She was not just small, she was tiny as a freshman.
She stood out on the basketball court because she looked so young, almost out of place.
Well, until she shot the ball.
Then she looked like a natural. She looked like she was exactly where she belonged.
Jozie Tangeman always knew. In fact, she conquered something at an early age that has led to her success now with the Prairie girls basketball team.
“I keep the same mindset all the time,” Tangeman said. “Not to be scared of anything, really.”
That fearlessness has turned Tangeman, now a senior, from good, to very good, and now the best in her league in her four years of varsity play.
The Falcons will need to be at their best Friday when they take on Seattle Prep in a Class 3A state regional round elimination game. The winner will go to the Tacoma Dome to be among the final 12 teams in the state tournament. The season will be over for the loser.
The Falcons are not ready for the season to conclude. Tangeman wants her high school career to last another week.
It has, after all, been one incredible trek from solid role player to Class 3A Greater St. Helens League player of the year.
While Tangeman has never been intimidated, she also rarely intimidated any opponent.
As a freshman, she stood 5-feet, 4-inches.
“I was looking at pictures. My arms were way skinnier,” she said, thinking about her freshman year. “My uniform was way too big.”
Still, her job then was to come off the bench and provide instant offense for the Falcons. When she passed up on an open shot, her coach would scream at her, imploring her to shoot.
If her coach had that much faith in her, if her teammates had that much faith in her, there was no reason for her to be scared, she said.
Now 5-foot-6 with some muscles on her frame, Tangeman is a physically stronger athlete and also a better player. It is not all about shooting anymore. It is about the entire game.
“As I have gotten older, I have gotten smarter,” Tangeman said. “I’m more relaxed when I play.”
Her improvement was noticeable. The coaches of the 3A GSHL voted her the league’s player of the year this season.
“It’s kind of like a dream come true I guess you could say,” Tangeman said. “Kind of validates that hard work.”
She said she was a bit shocked when Prairie coach Hala Corral told her about the individual honor.
Corral said there is no way to teach Tangeman’s intangibles.
“She is the heart and soul of our team,” Corral said. “She’s a fighter. She just comes to practice every day to get better and work hard. She gets knocked down, she gets right back up. She doesn’t complain.”
It is that attitude that keyed this transformation from all-league as a junior to playe of the year as a senior, Corral said.
“I think she’s been the underdog her whole career,” the coach said.
Indeed, Tangeman started playing youth basketball as a fourth-grader, but always playing “up” in age groups. So not only was she the smallest one on the court, she was the youngest.
That fearlessness kicked in, and Tangeman turned any perceived negative into a positive.
“It actually helped build my confidence,” she said. “I was smaller, skinnier than everybody else, but it didn’t really matter because I was used to it. I always saw it as an advantage. They weren’t as fast as me, or as good as a ball handler.”
By the time she was a freshman, she had no problem shooting whenever her coach told her to shoot.
Of course, through the years, she had to do more than launch 3-pointers to become an all-around player.
“My freshman and sophomore years, I wouldn’t get in the paint much. It was just shoot, shoot, shoot,” Tangeman said. “Now, my first look is to try to get in the paint. If I can’t, I’m going to hit one of my shooters (with a pass.)”
That is how Tangeman went from very good to top of the mountain in the 3A GSHL.
“I just try to be really consistent, know what I need to do. It’s not necessarily scoring,” she said. “If I’m having an off night shooting, I can get a lot of assists. I just realized the little things that I needed to do.”
The Falcons hope all those little and big things go right for them Friday when they play in the state regional round.
Of course, there is some pressure. It is an elimination game, after all. But the team is following Tangeman’s lead. No fear.
“When we get to this point, we don’t feel the pressure because we are prepared for what we’re trying to get,” Tangeman said.
Sounds a lot like Tangeman’s personal journey in this game.
