Eric Adams has known for a while that the journeys to some of life’s best experiences take time.
 
The 55-year-old Adams learned that a couple decades ago when fatigue from a sales career led him to pursue a teaching job and his first coaching gig at Wellington Middle School.
 
Now, after 12 seasons as Wellington High’s girls basketball coach, he shares an understanding of the virtuous qualities of patience with a trio of assistants and a dozen Crusader players who determined it was their time.
 
Caught in the state tournament path of Class 4A powerhouse Bishop Miege on four occasions and each of the last three seasons, Adams’ team earned another opportunity to face the Stags for the 4A title on March 15. Led by a pair of four-year standouts in Val Norwood and Britt Zeka, Wellington fought off Miege 53-48 at Salina’s Tony’s Pizza Event Center.
 
Wellington ended the Stags’ run of five consecutive 4A titles by winning its first in program history.
 
“Going into the championship game this year, the girls were more confident than I’ve ever seen a team in any game,” said Adams, a 1988 Wellington graduate and KSHSAA Covered’s girls coach of the year. “We’re playing Bishop Miege, but you’re in the locker room or you’re going through walk-through or you’re at breakfast, and you could just see it.
 
“They were just very easy-going and laughing and acting like this is just another game. We coaches talked about that. They’re in the locker room with the music blaring and we’re stressing out. They seemed to just take everything in stride.”
 
In a way, the Crusaders were a reflection of their coach, who notched his 200^th victory at his alma mater this season and oversaw a team that finished 24-1. The lone setback was a 74-72 overtime loss to Class 5A state qualifier Hays at Colby’s Orange and Black Classic.
 
“He’s really chill and laid back,” said Norwood, an All-State Top 5 selection who has signed with Lindenwood University. “The only time he really yelled at us is if we’re not doing as good as he knows we can do. He fixes it and that gets us going.
 
“He just made sure we stayed focused and focused on what we could control.”
 

The Norwood-Zeka era of Wellington basketball was one of nearly total control. The Crusaders posted a 91-7 record with four Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail Division IV championships and four sub-state titles.
 
But like many other teams in 4A, Wellington found a nemesis in Miege in its annual pilgrimages to Salina.
 
Stopped by Miege in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A Division I tournament in 2017, Wellington ran into the Stags again in the 4A semifinals in 2022. Norwood and Zeka were freshman starters on a Crusader team that entered the contest 23-0.
 
The lofty record couldn’t spare Wellington from an ambush. Miege used its press to score the first 19 points and defeated the Crusaders 82-42.
 
After finishing fourth that year, Wellington returned to state as the top seed in 2023 and drew Miege in the quarterfinals. The Stags hit nine 3-pointers, forced 19 turnovers and won 71-40.
 
The teams met again in 2024 – this time in the championship – and Miege prevailed 75-64. But the game had a much different tenor, with the Crusaders leading 36-33 at intermission and 53-49 early in the fourth quarter before the Stags took control.
 
“The seasons have all been kind of the same, hitting the 20-win mark,” Adams said of Wellington’s recent run. “But as far as the state tournament goes, you could definitely see the change in the whole team (Val and Britt’s) junior year.
 
“I could probably pinpoint it to halftime when we led Miege in that state championship game. It just felt like we’ve turned a corner here. The locker room was intense as far as focus, and we kept it that way until halfway through the fourth period when their press got us.”
 
It was Wellington’s best state finish in program history, and it set the stage for the final ascent to the top of 4A.
 
Even with junior post player Kylan Gregory sustaining the second ACL injury of her career in a mid-December victory over Cheney, the Crusaders won all their regular-season games – except for the Hays loss – by at least 15 points. They earned their fourth consecutive trip to state and eighth overall with a 66-34 victory over McPherson in the sub-state final.
 
The build-up to state had a familiar look to it. Given the past results, Adams continued to nurture his team’s mental approach.
 
“My job with this group has been more about putting confidence in them and being as positive as I can with the kids,” Adams said. “Being truthful and not in an arrogant way, I was up front with them, saying, ‘We have the talent. We have the talent to do this. You need to take the floor with that attitude.’
 
