“I was late to practice,” Latimer began in talking about Joe, the famous disciplinarian who led Central State to three national football championships in the 1990s. “I was one minute late, I had just come from my wife’s dorm room.”
“Hey,” wife LaShann playfully snapped, “don’t bring me into this.”
“All the players saw me coming across the field,” James said. “Instead of me going to the field, I had to crawl through the briar patch, the old cemetery. All the football players who were late had to crawl all through that cemetery. He didn’t care if there were thorns in there, rocks, whatever. You had to get on all fours and crawl.”
Such was the grit of those powerful and feared CSU teams, and it’s a tenacity the nearly 6-foot-7 former tackle has taught to Brittiney.
The senior led all scorers with 16 points in what she said was the senior class’ first defeat of Beavercreek since the fourth grade. She used a mix of inside moves and foul shooting (8-of-10) to add to her defensive and rebounding skills to help the 16-6 Buccaneers advance to play Lakota East in a district final on Saturday, March 6, at Harrison High School.
If they continue to advance, the Buccaneers will rely heavily on Latimer, who averages 14.5 points and 9.2 rebounds. Fellow seniors Brianne Thornton (15 ppg) and Wright State recruit Jessica Alexander (11.7 ppg) also are key contributors, but Latimer remains the force inside.
“When she doesn’t play well,” said Xenia coach Jonathan Snyder, “we don’t win.”
And Latimer is coming on strong. She, like sophomore sister Cindi and eighth-grade brother Jordan, have been trained from a young age by James, a former double-double performer at Cincinnati’s Withrow High School.
The driveway games formed the hard-nosed senior who now leads the confident Buccaneers.
“If I lost, it was either push-ups, suicides or foul shots all night,” Brittiney said. “I found out how useful that was.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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