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Kimberly High School
School Info
Conference: 3A Sawtooth Central Idaho Conference
Classification: 3A
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Head Coach: Stanley Watts
Years as Head Coach: 1st Season
Previous Experience: Kimberly JV Girls Coach for 4 Seasons
Record Last Year: 23-2
State Titles: 1983-1984
Assistant Coaches: Kayla Hutcheson Casey Darrington
Returning Players: Lander Yamada, G, 12 Jessi Schmitz, G, 12 Ashlie Watts, G, 12 Emily Wadsworth, P, 12
Returning Players with Honors: Ashlie Watts, Emily Wadsworth and Jessi Schmitz all with honors. Watts First Team All-Conference.
Key Players lost from last year: Lost six seniors
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Team Preview
Written by: Sven Alskog
Entering the state tournament undefeated last season, it seemed like it could be the year for the Kimberly Lady Dawgs to make some noise in a loaded 3A field.
Unfortunately a tough first round draw in Teton, combined with the season-ending injury of team leader Maysie Rongen less than two minutes into that game were a combination that would put a gash into the Kimberly title hopes.
It gets exponentially more difficult now with six seniors having graduated from a group which helped to turn around the fortunes of the program under Head Coach Lawrence Pfefferle over the last couple of seasons.
Now it is Stanley Watts' turn to lead the varsity after having coached the JV girls at Kimberly for four seasons.
First Team All-Conference selection guard Ashlie Watts is back. Emily Wadsworth gives her an inside presence that saw plenty of time in the state tournament last year and Jessi Schmitz and Lander Yamada round out what will probably be the starting guard line.
Watts provides the most scoring punch offensively and it will be interesting to see who emerges alongside of her to give the Lady Dawgs the scoring punch they need to win close games.
"We have outside shooting capabilities," said Watts. "Our focus is lots of movement in offensive sets. We are focusing on getting more players involved."
After relying heavily on the starting five last season, the new head coach hopes to see an emergence of the bench players to help give the main rotation players a bit more of a rest.
Plenty exists to spark optimism again this year for Kimberly, although inevitably this group will see more challenges on a nightly basis with less experience and hard to replace talent having graduated.
"I am excited about the quickness we have on this team and we have a very teachable team," said Watts.
It is a wide-open conference this season with no clear-cut favorite. Kimberly once again should be right in the thick of things all the way down to the end.
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