“That’s all I was doing these last couple years. There’s no secret to it. It’s just been those little things you do as a coach, trying to put them in the best spot both physically and mentally.”
 
The Crusaders, in turn, returned to Salina more determined than deterred.
 
“Us seniors knew it was our last year,” said Norwood, part of a senior quartet that included Zeka, Ella Goodrum and Kyndal Rusk. “We’d been there every single year, and our teammates knew that all we really wanted was to win it all.”
 
Those are the type of expectations Adams has created since taking the Wellington job in 2013.
 
Adams, a three-year starter at point guard for Wellington in the late-1980s, turned down some opportunities to play at the NAIA level and enrolled at Kansas State. His college path eventually led to Southwestern College and Fort Hays State, where he earned a degree in education.
 
Adams’ interest in coaching was fueled by his high school coach, current Bethel College athletic director Tim Swartzendruber. His interest in girls coaching was piqued by youth basketball experiences leading the teams of he and his wife Coni’s two daughters, Erianne and Peyton.
 
“Life takes different paths and different turns,” Adams said. “I was in the sales business right out of college, wasn’t in the education system. After we had our two daughters, I was a little tired of the sales rat race and said I was going to go ahead and get the education part done.”
 
After a successful run at Wellington Middle School, Adams got his first high school opportunity at nearby South Haven during the 2012-13 season. He led the Cardinals to a 16-8 record, the South Central Border League title and the Class 1A Division I state tournament, where they fell to eventual champion Hoxie during the Indians’ then-state record, 107-game winning streak.
 
Timing quickly brought Adams back to Wellington, as Kevin Hackerott, who coached Adams’ older daughter Erianne and the Crusaders to their first state tournament berth in 2012, resigned to take the job at Goddard.
 
“I figured I would be at South Haven for a while,” Adams said. “Kevin was about my age and I thought he was set here. It was a chance for me at a place I love.”
 
Adams hasn’t had a losing season at Wellington. He led the Crusaders to the first of three consecutive Class 4A Division I state appearances in 2016, when they won their state opener against De Soto and rebounded from a semifinal loss to Paola to top Labette County for third.
 
While Wellington’s 2017 and 2018 state appearances ended with quarterfinal losses, the Crusaders’ latest wave of success has been fueled by teams that overwhelm opponents with pressure defense and transition offense. As freshmen, Norwood and Zeka were two of four Crusaders who averaged in double figures as the team set program records for assists and steals.
 
Their four-year run vaulted Adams’ career high school record to 229-71 over 13 seasons.
 
“He’s worked his way up,” Swartzendruber said. “I root for him for a lot of reasons. He’s been loyal to Wellington and extremely committed to not just being a great coach, but a great role mode to those young women. I could see that when I’ve watched him coach.
 
“Eric loved basketball and in those days when I was at Wellington, it was a place that most people viewed as a football and wrestling town. Basketball was not a high priority with most people, but he’s helped make it one.”
 

Wellington captured the elusive title with a gritty effort from Gregory, who held off surgery on her torn ACL until the season’s end so she could help the Crusaders accomplish their mission. Norwood, who gained her own personal shot of confidence in the 2024 title-game loss to Miege with a 33-point effort, scored 20 in her final high school game and made two clutch free throws in the closing seconds to ice the championship.
 
Such moments are warmly received in Wellington, which held a parade, pep rally and autograph session for the girls basketball team along with a re-broadcast of the title game at a community theater after spring break. Adams, a resident of the south central Kansas town for most of his life, fully understood the impact it had among people he has known for decades.
 
That includes Coni Adams, who occasionally plays the theme song from the basketball movie “Hoosiers” in their home on the mornings of big games. She did so on sub-state championship day and again on the day her husband took the group that became Wellington’s first girls basketball champions to state.
 
“You win a state championship, that is the ultimate goal as a coach and a player,” Adams said. “But being it was Miege with all their success, you’d be lying to yourself if you said it didn’t mean a little more.”
 
Some of the best experiences just take time.