Macy Groharing has been playing basketball since third grade, and if you want to understand what kind of player she became, start with the numbers. She holds the Byron High School all-time scoring record for girls basketball — somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,300 points — along with the single-season record she broke as a junior with 699 points. That record had stood since 2007 or 2008, set by Megan Cline, who now sends encouraging texts before big games. "She had no jealousy about me breaking it," Groharing says. "If anything, she wanted me to beat it."

But Groharing will be the first to tell you the records aren't really the point. The point was always the team. And this year, that team went to state.

The four senior starters on the Byron girls basketball squad — Groharing, Malia Morton, Alya Roschi, and Brynn Green — have been playing together since third grade, first through park district ball, then through a Rockford-based travel team called the Wildcats. By the time they got to the high school and watched the senior class ahead of them lead the program, the foundation was already built. "Their leadership was really exciting to be around," Groharing says. "I think that's where we got ours — just watching them."

The season came together the way years of chemistry tend to: gradually, then all at once. Most of the postseason games were blowouts. The super sectional was a 25-point win. Then came Redbird Arena at Illinois State, where the girls' tournament is held every year. Byron won their first game against St. Edward, a team they had beaten by 20 earlier in the season, though this one was tighter than expected. The championship against Breese Central was a different story. "They were taller, bigger, stronger than us," Groharing says. "They were super athletic and well-coached, and we just could not hit a single shot." Byron finished second. "But they were a really nice team," she adds. "Great manners on the court. I respected them."

The trip left a mark beyond the scoreboard. Between games, the team practiced in a church gym, where the pastor showed a video from a mission trip to Kenya — a suitcase of donated shoes opened to a crowd of kids overwhelmed by what, to anyone in that arena, would have seemed like almost nothing. "They were just freaking out about getting that small little thing," Groharing says. "It showed us how appreciative we should be."

Head coach Eric Yerly has been with this group of seniors since they were in seventh grade, and Groharing says his style took some getting used to. "When he's yelling at you, that just shows he sees something in you, sees the potential you have," she says. "That's just him coaching." The hardest moment of the season came in the final minutes of the state championship game, when Yerly pulled the seniors out and stopped the group at half court. He started to speak and couldn't finish his words. "As soon as he started talking and choking up, saying how much he was gonna miss us and how proud he was — I couldn't hold it back anymore," she says. "I didn't want to cry on live television, but here we were."

"Playing year-round since third grade, I’ve got a little burnout," she says. "I didn't lose my love for the game. It just wasn't the same anymore." This fall, she heads to the University of Northern Iowa to study elementary education, with coaching in mind. Twenty years from now, she says, she hopes to be teaching fifth grade and coaching varsity girls basketball — back at Byron.

For now, she's finishing out the year playing soccer — a sport she picked up sophomore year on a whim and has since taken seriously enough to score 11 goals in a season. "I have no idea what I'm doing," she says, laughing. "But there are some similarities with basketball — when to cut and stuff." Saturday, she was getting home from state. Monday morning, she was back on the field. That probably says it best.