; WASHINGTON POST
Ballou senior Ayonna Williams doesn’t notice much of a difference, even if the make-up of the girls’ basketball team around her seems to change all the time. She’s on her fourth coach in four years and watched a nucleus of seniors graduate from last winter’s roster. And yet her ability to score in bunches remains unquestioned.
“I can’t let that bother me,” Williams said. “I’ve got to score so we can win some games.”
Ballou (7-6) enters the final weeks of a tumultuous campaign battling for one of the last spots in this year’s DCSAA tournament, and it’s a credit to Williams’s perseverance after a mid-season coaching change last month.
Ballou Athletic Director Kevin Green said he could not comment on the decision to replace former Coach Nathaniel Vereen with Andrew Gaston ahead of the Knights’ Jan. 15 game against McKinley Tech because he was not authorized to talk publicly about personnel issues. Gaston previously coached the Knights for five years before the school replaced him with Yolanda Lavender before last season.
But nobody — not school administrators, the revolving door of coaches or opposing players — could slow down Williams. After scoring a career-high 42 points in a loss to Bell in December, she poured in 38 points in Ballou’s most recent win over Dunbar on Jan. 29.
She refuses to wilt under the burden of carrying her inexperienced team.
“They see me score, when they get the ball, they’ll try to score, too,” Williams said. “It’s just pushing us.”
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