ORLANDO — It was only a few days after her mother’s death that Desrael Schnyder first stepped out onto the basketball court to play for the St. John Lady Heat basketball team.

That was four years ago when she was in the sixth grade at St. Joan of Arc. Schnyder, who was only 11 years old at the time, said the stress that came with losing a parent at such a young age was overwhelming. While Schnyder had been preparing to play basketball on her own for a long time, she couldn’t see herself going through with it at first.

“I was nervous and I didn’t want to go to practice so I came out that next week,” she said.

As Schnyder began to ease into her role on the Lady Heat Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team, she kept in mind some words her mother relayed to her before her passing.

“My mom told me to stay determined and focused on basketball, and that is what I am doing,” Schnyder said.

Now, four years later at 15 years old, Schnyder is proving she followed her mother’s wishes by coming off an MVP performance in which her team won the ninth grade girls Youth Basketball of America National Basketball Championships last month in Orlando.

“I cried when they gave me MVP in Florida,” Schnyder said. “It was a good feeling. There was nothing before like it.”

Schnyder played the championship game with an injury to her kneecap and a broken finger. While Schnyder was pleased with being named the team’s MVP, saying it came as a surprise to her, she is quick to point out the Lady Heat’s success was a team effort.

“Everybody has been working together for a while,” Schnyder said. “Everybody knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses and everybody pushed through and pushed each other. We were determined to win.”

The St. John Lady Heat have been a long-term project of Raffeal Neal who serves as CEO of the Lady Heat organization and coached the girls in their national championship game.

Neal, a juvenile probation officer for St. John Parish courts, created the team in 2011 and also serves as the head girls basketball coach at Garyville Magnet School, said he put together the Lady Heat to allow girls living in St. John a positive outlet for the summer.

“I see it time and time again when you get those kids with idle time what can happen,” Neal said. “We are just giving these girls the opportunity to play, and they get a chance to build relationships with each other. It is just amazing.”

What makes the team’s success even more exceptional is the Lady Heat is not just made up of all ninth graders. A few eighth graders had to be thrown into the mix for depth, and the tallest player is mere 5-foot-8, compared to a lot of teams with players well over 6-feet tall.

Neal said the girls play as a team.

“Everybody can dribble and rebound,” Neal said. “You don’t have that one girl that can just play everything and everyone else is role-playing. With this group of girls, you don’t have that dominant player.”

Last year the team ended its season by finishing eighth in the Prime Time Nationals in Dallas, where they were in competition in with over 60 teams.

“When we came back this year they were hungry to get back,” Neal said.

On their way to a championship season this year, the Lady Heat team put together a 21-1 record, with the only loss coming off of a come-from-behind victory against the Baton Rouge Tigers in which they were bested by only 2 points. Later on in the season the Lady Heat avenged that loss with a double-digit win over the Lady Tigers.

“To look at the team you wouldn’t think they are that good,” Lady Heat head coach Dayna Nicholas ‘Coach Nick’ said. “They are small but they are fast. A lot of people look at them and think we are going to blow them out. And we are thinking, ‘you think you are going to blow us out.’ They have a lot of confidence. You put all of it together and it is unbelievable. They beat people by 30 points.”

The secret to the Lady Heat’s success — they’ve been playing together in the AAU summer league for four years. While many of them have gone on to success at area high schools, most notably East St. John High School, they have continued to play on the Lady Heat summer team.

“This is the first time we’ve won nationals, the first time we’ve ever won state and the first time we’ve ever won regionals,” Nicholas said.

“We grabbed it all at one time. When you get the same group of kids to play together for that long of a period of time, you are not going to find that with a lot of AAU teams.”