Bellevue seniors shoot for one last victory together

BELLEVUE — One last game together. Bellevue seniors Brooke Brown, Hailey Rees and Audrey Turner will suit up for the ultimate finale Friday in the Division IV state championship game. The three have led the No. 1 Lady Red to a 27-1 record this season and a chance to stand on the biggest stage when they take on No. 4 Kettering Alter (19-8) at 4:15 p.m. at University of Dayton Arena. "It's super bittersweet that this is the end," Brown said. "There's no other way I'd want it to end. Hopefully we can come out with a win and make history again. Growing up together and with three sports, it's always been Audrey and Hailey. We're super close and super competitive. Getting to spend so much time together, we're like a family. We talk about everything." Turner said she's been best friends with Brown basically since they were born. The two spend a lot of time together, especially with both being on Bellevue's volleyball team. "Our moms have been co-workers, so we've always went to the beach together in the summer," Turner said. "Brooke is definitely my best friend. We do everything together. We go to morning liftings and then we'd get breakfast. Then we'd go to a basketball tournament and make it back for a volleyball practice before getting back in the weight room. "It's a non-stop grind and I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else." Turner and Rees starting playing sports together before they were in elementary school, but would butt heads because they were "probably the two most vocal dominant kids on the floor," Turner said. "They'd put us on opposite teams and give us the matching wristbands to guard each other," she added. "We're best friends, but we're competitors, even if it's backyard basketball for hours on end until it gets dark out." There was no doubt the expectations were high for Bellevue this season. The Lady Red returned all five starters — Brown, Rees and Turner, along with Kaitlyn Turinsky and Ellie Freitag — after winning 21 games and a district championship last year. Rees said the team brought on the expectations. The goal was set high to make it to state and Bellevue has done it. "At the beginning of the year, we said want our picture up on the wall. We made it our goal," Rees said. "We had a really good feeling about the team this year. Everyone plays really well together and us three seniors have been together forever. We know each other's game. We thought this was the year we could do it." After losing to Copley in a regional semifinal last year, it didn't take long for Bellevue to start working toward this season. For the first time in coach Kory Santoro's 11 seasons, he named senior captains over the summer to set the tone. It was, of course, Brown, Rees and Turner. "Starting after last season, we knew coming in we'd have a really good team and a good chance at going far," Brown said. "We spent a lot of time in the gym. I know personally everyone is putting their own time in outside of the team stuff like lifting, shooting and working out. At the beginning of the season, we knew it was time to go." While Rees and Turinsky are typically the leading scorers for the Lady Red, Turner had a big stretch in the fourth quarter of Bellevue's Division IV state semifinal win against Laurel. With the game tied at 39, Turner was fouled and split two free throws. The Lady Red kept possession on the missed free throw and the ball was again in Turner's hands. Her baseline jumper gave Bellevue a 42-39 lead that it wouldn't relinquish. "It was such a loud and exciting environment," said Turner of the standing room-only crowd at Elyria Catholic High School. "While we're on the floor, it's silent. All you hear is your players and your coach. I think when that moment came for me to hit those free throws, I thought the gym was silent and I knew my teammates needed me. "Then to hit that shot, you feel out the flow of the game. In that moment, I was calling for the ball." After the school year ends, Rees will play collegiately at Indiana Tech while Brown will attend The University of Findlay and participate in its doctorate of occupational therapy program. She hopes to stay active and perhaps play volleyball for the Oilers. Turner, on the other hand, is already a business owner. She runs a traveling coffee and espresso truck. She will head to Arizona for school and study education, but she wants to run her coffee truck in the summer. "It's always been a goal of mine to own my own business," Turner said. "I bought an espresso machine without telling my parents and those are not cheap. I told my mom I was going to start my own business because I worked at a few coffee shops and I was stressed out about what I wanted to do after school. I came home from work one day at the coffee shop and said life would be 10 times easier if I could work at a coffee shop the rest of my life. I realized if I owned one, I could." The three have been always been role models for younger players at Bellevue. That has been kicked up a notch over the past few weeks as the Lady Red won a regional title for the first time in program history. Like they did when they were younger watching Carly Santoro, Shelby Stamm, Jenna Strayer and Casey Santoro to name a few former Lady Red stars, the three have filled that role for a new generation. "We're not only playing for our Bellevue program right now," Turner said. "We're playing for the future of Bellevue and for all the little girls and boys that are looking up to be future Bellevue athletes. I think it's really important for us to be great examples on and off the court." The three could end up playing an all-star game together later this month, but Friday will be last time they will be together with throngs of Bellevue fans cheering them on. "It's definitely going to hit hard," Rees said. "It's our last game, win or lose. We said let's go out and win it. Might as well."