Before the Fort Walton Beach girls basketball team loaded into vans Thursday and pointed toward Jacksonville, they had one more stop to make.

• Following a 9 a.m. practice, the Lady Vikings were treated to a sendoff inside the school’s multipurpose building. The school’s athletic director had invited the entire student body, and students, teachers, faculty and staff packed in to cheer as the team did their catwalk through the crowd. Then they hit the road for Friday’s Elite 8 regional final against Bishop Kenny.

“I want the community to know that these girls care about them just as much as they care about us,” Head Coach Mercedez Claybrone said. “They are very appreciative of everything that’s been done for them.”

It’s been that kind of week. 

Every day, the Lady Vikings have received something new. Goodie bags. Handwritten notes wishing them luck. Chick-fil-A boxes dropped off at the school. At last week’s All Sports Association fish fry, coaches and administrators from across the area made a point to find the girls and offer encouragement.

That included crosstown rival Choctaw. Principal Michelle Heck, girls flag football coach Jim Bay and athletic director Andy Thigpen all pulled the Lady Vikings aside to wish them well and tell them to go represent the 850.

• “Those things are really big,” Claybrone said. “Just to see the community come together and know that they are wishing us well, that means a lot.”

Even coaches and athletic directors from Niceville expressed support. With the Lady Eagles eliminated last week, Fort Walton Beach is the last team standing in Okaloosa County, and the community has rallied behind them.

Claybrone said her players feel it.

“We hear it in everyday conversation, when they see people pouring into them, how much they really want to do it for them, how much they want to win,” she said.

The season hasn’t always been smooth. Claybrone pointed to a trip to Kentucky earlier this year as a turning point, when the team lost two games it should have won and things started to come apart. The coaching staff stepped back and identified what needed to change.

• “We went through a lot of adversity on that trip,” Claybrone said. “And just to see those kids continue to show up every day and just grow closer, and now to be playing in a regional final game, it means a lot.”

She describes this group as resilient, a team with a next-play mentality. Like any team, they have moments where they don’t see eye to eye during practice. But Claybrone said the growth this season has been in how they handle those moments, moving past them quickly and staying locked in on the common goal.

“I think that our locker room culture has gotten a lot better,” Claybrone said. “Kids leave it on the floor as we all have one common goal.”

That trust showed up this week in a tangible way. With two days until the game, the coaching staff was still fine-tuning the game plan, focused on correcting the same issues that led to last year’s loss, particularly giving up too many 3-pointers. Then captains Anecia Stallworth and Aniyah Boyd approached Claybrone with an idea.

• “They came to me and said they wanted to try something new,” Claybrone said. “And that right there, it shows growth within a program. When you have your leaders that aren’t afraid to say that we could have more success doing this.”

The staff listened. They made the defensive adjustments the captains suggested, and the results in Thursday’s practice were immediate. The team stopped giving up open 3-pointers.

“If this is what they say they feel comfortable playing, and they’re going to play as hard as they practice, then we’re going to roll with it,” Claybrone said.

Friday’s schedule is mapped out. Team breakfast in the morning, a shoot-around at a local rec center, lunch, then time to mentally prepare before heading to Bishop Kenny around 5 p.m. Shoot-around starts at 6.

But ask Claybrone what this week has really been about, and it comes back to the same thing.

“They know that where they are right now is a privilege. You have to earn it,” she said. “And they know that in order for what people are doing for you, you have to pour back into them. That’s exactly what they want to do.”