It couldn’t have been an easier crowd to please for the Llano Lady basketball Jackets--it was like going camping, shopping in the mall, as relaxing as reading something brilliant in People.

The Jackets, June 23, were on the floor in Fredericksburg, wrapping up six weeks of spring-league competition, and in this finale they only had to impress one person in the stands, and he wasn’t Simon Cowell. The problem was he (actually, she) was more important and probably a much tougher judge--new head coach, Jessica Quintanilla.

“The girls absolutely played hard from start to finish,” Quintanilla said. “They were very aggressive and fundamentally sound.” Maybe with that you could hear an early-summer sigh of relief from the team, getting coach Q’s observations for the first time. “I loved the way they played defense; they never quit, and I didn’t see anyone standing around.”

The coach is not allowed to coach in the off-season leagues, so she sat alone and became just your ordinary fan--so ordinary that the parents and others nearby would have loved to have known what she was thinking.

The opponent was the Fredericksburg junior varsity, so it wasn’t like facing West Oso, but Llano still showed off an outstanding “D.” The Battlin’ Billies didn’t get their first field goal till midway through the first half, which is 20 minutes. The Jackets weren’t exactly all-world on offense but still vaulted to a 20-3 lead, and it was 27-5 at intermission.

“I wasn’t bothered too much by the offense not being outstanding,” Quintanilla pointed out. “Actually, the kids ran a lot of plays, so I was pleased.”

Lauren Parker had a couple of nasty steals and assists; she admitted to being a bit rusty, which is understandable: she recently returned from a school-sponsored trip to such notable locations as France, Spain, and Italy. Some pretty good basketball is played in Europe, but it's doubtful improving your three-point shot was the main goal of the journey.

“We were in the right spot at the right time, guarding their girls,” Parker contended. “Yes, we were conscious of the coach being there, but Cassidy Rabb told us, ‘Pretend like she’s not here,’ so we did that and just played ball.”

Rabb and fellow-graduate Cierra Thompson coached the girls in Fredericksburg and did better than okay--the squad went unbeaten in nearly two months of play.

Returning to Monday night’s action, Olivia Hutto and Kassie Zavadil followed one of Parker’s thefts with one each, and Kirsty Fogelberg contributed her usual, two or three drives to the hoop. She and Hutto both had nine points. Caitlin Coffey dominated under the glass and posted a game-high 11. Lainey Wright had eight, including one of the Ladies’ three threes, and nine Jackets scored at least one field goal in the 49-15 knockout.

“I think we played well and showed coach Quintanilla our potential,” Ashley Shcroeder declared. “The good job we did on defense led to a lot of our baskets. Our offense will improve as we get used to each other." And playing in front of the coach for the first time? “Seeing her here was great, and I feel like our nervousness about that is gone now.”

While to some, Llano’s highly-praised defense looks, at times, like the other team could use those sticks which curve at the end to ward off harassment, and the Jackets could spend time in the penalty box, Quintanilla indicated she may favor an even-tougher man-to-man approach, and she definitely will stress the full-court press. (Stress being the euphemism for, that’s what’ll happen.)

As the coach watched the contest, she was possibly sporting a blood-pressure reading of 110-over-70 (not that anyone was checking), but she claimed afterward, “On the bench, I’m really intense; I pace back and forth during a game. When the kids do well, I’ll jump up and down and give them high-fives. I think they respond well to that, and if they do something I don’t like, I try to turn that into a positive.”