Boom baby! Four sisters live the dream of playing high school basketball together

The Finke sisters—Owen, left, Berkley, Sawyer and Harpar—all share the basketball court together for the varsity team of Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis. (Photo courtesy of Barry Roberts)

By John Shaughnessy

Jennifer DesJean knew what the huge crowd in the basketball gym wanted. And the more she thought about it, the more excited she became too.

“I’m going to do it,” the head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team of Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis told her assistant coach sitting next to her. “I’m going to do it!”

Seconds later, DesJean made sure that the four Finke sisters—Sawyer, a senior; Berkley, a junior; Harpar, a sophomore; and Owen, a freshman—were all on the court at the same time in an early-season game.

As the crowd roared and the Cardinal Ritter student section went crazy, the four sisters looked at each other and exchanged smiles and laughs—until the ball was inbounded and their smiles were replaced by serious, “Game on!” expressions.

“Playing with three of your sisters, that’s exciting for them,” DesJean said later. “I don’t think there’s any place in Indiana or the 50 states where this has actually happened. So, it’s exciting knowing that—and I don’t think they’ve grasped the concept that they’ve literally made history.

“It’s cool. It makes me feel good that they’re enjoying their time together, and their parents get to experience it. I’m so happy that they’ll get to look back someday and say, ‘I spent one year with all my sisters playing a sport and having a good time.’ I love it.”

So do the four sisters. Still, for everyone who thinks it’s special, the sisters have a different perspective.

‘Some good and funny memories’

To them, doing something together is just so normal.

When the sisters are asked if they have a sense of how special this season is, Harpar says, “I don’t think it’s super exciting. But then I step out of my shoes and put myself in other people’s positions—four sisters, all in different grades, playing on the same varsity basketball team.”

Sawyer adds, “You don’t realize how much of an interesting experience it is. Everyone thinks it’s so cool, but we live together, and we’re always together, so it doesn’t feel like it’s anything special. But it is cool always being together.”

Consider that the four sisters have all shared the same bedroom for years—an arrangement that is a conscious decision by their parents, Laura and John.

“We decided when they were little that we didn’t want to decide which sisters became close,” Laura says. “So, instead of having two in a room, we put two bunkbeds in one room, and the second room is known as their ‘hangout’ room. Some nights are quiet while others sound like a sleepover. As adults, we know many of these nights will be some they will long for as they grow up.”

“They have no choice but to get along!” John says. “There are normal sibling spats over bathroom space and wearing each other’s clothes, but for the most part they get along.”

The sisters’ smiles confirm that belief.

“At night, me and Harpar are hyper, and we’ll turn on random music and make beats and stuff,” Owen says. “That’s some good and funny memories.”

Berkley chimes in, “It’s just so cool we can all share it together,” while Sawyer notes, “One second we could be arguing about something, but then we’ll be laughing about what we just argued about.” 

Harpar shares a poignant point, “We all help each other in different ways when someone is frustrated or going through something.”

That support system carries onto the basketball court, but another telling quality often surfaces during the team’s practices—the sisters’ fiery competitiveness with each other.

Someone to lean on Coach DesJean loves players who compete hard, and her face lights up when she talks about the competitive nature of the Finke sisters.

“We’ll have them play defense against each other in practice,” the coach says with a smile that can best be described as mischievous. “They make things a contest. ‘Let’s go at it.’ They push each other. ‘I’m going to beat you. No, I’m going to beat you.’ It’s a great time.”

Owen acknowledges, “Sometimes there’s some pushing and shoving,” while Sawyer adds, “It can be really competitive because we all want to win when we’re on different teams in practice.”

As much as DesJean enjoys occasionally pitting them against each other, she is far more overjoyed about the force they are together.

“I love having them all on the team. They want to be good, and they bring their teammates along,” the coach says. “And as sisters, they have someone they can lean on about the struggles, the practices, the games. It’s always nice to have a family member who plays the same sport as you. You can count on them for having the same perspective, the same stress, the same highs and lows. I think that helps with their daily lives as well.”

Harpar sees how that connection unfolds when the sisters are all on the court together.

“I definitely think there is more chemistry,” she says. “We know how each other plays because we’ve grown up together, and we know how each other acts and handles certain situations.”

Still, there’s one more quality that stands out most in a conversation with the sisters.

The far-reaching bond of sisterhood

Here’s that quality: The bond of sisterhood that connects them so closely also extends to their teammates, who they regard as sisters, too.

“My teammates are just so great,” Berkley says. “They know how to put a smile on my face and make me laugh. Getting to be with them for two hours after school for practice is just fun, and it makes me happy.”

Owen shares, “The whole varsity team has created such a good bond with everyone. We just connect very well. That’s something I look forward to after school, just being with them and playing basketball with them.”

DesJean relishes that connection among the team, part of the culture she has tried to establish during her three years of leading the program.

“They have a bond,” she says. “Their bond is so much more than sports. They really enjoy each other. And we try to coach them like this is our family. We are one.

“The goals I want are for my girls to know they can achieve anything that they put their mind to. I’ve learned so many life lessons from playing basketball—being self-motivated, disciplined, focused.”

All those life lessons are on the short list that Laura and John Finke want for their children. 

“From my perspective, the biggest return on playing a sport is the lifelong lessons you learn,” John says. “That is what pleases me the most about their playing together.”  

 The parents are also living another dream this season.

‘It’s truly a dream come true’

Besides being mom to the four girls and their brother Toby—a fifth-grade student at St. Monica School in Indianapolis—Laura is a learning support teacher at Cardinal Ritter, where her focus is on other students and not her daughters.

“I honestly forget we are all at school sometimes because I do go into work mode once I’m at school,” says Laura, whose family belongs to St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis. “At times, I’ve run into them during the passing periods, and I think we all do a double take. It’s fun because it’s authentic. I don’t go looking for them. They need to grow and do high school on their own, so I try very hard to stay out of their way and not be mom at school.”

The sisters do feel their mom’s presence during games.

“Our mom used to be a basketball coach, so you can just hear her telling us what we need to do better,” Berkley says with a smile. 

At the same time, Laura couldn’t ask for anything better than watching her girls play together this season.

“To get four girls that love sports as much as I do, it’s truly a dream come true,” she says. “John and I both love playing and watching sports. So watching them from rec soccer days and CYO to varsity sports is just so fun.

“In rec soccer, we would walk from one field to another to watch the girls play, often passing each other to give an update of the other field. Pretty much their whole lives, we’ve had to divide and conquer, sometimes with other family or friends having to fill in for mom and dad. So, to sit and just watch all four play on the same team with John and Toby sitting next to me, it literally feels like my wildest dream come true: one schedule, one game, my whole family in one spot.

“We’ve watched them cheer for each other, high-five each other, pick each other up, but this year, this basketball season takes the cake.”

Her joy momentarily gives way to a touch of wistfulness when she adds, “I know they don’t know how rare this season is, but I know in a good 10-plus years it will hit them.”

For now, the sisters are enjoying the season of a lifetime together. A season when the bonds of sisterhood are timeless.

“It’s fun to all get to play together and support each other,” Berkley says. “We push each other to be better.

“We love it.” †