Senior Kylie Wood highlights a potent Carey offense.
Coming into the 2020-21 season, the Carey Panthers were looking for a rebound from a runner-up finish in the Idaho High School Activities Association 1A Division 2 state girls basketball tournament.
On top of wanting to avenge a 45-30 finals loss to Rockland, senior Kylie Wood was looking to break the school’s all-time scoring record.
That was before COVID-19 decided to butt its way into the fray and throw off Carey basketball history.
Wood’s 1,045 career points (455 points in 2019-20) put her right on target to eclipse the current school record of 1,255 points, which was set in 2013 by Jaide Parke.
Presently, Wood sits No. 3 all-time behind Jaide and Jessica Parke (1,129 points).
Last season, Wood averaged 20.7 points per game and led the team with 54 three-point buckets. She scored in double-figures in 22 out of 23 games.
However, with the rest of the season up in the air, there’s the question of whether this team can stay driven.
“Kylie is her own motivator,” Carey head coach Merrilee Sears said. “She puts so much time and effort in the gym that her goal is to play at college. She’s so mentally tough. She is usually up at 7 a.m. shooting before school, which isn’t normal for kids this generation.”
As most teams that eye a return to the state championship game practice drills, Carey is trying to stay focused by playing scrimmages.
“Every day is a new day between how to keep them motivated without playing a game,” Sears said. “I give credit to these girls because they want to play. If they have to practice until districts then that’s what they’ll do. They just love basketball.”
If there is anyone who can keep Carey invigorated, it is Sears. She led the Panthers to the 2018-19 state championship with a 56-48 win over Salmon River of Riggins.
Last year, the Panthers finished with a 20-3 overall record (9-0 at home, 11-3 away). Their trip to the state tournament was their 12th in a row.
The Panthers averaged 44.2 points per game (1,018 total points) while conceding 33.6 points per game to opponents.
Other notables for Carey will be Kourtney Patterson, who is the lone junior on the team, and sophomores Jane Parke and Bernice Vargas.
Should COVID-19 levels drop below red and into the orange, the Panthers aim to “begin” their season on Tuesday, Jan. 5, when Carey visits Wendell with tip-off at 7:30 p.m.
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(4) comments
Why is it every week we see sweaty high school kids touching each other chasing a germ covered basketball with no masks on and that's fine but everyone else be damned if you're not 6' apart wearing a mask?
It is unconscionable what we have done to these kids. I'm ashamed that as a community we have not let these kids play games. I'm sorry Kylie and to the rest of your team mates.
The NBA is playing what is now their 2nd covid season in less than 6 months and this one is not in a bubble. College basketball is playing, high school basketball is playing in every single school district in Idaho sans Blaine County. Rec basketball is playing, AAU basketball is playing, little league basketball is playing. Only in Blaine County is that not the case. And for absolutely no reason. Decisions that were woke knee jerk reactions to fear, have not been examined against the data that is now available. We are not following the science. We are ignoring the science. With the thousands of games and all of the contact tracing, show me the "science" and data that would back sticking with what we now know was and is such an asinine policy. Yep that science doesn't exist. They are not even following our own covid prophet, Dr. Fauci, who said that school should be opened two weeks ago. Other schools, who are both going to school and playing sports, let me repeat, every other school district in Idaho is playing sports, all of those schools have relatively similar numbers than we do. Some much better, some a bit worse. We are all in the same statistical ball park. We might even be in the high side of it. Don't believe me? Look it up yourself. All of the sacrifice that this privileged board has asked of the working family and their children has been for nothing. The sacrifices of education, physical, emotional, and mental health. Sacrificing dreams, ambitions, opportunities, life changing experiences and youthful memories, as well as possible scholarships, have been for absolutely freaking nothing. The board takes the athletic reins away from administrators, micromanages the districts athletics to death, and then washes their hands of it until spring because they do not want to talk about sports anymore. How courageous of them. How caring of them. How privileged of them. How many opportunities have been taken away from student athletes like the one in this article? I hope that her family knows a good attorney and sues the pants of the district. Our kids, our students, and our student athletes are not victims of the coronavirus. They are victims of privilege, they are victims of a selfish teachers union, they are victims of a school board who makes the decisions that the union tells them. They are victims of a school board who outside of their own privileged world, have zero idea of who kids are. The very people who we trust with our kids future are the ones who are throwing them under the bus. What a tragedy for any young person to grow into adulthood wondering what might have been. We now have a school district full of them.
Well said Freddy.
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