Get down!
Dive down!
The girls basketball program at West Burlington
is on the rise.
Three years ago, the Falcons won only two games
all season.
Then Coach John Vandenberg arrived and molded a core
group of young talent.
The team jumped from 2 to 13 wins that first year,
16 games last season and won 18 this year.
John: We have great speed.
We're very aggressive defensively and
offensively.
Like last night we had a game, we threw up 70 shots
and most of them from in the paint.
And we're never the tallest team.
We're just very aggressive.
And I think that goes a long way now in girls
basketball.
This year's captain, and the only senior, Samantha
Dzawo, friends and teammates just call her
Sam.
Sam: It's not like an individual sport.
You play with your teammates, everybody
working as one.
I feel like me doing my best in games or in
practice, that helps others to see hey, we can
all do this.
Family on three.
One, two, three. Family!
Let's go!
Sam's journey has been anything but ordinary.
She was born in Zimbabwe.
The family lived in the capital city of Harare.
But when Sam was nine years old everything
changed.
♪♪
Sam: We moved here because of religious
persecution.
My dad was persecuted.
He was a youth leader so he took them on a youth
trip and these government officials thought he was
planning to build an army to take over.
Gerald: Around 2012 we're leading up to an election
year and the government felt what we were doing in
terms of the leadership training that we were
doing, they felt and thought that it was
military training for the opposition party.
Sam: So they pulled him aside and they were like,
hey, what you're doing doesn't look right.
So they interrogated him, they beat him when they
didn't think his answers were right or even though
he was telling the truth.
Gerald: Yeah, lots of stuff went down.
And so we felt like it wasn't safe for us to stay
in the country anymore.
So we packed up and we, with just the suitcases
that we had, we made the trip out to Denver.
Sam: When we first came here I didn't really know
what to think of it.
You see movies about American life, it's
glamour, super fun.
She didn't play organized basketball until the
family moved to Burlington and Sam was in eighth
grade.
She didn't know a lot of the rules and was behind
on fundamental skills.
Sam: I actually hated basketball.
Growing up, the school that we went to, we had
basketball in like our PE, gym class.
Didn't like it, hated it.
Initially Sam was a guard.
She was uncomfortable.
The pressures of handling the ball and being the
offensive catalyst got to her.
Gerald: Lots of frustration, lots of
frustration.
She would come home and she kind of has a
perfectionist streak to her that if she sets her
mind on something she wants to really do it and
do it well.
And so she became really frustrated with herself
that she just couldn't get it.
John: Sophomore year and her junior year she was
really thinking of giving it up.
It wasn't working out for her and it was part of our
fault as coaching staff, we had her in the wrong
spot.
She really wasn't a guard, but she was so athletic,
and we saw that.
It just didn't work out.
As soon as we moved her into the post, bam, it
just lights went on for her.
It took some of the pressure off her, her
movements were less, but the movements she was
making were stronger.
So it was a perfect fit for her.
Gerald: This year and the way that she has just
blossomed is just, it's incredible.
John: I think she really came into her own at the
Mediapolis game.
They were ranked, they're a very good 2A team, they
always are.
At the end of the game, and we practice it all the
time but we never can hit it, is reverse layups
under the basket.
And she went for it and I'm looking at my sister
going, this ain't going in.
And she nailed it.
And that put us up and we ended up winning the game
at their place.
I think ever since then she has that extra boost
of confidence.
Sam: I play better when I don't have to think a lot
because I overthink a lot, even in school work, like
tests or anything.
John: We'll have team meals at my house and
we'll all eat in the kitchen, living room area.
And then all the kids go and watch movies and hang
out and have fun.
She stays at the table and finishes her homework.
When she's done then she'll go up and hang out
with the kids.
But that's just her nature, she is going to
get that homework done because she knows that's
the most important thing.
And it is.
I love that my daughter plays with her because she
sees that and it's a great role model for all of my
kids.
She is involved in a variety of activities, but
faith, family and school take priority over
everything else.
A younger teammate recently told Sam, she
wants to be more like her.
Gerald: I was like, you're being a good role model
and she sees something that she likes in you that
she wants to emulate.
And so I said, so you should take that as a
compliment.
Sam: If you were to go around and ask people at
school what kind of person is Sam, most of them would
tell you that I'm quiet, kind of shy, but I think
most of them know that I'm big in my faith.
I hope my actions speak louder than my words.
I hope that I can show people that doing good is
good.
♪♪