve gotten a lot tougher.”
With a good number of junior high and elementary students on the way, there will be girls high school basketball at Climax Springs next season. And the boys team will lose one of its top players.
“To be honest I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the situation,” Butterfield admits. “I wasn’t even sure how to deal with it. But now I’d like to have her back.”
