Leilah Polk

Zara, with her brothers and me on Senior Night.

As the Mission’s girls basketball team’s regular season is coming to an end and the playoffs are coming up, I’m going to interview the girls basketball captain,17-year-old senior Zara Pratt, and a sister to me. We are going to talk about her journey through basketball and what it was like growing up and what she has gone through to get to where she is in today’s world of basketball. 

This leads up to now. Zara is in her senior year preparing to lead her team into playoffs for the first time in her three years of playing. She wants to leave with a good note and put those who’ll remain for next year to be back in the division 1 league in the City. The past two years, the team has been in division 2.

Zara, number 2, is a point guard. Her play style is similar to Derrick Rose, former Chicago Bulls’ point guard, as they both have no trouble getting to the rim. They both are the smallest on the court, but that doesn’t come as a problem for either of those two. 

“I do wish I was a little taller but I still got it,” says Zara.

Zara’s favorite way to score is driving to the basket fast and usually doing a quick move called the Euro step, moving the ball quickly from one side to shift your defender. That move always gets her opponents. They get faked out by it. The Euro step can be a misdirection move to trick your opponent into going to the opposite side you’re going to.

The time I went to one of Zara’s games was her senior night. It was a pretty packed gym. It was loud while also being very, very hot, as most people showed up for Zara. It was clear she was the star player. The game was pretty one-sided as Zara and her team were up by 38 against Sterne at halftime.

As the game progressed her brothers, friends and I were in the stands making noise as we were her biggest fans in the gym. Zara ended the game scoring 25 points and had at least 6-8 assists and 3-4 corner three pointers.  

While Zara was growing up, she played basketball most of the time with boys more than girls and that sharpened her skills to become the player she is today. She can score on anyone, no matter their gender. She’s giving you buckets. 

Despite her 5’2 height,  her ability to score and play really, really good defense makes up for it. Height has never been a problem for her when it comes to basketball. 

She also comes from a household of athletes as Zara and all four of her brothers played basketball. Her brothers, I’jah, U’jah and Robert Lee, won a state championship as my brother, Fred Jones, coached her brothers on that state championship team.

Something she gets from her brothers scoring and playing good defense; they weren’t the tallest either on the court. It was a great hustle as they made up for having high energy on the ball court. They uplifted their teams to play as well as they did.

And when Zara does good, and gives great hustle and effort, it just makes you want to give the same thing. It’s good to have someone like that on your team. Someone who pushes you to do better and is willing to help make that happen.