Mountain Ridge girls enter Final Four with state tournament pedrigree

Mar. 6—FROSTBURG — As the Mountain Ridge girls continue dancing into the Final Four, they're continuing the legacy of those that came before them.

Five members of the Miners have relatives that played in state semifinal games at Westmar, and Sydney Snyder and sisters Rhegan and Bayleigh Lamberson have two parents that have achieved the feat.

While Mountain Ridge is breaking new ground, capturing its first region title and advancing to its maiden Final Four, winning in March is in its blood.

"Some of the kids are now starting to experience the things their parents have," said Mountain Ridge assistant coach Todd Snyder, who was the starting point guard on the Westmar boys runner-up team in 1993. He's also the father of Sydney Snyder.

"Growing up on George's Creek, there was a huge basketball tradition. We were always considered to be really good shooters. Every generation, fathers would pass that down to sons, and now mothers are passing it down to daughters."

Todd Snyder scored 11 points in his semifinal appearance against South Dorchester at Cole Field House, and teammate Shane Lamberson, the father of the Miners' standout Lambersons, added two points.

Both witnessed what was then the best shooting performance in state tournament history, as Mac Sloan set a single-game record with seven 3-pointers in the 78-58 loss that was the day before the Blizzard of 1993.

Snyder's wife, Julie, was a starter on the 1996 Westmar Wildcats, the most-recent girls basketball team to advance to the Final Four. Mountain Ridge reserve guard Mckenna Swisher's mother Erica Kelly was also a guard on that team.

Led by Jill McGowan and coached by Valery Broadwater, Westmar defeated Joppatowne in the semifinals, 66-47, at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County before falling to Brunswick in the title game.

Then known as Julie Johnson, she scored 15 points to help down the Mariners, who featured a future Maryland Terrapin in 6-foot-2 standout Brandi Barnes.

Yet, seeing her daughter Sydney make a deep postseason run dwarfs her own experience.

"I had a chat with a friend right after the game (Saturday), and she said, 'I remember us doing that,'" Julie Snyder said. "And I said, 'It's even cooler.' It's one thing when you do it yourself, it's something else when you see your kids doing it and achieve it themselves."

Sydney Snyder isn't just a member of Mountain Ridge, she's one of the area's best players. The junior tallied 17 points in the quarterfinal win over Snow Hill on Saturday, second only to Reghan Sivic's 20 and just ahead of Ava Tringler's 13.

Seeing her daughter, who averages team highs with 17.3 points and 3.0 assists, come into her own on the court has been Julie Snyder's highlight of the postseason so far.

"I enjoy watching Syd play on the court with confidence," she said. "That's the one thing I've said to her through all of this. It's the one thing I prayed for through this for her, that she could find her confidence to showcase her hard work through all of this."

As one of Sydney's parents watches from the crowd, the other coaches from the sideline, a connection that Todd Snyder shared with his father, William "Butch" Snyder, who coached him during his playing days.

Butch served on Rick Scaletta's staff from November of 1989 all the way through the legendary coach's final season in 2003.

Going back even further, Sydney's great grandmother, Mildred Green, was a star basketball player at Central, graduating in 1936 — back in the days when girls teams played 6 on 6.

Her grandmother on her mom's side, Monica Davis, played on Valley in the 1970s, and her aunt, Sally Snyder, was the leading scorer at Valley before graduating in 1975 and going on to play at Allegany College.

That family connection is key in small-town athletics, as the Western Maryland representatives advance to the state level and play teams that have the pick of the litter from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas.

"I'm really starting to see that family connection coming back at games," Todd Snyder said. "You look in the crowd and you see parents of kids that I played with showing up, more and more as we get deeper. Basketball lifers that were always present at the games. The fan support growing up at George's Creek was phenomenal."

In addition to Snyder, Mountain Ridge junior varsity coach Lisa White, who was a starting guard on the 1990 and '91 Westmar championship teams, is the mother of Miners guard Jazmyn White.

Lisa White was teammates with Bayleigh and Rhegan Lamberson's mother during the 1990-91 season. Janell Lamberson, then Janell Muir, was moved up to varsity to play alongside the legendary Dawn Sloan. Sloan went on to play at the University of Maryland.

Bayleigh and Rhegan Lamberson have been key cogs of this Mountain Ridge squad, averaging 7.7 and 4.2 points per game, respectively — the third- and fourth-best marks on the team.

"To have two daughters on the team and see the excitement and see them winning, it's cool to see them go through it," Shane Lamberson said. "To see them fight through adversity, see them come out on top. It's cool to see these girls play against each other through middle school and then combine to one team and play in the Final Four and for the chance to go to a championship."

If there's one piece of advice imparted by parents who made that same state tournament run to their kids, it's to cherish those memories.

Before long, those experiences will fade into reminiscence, so give everything you have.

"You make sure you walk off completely depleted because there's no coming back to this moment later in life," Julie Snyder said.

Alex Rychwalski is a sports reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @arychwal.