Brittany is a
heads-up player

By Tim Godfrey
For the Times

"Keep your head up." It’s common advice when things aren’t going well, whether in life or in the up-and-down world of sports.
Brittany Buehler, a senior guard for the Little Flower High School basketball team, likes to use that phrase, but in a positive way. It’s her mantra.
Buehler, the Sentinels’ leading scorer, is always pushing her teammates to be at their best, to keep their heads in the game.
"I just want everyone to keep their head up," Buehler said. "As one of the team captains and leaders, I just want everyone on our team to do what they’re supposed to."
And what’s that? Play hard, she replies. Give the game total effort.
"There is so much talent on this team," Buehler said, "and we just don’t always use it to our advantage."
Giving encouragement is just part of Buehler’s game. She has been known to scout the Sentinels’ opponents to determine if Little Flower can incorporate any strategies into its own game to thwart them. Whether it’s a set play, a defensive formation, even something as basic as how to control the tempo of the game, any edge that Buehler can see she’ll suggest in practice.
She’ll even analyze her teammates for pointers to improve her own game.
"I look at my teammates to see if they are doing something that maybe is lacking in my game, something I can get better at," she explained.
Buehler attributes all of this dedication to the cause to some family ties.
"I look up to my brother Greg a lot, with all he went through when he was playing football and basketball," Buehler said. "When he was younger he never got a look, as far as playing time was concerned. He gave it one-hundred percent every time he was out there, just kept working, he was always aggressive and he always kept his head up. That’s what I want to be like . . . aggressive, hard-working."
So far this season, Buehler’s message to "keep your head up" has been a valuable reminder around the Sentinel locker room. Little Flower is off to a slow start, and in a division as tough as the Catholic League South is shaping up to be this year, the Sentinels will need plenty of positive reinforcement to stay in the playoff chase.
It’s no surprise that Buehler believes they can.
"We do have talent and we can do the same things that everyone else can if we use that talent," she said.
Whether it’s the demands of sports or the demands of the classroom, Buehler spends a lot of time at Little Flower. She spends so much time at the school building on Lycoming Street that she calls it her second home.
"I love school. Math is my favorite class," Buehler said. "I have a lot of great teachers, but Mr. (Andrew) Spiegler was one of my favorites because he was not only my English teacher during my freshman and sophomore years, but he also was an assistant basketball coach."
Her experiences at Little Flower seem to be shaping Buehler’s game plan for the future. After college, she’d like to be a teacher and basketball coach.
"Next year I want to go somewhere and major in education," Buehler said. "I’m looking at Gwynedd Mercy College, but I am trying to keep my options open and look around."
There’ll be one certainty as Brittany Buehler does that. She’ll keep her head up. ••