By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

It may not be Star Trek, but the West St. John girls basketball program is boldly going where no team before at the school has gone before.

“The boys ask us, ‘Are you guys playing tonight?’” said guard Jaylyn Gordon with a smile. “Because you guys bring in the fans.”

It wasn’t always like that in Edgard, where the girls basketball program had never had a run of sustained success in a season. But that changed a year ago. Boasting a brilliant one-two punch of senior center Kyla Morris and Gordon, a talented freshman point guard, the Rams West St. John captured its first ever district championship. It hosted and won its first ever playoff game.

The Rams established themselves as winners. But sustaining that success for another season looked to be a longshot. Morris graduated. The Rams entered this season with just two returning starters in Gordon and senior Jasmine Young – the rest of the starting lineup consists of a junior in Deja Feist and two eighth graders in JuJuan Nicholas and Sydnei Young.

Having to replace Morris – the 2010 L’Observateur Girls Most Valuable Player in St. John Parish – and rolling out such a young lineup, few could have expected what was coming: the Rams established the best regular season mark in the history of the school at 20-6 and established themselves within the Louisiana Sports Writers Association top 10 poll all season in Class 1A for the first time in school history. West St. John also embarked on an 11-game win streak from December 10 to January 11, also a school-best mark.

“If you told me we’d be 20-6 right now …” said West St. John coach Lester Smith, trailing off and shaking his head ‘No.’ “Maybe 16-10. I’d have been pretty happy with that. Especially when you start two eighth graders and you lose Morris. Looking at what we had coming in, you wouldn’t have thought 20 wins.

“This team has come a long way from day one.”

That said, it would be inaccurate to say that everyone was shocked.

“The surprise for me was the last few games that we lost,” said Gordon, referring to an end of season skid where the Rams lost three-of-four in District 8-1A. “I knew we’d be a good team based on what happened last year. Everyone wanted it. Everyone wanted to get better.”

Now, the Rams’ youth can be seen as nothing but a plus. The majority of this team should be together for quite a while.

“Hopefully, we’ll be real good,” said Smith. “We just have to keep things in perspective and not get big heads. Not start thinking we’re better than what we are.”

A big reason for the Rams success is that Gordon has been a true MVP-level performer, leading the Rams in scoring (over 18 points per game) and assists. A starter since her eighth-grade season, the 5-foot-5 guard looks for her offense when its needed, but more often looks to play the role of a true point, setting up teammates and getting everyone involved in the offensive flow.

“It’s her shooting ability and her court awareness (that sets her apart),” said Smith. “With her ability to distribute the ball, it not only gets everyone involved but it makes us difficult for other teams to defend.”

Another key to West St. John’s success, said Young, is a simple one: this team just enjoys playing the game, and its enthusiasm spills over into the win column.

“We want to win and we take it seriously, but we’re also going to have fun with it,” said Young.

“If we lose, okay, we lose. If we win, we win. But we’re going to lose or win together, as a team.”

The Rams will draw a familiar opponent in the first round of the postseason. Thursday night, eighth-seeded West St. John hosts district rival St. John-Plaquemine, the 25 seed and a team the Rams split with during the season.

The Rams defeated St. John on Dec. 14, 51-38, but fell in the rematch Feb. 8, 58-53, a game in which Gordon sat out.

A victory could mean a second home game for West St. John if ninth-seeded Merryville defeats Ringgold.

And holding serve at home, in that case, would leave the Rams just one more win away from its first trip to the Ladies’ Top 28 tournament in Hammond.

That would sit well with Gordon and her teammates.

“We want to win the championship,” said Gordon. “It would really be something, to make people really believe in girls basketball here.

“We know we have to play even better and even harder.”