The girls basketball season is starting off faster than we know. They will start off their season with a scrimmage against the Elkhon North Wolverines. After finishing their season last year with a winning record, they are coming in with aspirations to make a run at state. They will have a lot of new faces this year after losing six seniors the previous season. There will be two new transfers on the team, one being sophmore Gueryn Kay from Blair. She shares what she is looking forward to this season.
“I’m most excited to see how I play differently in Class A at Westside than in Class B at Blair,” Kay said.
This season, Kay has set some goals for herself personally and has set goals for her team as well.
“My team goal for this season is for us to go to state, and push each other more. My personal goals for this season are to get better at not fouling on defense, and getting stronger,” Kay said.
Another transfer from North Bend Central who transfered to Westside last year, Kat Gaughen is a senior and is looking forward to her last season at Westside, as recently she committed to College of Saint Mary. Gaughen explains what she is most excited for this upcoming season.
“I am most excited about getting to play alongside of and for amazing teammates and coaches. This team is really special and I can’t wait for what the season will bring us!” Gaughen said.
As Gaughen has had some previous experience with another team, she shares how the playing and coaching style at Westside is unique to her previous school.
“The Westside team is drastically different from the North Bend team. It feels like a family at Westside instead of just a sport,” Gaughen said. “At Westside it turns basketball into something bigger than just showing up and winning games. The culture is amazing and I am so grateful to be a part of this program and school!”
Since Kay has not had long to experience Westside’s culture, she shares how she thinks Westside will be different from her previous school.
“This team is different from my old team because of how the girls and coaches are able to have fun together, but also work hard for each other,” Kay said.
The head coach Steven Clark is excited to see what this season will bring for the girls team. He shares how the relationship between these girls is a key factor and how he hopes it will continue to prosper.
“I’m most excited to see the chemistry develop as a team. They had a lot of fun playing together this summer, and we hope to continue that as the season goes,” Clark said.
As any other player or head coach does, Clark has set some goals for his team. Ultimately, these goals lead to going to the state tournament, but there are little goals that he hopes to accomplish throughout the season that would help the team get there.
“Our goals stay the same from year to year to play in the state tournament,” Clark said. “We want to grow as a team, develop the relationships to provide us the best opportunity to win enough games to host districts and qualify for the state tournament. Ultimately winning a state championship is consistently the goal.”
Gaughen has also come up with a set of things that she would like to accomplish throughout this season as well. She has some personal goals and some team goals in mind.
“[My team goals are that] at the end of the season I want to have a winning record, make it to state, and not lose games that are supposed to be won,” Gaughen said. [My personal goals are that] I want to show up everyday in the gym during practices and games and not be there for myself but for my teammates and coaches. I also want to have a positive impact on this team both on and off the court.”
As the beginning of their season is coming up quickly, Kay shares what kind of mindset that she wants to have coming into the season and hopefully through the end.
“My mindset this season is to play physical, not be afraid, while playing calm,” Kay said
Both Kay and Gaughen have just come off of a volleyball season, so this will be a quick turnaround for them. As for Gaughen, she comes into the season with a mindset of leaving it all on the court.
“I have a determined mindset going into this season because I know we can do great things together!” Gaughen said “As this being my senior year, I want to make the most out of the time we have because I know this season will fly by,”
With the end of the off-season the games that matter will finally start up. The ones that bring together all the skill work and conditioning from the break. This year’s group has plenty of experienced players returning along with new additions who are ready for the new 2024-25 season.
This year’s squad will look to senior Kimora Jenkins (11 PPG) and junior Sanai Foster (8 PPG) to provide a good portion of the production for the team on the offensive end. Coach Clark talked about the loss of seniors last year.
“Kara [Stricklin] will be missed for sure,” Clark said. “[But] Kimora and Sanai will be ready to step up as scorers.”
Other returning players include Gabbie Duval and Mia Urosevich who are both expected to provide the team with leadership and athleticism. Another returning player from last season is sophomore Jayah Freeman who can stretch the floor as an excellent shooter.
The squad has also added a new addition to the roster in Kat Gaughen who has come in from North Bend. Coach Clark had this to say about the newcomer’s state experience.
“Kat Gaughen has experience in state tournaments with volleyball here and North Bend, as well as basketball in North Bend.”
Other new additions include Gueryn Kay and HimayaJo Metoyer who are expected to help bring skills and athleticism to the roster for this upcoming season.
The first game of this upcoming season is on December 5th. It will be a home game against Bellevue East 5:30. East had strong record of 16-8 last season and in their last meeting with the Warriors during February of last year they won by five. Bell East will also enter the new 2024-25 season with a top three rating in class A girls basketball.
About the matchup, coach Clark talks about the rivalry.
“Bellevue East is close to a rivalry, as many of our players are friends with many of theirs,” Clark said.
This game has the making to be quite the opener for the season as it seems to be the closest thing to a rivalry game besides the WarSader game against Marian.
The prediction for the best Class A team is Millard West.
The pre-season frontrunner for best team in class A is the 2023-24 season champs Millard West. The team is lead by the Gessert twins who have committed to Creighton. Besides the twins they seem to have a large returning roster with only 5 graduating players from last years season. Westside will play them on December 19th at Millard West.
The big picture for the girls season comes with the standard goals. Coach Clark says of the program.
“Our goals are always to compete for state championships. We have to work each day to put ourselves in a position to host districts, grow as a team, and play with no fear.”
This year appears to be a promising one and hopefully the team will be able to show how much work they put in this off-season.
