Muncie Central seniors Jayla Scaife, Ke’Chell Tate, Jaylen Montgomery and Fa’Tara Davis have left a lasting impression.
Muncie Central seniors Jayla Scaife, Ke’Chell Tate, Jaylen Montgomery and Fa’Tara Davis have left a lasting impression.
Muncie Central seniors Ke’Chell Tate, Jayla Scaife, Jaylen Montgomery and Fa’Tara Davis have left a lasting impression.
MUNCIE — As the Central Bearcats struggled to a 2-19 season in 2011-12, first-year coach Lisa Blalock heard the chatter. Not that her job was in jeopardy, but that a turnaround might be right around the corner – literally.
Everyone told her, “Hey, there are some really good eighth graders.” She knew of Jayla Scaife because of her older brother, former Ball State basketball player Jauwan Scaife. But she wasn’t familiar with Fa’Tara Davis, Jaylen Montgomery and Ke’Chell Tate, part of a crew that only lost one game as teammates in middle school (it was to New Castle in the final game of eighth grade).
So in the midst of that challenging first season, Blalock ventured out to Northside one night to catch a glimpse of the future.
“I can still see it,” she said at a practice earlier this month. “They were precious, just adorable. … I remember the four of them out on the court. I remember Jaylen shooting, Ke’Chell driving, Jayla just being Jayla inside and Fa’Tara running the floor.”
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Fast forward three seasons and 48 wins, and not much has changed – the four seniors are just bigger and stronger. Scaife, a Dayton signee, is coming off a season in which she averaged 21.1 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.8 steals and 2.5 blocks. Tate, the point guard, averaged nearly nine points and three assists while Davis contributed just shy of seven points and six rebounds.
By now, each is comfortable with the other’s style of play because they’ve been playing with and against one another for so long. Tate and Davis went to Longfellow Elementary, Scaife went to Storer Elementary and Montgomery went to Garfield Elementary.
Storer beat Longfellow in fifth grade, but Scaife’s squad lost to Tate and Davis in fourth grade.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Scaife says, laughing.
Then they went unbeaten in middle school, until that last game. Scaife, Tate and Davis helped the Bearcats regroup as freshmen, going 11-10 (Montgomery then went to Southside as a freshman before coming over to Central). Then came an 18-6 season as sophomores which ended with the team’s first sectional title since 1997. Last year brought another sectional championship as Central went 19-6.
The four have come a long way together.
“We’re trying to take this team as far as it can go,” Tate says. “Leave a mark before we leave so we can come back and look at something. We’re trying to hang another banner up.”
Central’s Fa’Tara Davis and Jayla Scaife react to a teammate taking a foul during their game against Delta at Blackford High School Tuesday.
They’re also aiming for more than just victories, striving for the sort of thing that won’t show up in the record books, but will be felt for years to come.
They’re trying to be mentors, the same way that the graduated Savannah Jackson, Jessica Rowe, Madelyn Beaver and many others were to them. And that’s not always easy.
“When you have so many young players,” Davis says, “and they have to take what they do in practice and transfer it to a game, it’s hard. Sometimes they overthink.”
Of the 11 players listed on the roster, four are sophomores and two are freshmen. The word Scaife kept using at a recent practice was “encourage.”
“Coach will always pull us the four of us to the side,” Montgomery says, “and tell us, ‘We’re going to do this drill and everybody looks up to y’all, so if y’all lack, they’re going to lack.’ It’s every day.”
The Bearcats, already off to a 2-1 start this season, moved up to Class 4A this year after three years in Class 3A. Tate says she doesn’t want to think about this being the group’s last year together, she just wants to have fun.
So does their coach, the one who realized the possibilities four years ago.
“It’s been such a joy to coach them and be part of their journey as they’ve grown,” Blalock says. “They’ve taken this program to a whole new level and to heights of success that are just awesome. They are definitely leaving a legacy. And with who they are as people, as individuals.
“I want to enjoy this journey with them.”
Contact sports features writer Ryan O’Gara at (765) 213-5829. Follow him on Twitter @RyanOGaraTSP.
Muncie Central seniors Jayla Scaife, Ke’Chell Tate, Jaylen Montgomery and Fa’Tara Davis have left a lasting impression.