Washington Township’s Clair Klinger laughed as she said the words.
More Top Picks Best Propane Generators
The 5-foot-5 sophomore guard knew it was a cliché, but she couldn’t deny the truth of it.
“Practice makes permanent,” she said. “My dad always says that.”
For the past year, Klinger has spent countless hours working on every aspect of her game with her father Al, and the payoff arrived Saturday night during Washington Township’s 51-49 win against host Kouts in a Class 1A sectional championship game.
Klinger scored 16 of her team-high 19 points in the second half as the Senators (19-6) overcame senior guard Allison Capouch‘s game-high 26 points to avenge a loss to Kouts (17-8) in a sectional final last year and win their first title since 2003.
Every point Klinger scored can be attributed to those extra practice sessions, which usually started after she informed her father that her schedule was clear.
“She’d just say, ‘I don’t have any homework, can we go shoot?'” Al Klinger said.
That was enough to send the Klingers to the nearest gym for hours upon hours of drills, shots and whatever else they could do to improve the skills that couldn’t be addressed during allotted hours for team practices.
“There’s only so much you can do then,” Clair Klinger said. “You’re not getting a lot of one-on-one stuff. But the after-hours workouts helped.”
Twice in the fourth quarter Saturday night, Clair Klinger scored while absorbing contact on the way to the basket and completed the 3-point play each time — reflecting a specific part of her workouts with her father, who would use a padded shield when she drove.
“We always made sure that we were doing full-speed layups,” Al Klinger said. “And she’d always tell me, when she was driving in, ‘Bump me.'”
Clair Klinger’s free-throw shooting was another area of focus during the offseason. In fact, her shooting from all over the court has taken a significant step forward. As a freshman, she made 23% of her 3-point attempts, 37% of her field-goal attempts overall and 64% of her free throws. She has improved those numbers to 41%, 44% and 69%, respectively, this season.
Clair Klinger pointed to the Lake Central Tournament, played just after Christmas, as the point when she realized how much she had improved.
“I was knocking down shots in the first couple of games,” she said. “But after that tournament, it felt like my shot was a lot more smooth and fluid.”
Heading into the Caston Regional against Argos (13-12) on Saturday afternoon, Clair Klinger is the Senators’ leading scorer at 15.8 points per game but is just one part of a dynamic offensive trio that also features sophomore guard Gracie Little (15.1 points) and senior guard Addie Graf (14.5 points).
Washington Township coach Doug Godbolt said that group — and the entire Washington Township roster — has embraced every obstacle placed in its way this season.
“Any time you challenge them, they step it up a notch,” he said.
Godbolt gave his team another challenge in the past few weeks. He took the basketball they were given after finishing as the sectional runner-up last season, wrote “sectional loss, 2022? on it and propped it on top of a practice cone as a daily source of extra motivation.
Godbolt added one final reminder in the closing minutes against Kouts on Saturday.
“I told them, with three minutes left, that we’d worked our tails off to get here and to not let it get away from us,” he said.
Clair Klinger took that message to heart, knowing what had been the inspiration for all of her extra time in the gym.
More Top Picks Best E Readers For Arthritis Sufferers
“I was so upset after last year,” she said. “It drove the work that I put in because I wanted to be successful this year.”
Klinger and the rest of the Senators now have a tangible reward for all that work — one that replaces what had become a practice fixture.
“We don’t have that ball anymore,” she said. “Now we have a trophy.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.