BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It hasn’t sunk in yet for Selena Buttery and Danielle Wood.
It’ll probably be a while before it does. Perhaps it will in a moment they least suspect. A day from now. A week. Perhaps even a year.
(Above, Danielle Wood, left, and Selena Buttery proudly display the D9 championship plaque and the commemorative basketballs they received for the milestones they reached in their standout careers at Brockway.)
What the seniors on the Brockway girls basketball team accomplished in their careers, and this season, in particular, for the Rovers is difficult for them to wrap their minds around.
For the first time in the 50-year history of the program, Brockway won a District 9 title. Five decades of teams, some of them very good, couldn’t do what the Rovers managed to do in 2021-22.
“Fifty years — teams have been doing this for 50 years here,” Wood said. “Fifty teams, and we’re the one that brought the championship. It means a lot.”
Brockway came close to snagging the D9 crown last season but fell in the championship game to Keystone.
That defeat fueled the Rovers this season — Buttery and Wood, in particular.
“When we came into the season, we all set goals,” Buttery said. “I think everybody’s main goal was to win the district championship. I mean, that was our goal last year, too, but we fell a little short. Falling short last year really changed a lot for our team and pushed us to get it.
“I think it’s really cool that we were able to get it on the 50th anniversary of the program.”
With the 1-2 punch of Buttery and Wood, the Rovers were able to win the title by beating Clarion-Limestone.
It was a year of milestones for the pair.
Buttery, a 5-foot-10 guard/forward who can play inside and outside, eclipsed 1,000 career rebounds late in the season. In the very next game, she surpassed 1,000 career points.
Buttery finished with 1,040 points and 1,052 rebounds.
Earlier in the season, Wood, a 5-3 point guard with uncommon quickness, got her 1,000th career point. Later, she broke the school record for career assists.
Wood wrapped up her stellar four years at Brockway with 1,170 points and 291 assists.
Both played 87 games.
(Buttery, left, and Wood after winning a basketball championship in the fifth grade.)
The two have been close friends since they were very young and grew up playing sports together.
Basketball was the glue that bound them together.
“I think most of my assists were to her,” Wood said, laughing. “Our chemistry was just so great, and people could probably see that on the court. I’m glad I had the chance to play with her for, wow, 13 years, probably.”
Wood was a star right from the start. Buttery was more of a role player during her freshman campaign before blossoming as a sophomore.
“During my freshman year, it was more her and Morgan Lindemuth (as the 1-2 punch),” Buttery said. “I wasn’t nearly as strong of a player as I became. In the seventh and eighth grade, me and Danielle were sort of the two people on the team. We actually improved a lot.”
So did the team. Brockway was 3-19 when Buttery and Wood were freshmen. The next season, the Rovers were 12-11 and last year 11-7 in a COVID-shortened campaign.
This year, Brockway finished 16-8. Wood and Buttery were the two top vote-getters for the AML girls basketball all-star team.
Their last game was on Tuesday in a first-round PIAA Class 2A playoff loss to Cambridge Springs.
An end of an era.
That hit Buttery and Wood immediately.
“She fouled out,” Wood said. “But, as soon as the final horn went off, she broke down and started crying. It was like, ‘Hey, we’re not gonna play together again.’”
Soon, the two will go their separate ways — Buttery to Hawaii where she will play basketball and tennis at Chaminade University of Honolulu; Wood to Robert Morris University to study nursing.
Wood doesn’t plan on playing basketball in college. It’s a decision she made long ago.
“I actually really thought about playing, and it was hard not to — a coach really wanted me,” Wood said. “But, I need to focus on school and what I’m going to do after.”
Nursing is her true calling. She was inspired to enter that profession when she was young.
Her grandmother, Carol Webster, battled cancer, and Wood would watch the nurses come to care for her.
“Her nurses were always at her bedside,” Wood said. “I was like, ‘I want to do that in my life.’”
Wood’s athletic pursuits aren’t over.
She decided to join the Brockway softball team this spring. She’s never played softball before, but she and Buttery played baseball together in Little League when they were 9 and 10.
“Well, I just thought, ‘It’s my senior year, what else should I be doing?’” Wood said. “I need to do something, and I actually played baseball and was on an all-star team. I was like, ‘Hey, maybe I still have it.’”
Wood was at practice on Wednesday, a day after her basketball career came to an end.
“The softball coaches told me in school to just take a couple of days off, that I didn’t have to come to practice (Wednesday),” Wood said. “I’m like, ‘Nah. I’ll be there.’”
With their basketball careers over at Brockway, Buttery and Wood can take solace in knowing that they have left a mark on the program.
They’ve helped inspire a new crop of young players.
Perhaps there’s another tandem like Buttery and Wood coming up through those ranks.
“Hearing all the little kids come up to us and talk to us, their parents talking to us, telling us how excited they are to play — that means a lot,” Buttery said.
“Playing with Danielle for 13 years and being able to accomplish everything we did, and what the team accomplished in our senior years, is great. So is being role models for the younger kids coming up in the program here.”
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