Winter sports are returning to Summit High School this week, and star players Emerson Williams and Dakota Tol are excited about the upcoming girl’s basketball season.
The Storm finished 11th in the state last season, and second in the Intermountain Conference. But, they were unfortunately bounced in the first round of the state tournament last spring, losing to the eventual state championship runner-ups, Crescent Valley.
Despite their playoff season being cut short, the Storm racked up an eight-game winning streak to begin the New Year, and overall went 8-1 in the month of January. They look to continue that success this year.
“We were a well knit team and had lots of fun during the season,” said Summit senior and varsity starter, Dakota Tol.
Summit junior Emerson Williams, who was named second team all conference last season, spoke to this team spirit and camaraderie.
“We had a lot of good chemistry, this came from having a lot of returners. As the year before we only lost one Senior on varsity,” said Williams.
However, this tight knit team took a slight hindrance as last season saddeningly saw the departure of four Summit girls basketball seniors. The Storm notably lost two talented guards, Rose Koehler and Sam Coronado.
Koehler hit 1000 career points as a senior and became one of three players in Summit history to reach this mark. She also broke Summit’s single game scoring record with 39 points, earning her recognition as OSAA’s athlete of the week. Capping off her senior season she was named first team all conference. Koehler is now playing basketball at Colorado College.
Coronado was another crucial player in last year’s team. As the team captain for two years she averaged 10 points per game and was second in total rebounds for the Storm. Coronado was also named second team all conference for her success on the court.
Regardless of the losses, the Storm are confident in their ability to build off of last year’s success and quickly rebuild their internal team community. “While we still have returners from last year, we also have a lot of strong underclassmen who are stepping up and filling Varsity roles this year,” said Williams.
“I think for pre-season, it is going to be important to rebuild that chemistry that we had last year,” said Williams.
Pre-season begins on Wednesday Nov. 29 at McNary high school. This should be a relatively competitive matchup with McNary being in a similar position to the Storm after losing in the first round of the 6A Playoffs last season.
Both Tol and Williams are eager to get back on the court and are ready to take on McNary.
“I’m feeling pumped and ready to go! We are gonna show up ready to play, and I’m excited to finally get back on the court,” said Tol.
To Williams, this isn’t just any regular season game, there is a personal vendetta and something to prove. “I think there’s also a personal rivalry going into this game as my freshman year we played McNary, beating them once as well as losing to them once. This is kind of our chance to prove we’re the better program,” said Williams.
Looking ahead at the season as a whole, the Storm will compete in 24 games altogether, with pre-season lasting through the month of December before league play begins in January and lasts until the end of February.
Summit is confident in its ability to form yet another successful Girls Basketball season, being led by talented upperclassmen, as well as having young talent with lots of potential.
“On a whole team scale I’m feeling really good… I think we have a ton of potential this year,” said Williams.
