CINCINNATI — A high school girls’ basketball team is making history heading into the state finals.

For the first time, the Winton Woods girls’ basketball team will compete for the state championship, but outside of the game, they’re trying to inspire future teams. 

The halls are bursting with music, cheers, signs, and a lot of excitement over something that’s never happened before. For the first time, the Winton Woods High School girls’ basketball team out is going to state finals.

But as the kids cheer on the team, Ra’khyia Prince, a player in her last year on the team, is cheering the kids on because she said she was them.

“It was just, like, nice, because that used to be me, looking up to older players,” said Prince. 

That’s why instead of a pep rally at their high school, the Lady Warriors team was bused to local elementary schools before heading to the big name.

It’s something that left senior player Daniah Trammell holding back tears.

“Coming here and letting the youth, you know, cheer a song and like, you know, making a presence to them, I feel like not way more important, but I feel like we’d rather just go out and give our love to the youth first,” said Trammell. 

The celebration didn’t come without a lot of hard work to make it to this point. It took so much work that it left their coach nearly without a voice.

“Still hasn’t recovered from Sunday’s game so the girls are kind of confused right now because they’re not here in the same strength in my voice, so hopefully it’s back by Friday,” said Carlton Gray, Winton Woods High School girls’ basketball head coach. 

Friday is when they’ll play one of the most important games of the season. The coach said he’s been gearing them up for it all season, even if the girls didn’t always realize it.

“The way that I coach day to day is always trying to prepare them for these kind of moments because there’s a lot of competition,” said Gray. “Our practices are highly intense and competitive, we create a number of situations where girls are uncomfortable, where they’re either losing or they’re playing from bad situations and they have to learn how to play out of them.”

It’s a strategy they’re hoping will bring home another win for the team before they move on to college basketball and inspire the next team.

Watch Winton Woods take on Anthony Wayne Friday evening on Spectrum News 1.