All in the Eagles family: WBA hoops a lesson in support

It hits one immediately when they walk into the gymnasium on the campus of Westwood Baptist Academy in Poplar Bluff.

The enthusiasm hits you immediately like a warm blanket of positivity. The players warm up with enthusiasm as fans old to very young cascade within the intimate environs with the fans tucked in almost chin-to-chin with the athletes as they prepare for battle.

A closer inspection and one might think the cheerleaders at Westwood Baptist are supremely short for high school kids until learning that a huge contingent of little girls in grades 2-4 make up a large portion of the squad and take it as seriously as the older young ladies that are there to lead them.

Parents and fans sit in chairs pressed against the gym walls or inside the small, but cozy bleachers or heck even on the stage that hovers just on the outskirts of the court itself.

It is a community of people who by extension are a family and the kids who play for the boys and girls Eagles basketball teams – both coached by not-the-Senator Josh Hawley – is currently excelling and hoping to give this community more to cheer about and maybe bring home more state championships from the Missouri Christian School Athletic Association that features a few dozen participating programs.

Hawley, who is 8-1 with the boys and 5-1 with the girls, said it is a challenge working with both programs.

“It keeps you pretty busy,” Hawley said. “I’ve been at the school for 17 years and have been coaching the boys the whole time. Several years we had a need in the girls program and I stepped up to do it and I’ve been doing it ever since and I have gotten used to it. We have the practices down and how we wanted to do them. We have good assistants on both sides.”

It turned out pretty good with Hawley taking over the girls in 2015-16 and he went on to win the MCSAA title that season. The boys won state in 2013.

“The biggest challenge is really the practice because it does take a little bit of time from each group because I can’t practice with both groups at the same time,” he said. “Also it can affect game prep (on game night) because I can’t give the boys enough time because I am coaching the girls.”

Currently, there are 13 varsity boys players and nine on the girls side.

“With the boys, this is the most upperclassmen we’ve had (eight) since I’ve been here,” Hawley said. “The great thing is that about coaching it’s about teaching life lessons through athletics.”

The players come through the WBA grade schools (it is a K-12 facility) with the occasional public school transfer.

Chloe Dodd, a senior for the girls team said that the community is something she fully embraces, but she admits there are some inherent challenges being one of the few private schools in the region.

“It feels very homey but at the same time, all the private schools that we play are about 3-4 hours apart so we have to travel a lot,” Dodd said. “It’s very nice and I have pretty much grown up in the program. It’s nice seeing the younger kids and saying, ‘I was just there.’

“It’s very much like a family. You don’t have as many fights and no one is out to get anybody. We all have the same goal which is winning.”

This year’s girls team has really stepped up after a few down years – by WBA standards – and Dodd is excited about the direction the team is headed.

She also enjoys it when the team steps out to play public schools, even if they lead to defeat like last week when Bloomfield ended the squad’s undefeated start to the campaign.

“We play the same private schools over and over again so it’s nice to be going out of our small private school setting and see something else,” Dodd said. “(The loss) was hard and I was a little upset, but at the same time it’s a growing opportunity for us.”

Senior Jason Hawley said the boys are about putting another title banner on the wall and everyone plays for one another.

“We have come a long way since fifth-grade basketball and having the fans and teammates have our backs to, it’s just fun,” Jason said. “We may not have as many people to pick from and our practices may be limited, but we have come together to put out a good team.”

Jeffrey Van Dover looked around the packed gym with numbers probably four times bigger than the high school’s population and took in the idea that so many people were there supporting them.

“You feel that energy when you make a shot then you feel like you will make the next one,” Van Dover said. “You know all of them and on TV you see thousands of people (at the game) and they are there for fun. Here, they are right there on you and they know who they are cheering for.”

Coach Hawley said both of the current teams are serious groups of athletes who take their own state tournament aspirations seriously – the boys finished second in 2022 with a 19-7 mark and the girls ended up fourth and finished 13-11.

“I am first and foremost a Christian so I definitely like working in a Christian school and in this environment and would prefer to stay in it,” Coach Hawley said.