HOWARD – She had just spoken to her mother that morning.
East Knox girls basketball coach Chip Pozderac was on the team bus after the season-opening game at Bloom-Carroll on Dec. 2 when she received the sad news that her mother, Betty Ayotte, had suddenly died.
“I got on the bus, called home and my brother-in-law said, ‘Your mom passed away,'” Pozderac said. “I just wailed and sobbed.”
Assistant coach Mandy Todd was the first one to her side, followed by every member of the team.
“Mandy held me and let me sob,” Pozderac said. “Then the girls all hugged me. Then my husband (Paul) got me off the bus.”
It was the second half of a dual tragedy. Pozderac’s father, high school coach and basketball mentor, Lee Ayotte, passed away in March of 2020. He lived long enough to see his daughter coach the Bulldogs to last season’s sectional championship.
“He was my rock,” Pozderac said. “I always called him after the game. So, Wednesday morning, I called my mom like I did every morning and she said, ‘Call me after the game; I’ll just pretend to be Daddy.’ My mom had never been sick a day in her life, but Wednesday she just dropped dead.”
Todd took over the Bulldogs practice and got them ready for Pozderac’s return against Northmor on Dec. 5 — a Bulldog 45-39 win.
“Our girls handled everything well,” Todd said. “They are very special, just in how unselfish they are and how much they play for each other.”
After a 43-37 win over Highland in a Knox Morrow Athletic Conference game on Dec. 14, the Bulldogs stand at 3-2 overall and 3-1 in league play.
Alexandria Magers scored 15 points; and Natalie Smith, Shanda Melick and Joci Totten had eight points apiece to lead host East Knox. Magers went a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line to help the Bulldogs put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter.
Emma West scored a game-high 23 points and Brylinn Tuggle added eight to lead the Scots, who were knotted up with the Bulldogs at 28 through three quarters.
Pozderac’s father played at Notre Dame and coached at St. Catherine’s in Columbus.
“He won a state championship in 1969 at St. Catherine’s,” Pozderac said. “Dad was there for the 50th anniversary of their team in November (2019).”
Members of that 1969 team called Pozderac’s mother on Dec. 1.
“It was Dad’s birthday,” Pozderac said. “They wanted to make sure my mom was OK. Then she died on Wednesday. She told me Tuesday, ‘All these people called me about Daddy’s birthday.’ He died at the end of last season and she died at the beginning of this season.”
Pozderac recalled that her mother knew little about basketball, but always supported her.
“She yelled, ‘Defense!’ and ‘Rebound!’ It didn’t matter who had the ball,” Pozderac said. “But she never missed my games when I was in school. She fought for us girls. We didn’t get uniforms and we didn’t get gym time back then. She went in and fought for the girls and wrote letters to the Columbus Dispatch. Now, 40 years later... it’s better, but I’m still trying to get these girls the equality they deserve.”
