Ashley Corral
They'd been together since she was a precocious freshman-to-be, playing with his sophomores and juniors during the summer. He was the iconic coach at Prairie High School in Vancouver, Wash., with the most state championships in history. She was a ballhandling magician whose feats and reputation preceeded her.
Ashley Corral's abundant talents would help him to his 600th career coaching victory, over a nationally ranked team, Southridge of Beaverton, Ore., last spring. Al Aldridge would prod and coach her to a berth on the McDonald's All-American team in March, as well as a spot on USA Basketball's U18 national team last week. They were two of the most strong-willed and fiercely competitive people to have been paired on a girl's high-school basketball team in Washington, leading to a wonderful, sometimes combustible, but mostly victorious, four-year ride.
Corral looks for the defensive help.
And then there were just four games, at Prairie's last Washington State 4A championship tournament (the Falcons are moving down a classification, to 3A, next season), in which to say goodbye.
At first, it appeared a fairy tale ending was in store for the two. Prairie ran past Inglemoor by 15 points in the first round, Corral's 26-point performance prompting opposing coach John Augustavo to say she'd played "the best game I've seen a girl play in a long time." He said the Vikings wanted to contain Corral to 16-18 ponts, to which a reporter asked, "In the first half?" She'd outscored his team 21-19 in the first half. Augustavo laughed, saying, "That would have been nice."
In the quarterfinals, Prairie trailed Lake Stevens with less than two minutes to play. But Corral found teammate Lindsey Levanen with a beautiful back-door pass to restore the Falcons' lead, then sank two free throws during the waning seconds to ice the victory. The 5-foot-9 point guard finished with 28 points, in spite of a raging flu.
During the game, Aldridge's mother, Laverne Rupp, was told by a doctor in the stands that her son needed to keep the ailing Corral properly hydrated. Armed with that information, Rupp visited Aldridge on the Prairie bench.
"She was just being a mother, trying to do what was right," Aldridge said. "It was a little embarrassing. It was the weirdest thing she's ever done in her life. I said, 'Mom, in the biggest game of my life right now, what are you doing? I have it handled.' "
Aldridge celebrates the Lake Stevens win.
Aldridge laughed.
The semifinals were not a laughing matter. Both Aldridge and Corral have their pre-game rituals. In the locker room, Corral and her teammates wrote on each other's shoulders the letters B, T, F and O - for "block the foe out," a reminder to rebound - on points of a cross, signifying a team goal to stay healthy. This was significant for Corral, who'd undergone two surgeries during the previous summer to repair ligaments in both ankles that her surgeon said had been damaged since the ninth grade.
Then the Falcons danced, every game, with Pit Bull's "Go Girl" blaring from a boom box. The song's lyrics include:
"I party like a rock star,
"Look like a movie star,
"Play like an all-star ..."
A sax player himself, Aldridge liked seeing the same parking lot attendant at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash., and have the attendant touch the team van for good luck before every game. To his horror, that attendant was on break when Prairie pulled in for the semifinal game. Worse, the flu was getting the better of Corral, and she withered under the relentless press of Lewis and Clark, the defending state champions. Corral had 21 points, but made only seven of 21 shots. Still, Lewis and Clark coach Jim Redmon compared her to Angie Bjorklund, the great guard, now at Tennessee, whom the Tigers battled for four years in league play across the state in Spokane.
Part of the pre-game locker-room ritual.
After the game, Aldridge discovered the passenger window in the team's spanking new van was shattered. A security camera later revealed that a passer-by had hurled a butter knife through the window.
Oddly at peace with the loss, Corral dismissed talk of her illness, saying, "Michael Jordan was at his best when he was sick or had food poisoning," then regrouped and led Prairie to a romp over Pasco in the game for third place the next day. She finished with 15 points, giving her the Washington 4A career tournament record for scoring. She also claimed five other records, four involving the 3-point shot, a weapon she'd added to her arsenal during her career at Prairie.
It wasn't the happy ending they'd envisioned or hoped for, but it was, under the circumstances, happy enough. Determined to the end to avoid sentiment, Corral and Aldridge exchanged pleasantries, then Aldridge watched his star point guard walk down the hall and out of his program. He made a comment about her growth as a player, stopping in mid-sentence, blinked and smiled an almost wistful smile.
