11 Quotes by Mike Hamburger

I looked up at halftime and saw (on the scoreboard) that our bench had scored nine points, and Winter Haven's bench had zero. That was big. We were able to rest our people a little bit through the first three quarters and they weren't.

I look up at the banners in our gym almost every day at practice and we've been open as a school since the 1970s and to see six, now seven, (district) banners and to know the girls have five of those, that's pretty special.

We played only one bad half of basketball in 33 games. As our program has gotten better, our kids have bought into it and accepted the challenge.

We haven't played in two weeks, so I was glad that we came out aggressively. It was a great all-around game, we played really tough D. It's always good to get the first one out of the way.

Tomorrow (against Oak Ridge) will be a test of our character. I thought we lost our composure today and we can't do that against top-level opponents.

This was important, if just for my kids' confidence. Some of these girls only lost twice all last year. I know how good the competition is here, but sometimes teenagers only count the wins and losses.

We got a chance to play everybody. At the end of the season, everything is magnified.

The biggest difference between this team and some of the ones from the past is our mental toughness. There were plenty of times during the past four or five games when we could have folded. But these girls didn't buckle.

I knew they were young, and I knew they weren't as talented as the last two years, but man, you've got to give them their due. Two-time defending state champs, it just feels good. It feels good. But our work's not over and the girls have to understand that. Feel good tonight and come ready to work tomorrow. This was a big hurdle for us.