When Concordia College Alabama women’s head coach Howard White saw his team beat Faulkner University and Auburn University at Montgomery in overtime and double overtime, he knew he had a national championship team. But he couldn’t tell his players he thought they could win a national title. It was only the preseason.

Another game early in the season, when the Concordia women traveled to Montevallo and beat them in every quarter of the game, White knew this team was special.

Months later, in Concordia’s gym Wednesday morning, he was able to celebrate achieving the dream he had all the way back in the preseason.

Concordia held a ceremony for the women’s and men’s basketball teams to acknowledge both team’s accomplishments for making it to the national championship games of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association tournament in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The men finished as runner-ups, while the women won the national title.

“Today was amazing. It was great to see all the faculty and staff come out and show their support,” White said.

The Hornets band and cheerleaders opened up the morning’s festivities before the men’s and women’s teams each entered the gym. Concordia’s president, Dr. Tilahun Mendedo, opened with remarks about how proud he was of the two teams for their accomplishments on and off the court.

Concordia’s athletic director, Don Jefferson, also took the podium to echo Mendedo’s sentiment and congratulate the two teams on their accomplishments.

Concordia head coach Fredrick Summers said how proud he was of his team for all they had accomplished this year. While one game separated the Hornets from their first national championship in program history, Summers said he can hold his head up high because team has advanced further in the tournament in each of the last three seasons.

Three of Summers’ seniors — Jamie Washington, Kendrick Atwood and Joshua Stallworth — each followed their head coach with a short speech. Washington was honored as a first-team USCAA All-American and Atwood earned his all-tournament team award.

After White gave delivered his speech, each of the women were dressed with their championship medals. Carshava Sutton was given an award for being an academic All-American. Erica Ousley earned USCAA tournament MVP honors, while Shauntavia Harris took home the USCAA player of the year award.

Each of the women took turns signing their championship basketball, and as the ceremony came to a close, they lifted the championship trophy, which was still fitted with the trimmed off net from Uniontown.

White, who coached women for the first time this past year, said he hadn’t really thought about what he had achieved by winning a national championship in his first year as the Concordia women’s head coach. He’s already thinking about a repeat.

Next year’s team will be without Ousley and Mary Windom, both of whom are seniors.

But the Hornets will return a big piece to this past season’s championship puzzle in Harris.

“We should be pretty good next year. It looks good on paper, but you never know until you start playing,” White said. “We’ll see how they compete on the floor. If they stay healthy I think we’ll be OK. We’ll have a chance to go back and get another one.”