FORT WORTH – The TCU Horned Frogs women’s basketball team is a perfect example of how to fight through adversity. Just a year ago, the “Underfrogs” were born, and four students walked onto the team in an emergency situation to save their season.
“The original term is an underdog. So, someone on social media, I don’t even know where it originated. Might have been on TikTok, Underfrog, and it just stuck,” said TCU head coach Mark Campbell.
As life comes full circle for Ella Hamlin, one of the original “Underfrogs” who helped an injury-plagued roster, she got a surprise last week.
“We were so excited. We were begging Ella to come back this year. A lot of the girls didn’t want to, and it was just too much. Being a walk-on is a really difficult job, not getting paid, not getting school paid for,” said Sedona Prince.
In his second season at TCU, Campbell recruited a group of players that matched Ella’s character traits. The selfless personalities play a huge factor in the Horned Frogs’ going from 1-17 in conference play in 2022-23 to a team that is ranked in the top 10.
“It’s a movie, it’s magical. All the different storylines. The fact we’re top 10 in the country. There is no ceiling with this group. We just got to keep chipping away,” said Campbell.
Campbell went to the transfer portal to ensure his team could do just that, adding former LSU star Haley Van Lith.
“I had a previous relationship with Coach Campbell, who recruited me out of high school, and I just knew he really cared about me as a person. I knew the pieces and the players that they had here, and I just bought in from the beginning,” said Van Lith.
The once “Underfrogs” have the world bought in and paying close attention to their historic season.
“We want to put on a show for you. We want it to be exciting, we want it to be flashy, we want it to be hard-nosed, and we want to play hard for you guys,” said Van Lith.
