In the Region II, Division 3 quarterfinals, Western Albemarle senior forward Carolyn Schneller sat down in a chair on the sideline near the coach’s box. Her classmate Raven Ward came out of the game at the same time and took a spot at the other end of the bench. Almost immediately, Ward got Schneller’s attention behind the heads of their teammates, and the two started laughing about something that had just happened on the court. That’s far from an isolated incident.
“It could’ve been something on the court or anything,” Schneller said. “She can always make me laugh.”
Schneller and Ward are about as close as teammates can get. Anywhere around school, at another game or even around town, if you see one, you’ll almost always see the other. That, naturally, leads to a dynamic interaction on the court and on the bench, particularly since the two play the same position. In the course of exchanging ideas or thoughts on what’s happening in certain sets or defenses in the post, one is going to make the other laugh.
“We’ve got to talk about stuff — that’s my girl,” Ward said. “Sometimes we’ll pick up on stuff and we talk about that. There’s a give and take.”
Don’t mistake that interaction for a lack of focus though. Both are critical members of the Western lineup, with Ward averaging 7.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per contest while Schneller pulls in 5.6 points and 4.6 boards an outing. They combine with Jefferson District player of the year Ellen Shaffrey in the post to make up a formidable trio that gives almost every front line the Warriors play headaches.
If only it’d started out that way.
See, as freshmen, the two highly-competitive players, to put it mildly, didn’t care for each other’s company.
“I didn’t know Raven at all and we just clashed,” Schneller said. “I wouldn’t have considered her an enemy, but we definitely weren’t friends.”
Ward disagrees.
“No, we were enemies,” Ward said.
In every practice, they’d face off during scrimmage situations because they played the same position with the same rugged intensity. And it wasn’t fun.
“It would be just like we were playing a game — physical, boxing out, elbows, whatever we could do to get the ball,” Schneller said. “It was like she was on another team.”
On that, Ward agrees.
“We would swing, we’d leave practice with scratches,” Ward said.
But everything changed when they, along with Ellen Shaffrey and Kelsey Swanson were pulled up to varsity as sophomores under then first-year head coach Kris Wright. The change in level had an immediate effect on the tandem’s dynamic, forcing them to lean on each other to get through the transition and become capable contributors on the varsity level.
“We were like, wow, we’ve really got to focus,” Ward said. “And we’d help each other out.”
That, in turn, led to an off-the-court friendship that gives Western, a team loaded with experience and athletes like Shaffrey and Swanson, a dose of spirit and a looseness that’s made the ups and downs of a long season easier to bear.
“Raven and Carolyn, in a lot of ways, are our heartbeat,” Wright said. “Their emotions rub off on folks, so how their game is going sometimes affects how our game is going. They’ve learned that over the years and now they’ve gotten control of it and it’s usually supportive, pushing energy.”
That heartbeat has helped the Warriors on the road to a regular season district crown, a runner-up in Region II and now, a state quarterfinal berth in Saturday’s slate of games at Richmond’s Siegel Center against Brunswick at 5:30 p.m.
One thing is certain in that matchup — Schneller and Ward will make it fun for them and their teammates. While that’s a far cry from their freshman season, it’s become the norm for the Warriors.
“We just look at each other and we bust out laughing,” Schneller said. “It’s always about the game, but it’s also about your teammates. Playing with Raven and the rest of our friends makes the journey fun.”
