LA CENTER — Laughter comes easily for Kylee Stephens and Mia Edwards.
They can’t help but crack smiles when they look back on where La Center High’s girls basketball team was in late December. It’s why the Wildcats don’t shy away from believing their slow start — one victory through their opening six games — got them to where they are now: 1A Trico League champions preparing for another postseason run.
“It helped us get our team stronger,” said Edwards, a starting wing and one of two seniors, “and we’re coming out with more fire every game.”
Fire is right. Now winners of 10 of their past 11 games, the young Wildcats (13-7 overall, 9-1 league) earned a first-round bye into the 1A District tournament and host either Montesano, Stevenson or Columbia-White Salmon on Saturday.
La Center knows the tough road ahead for teams that qualified for districts. Only two girls teams will make it to regionals.
But before La Center plays what it hopes is its best basketball to come, how the Wildcats got here meant taking early-season lumps in December.
Six games in, their record sat at 1-5 after a 72-33 loss to 3A Kelso on Dec. 17. In fact, all their nonleague contest came against 3A and 2A opponents, plus other traditionally strong 1A teams.
One win in six games to open the season? No big deal now, said Stephens, the team’s point guard.
It’s a different team.
“It helped us get better,” she said. “This is where it starts now to get us to where we want to be.”
Coach Herm VanWeerdhuizen watched his team learn, grow and improve through stiff nonleague tests before 1A Trico League play began. Of their six nonleague opponents, five qualified for their respective postseasons.
“I’m thankful for those games,” Edwards said.
And that helped the youthful Wildcats grow quickly. Edwards joins fellow senior Natasha Lewis as the team’s only upperclassmen. The starting lineup features two ninth graders — Gianna D’Emilio and Alyse Webberley — and a sophomore making big contributions.
That sophomore is Stephens.
A broken collarbone forced her to miss a chunk of her freshman season and when La Center lost Lauren Fox (knees) in mid-December, Stephens shifted from wing to point guard. The transition has been nothing but smooth, and continues the tradition of a Stephens at the position.
Her older sister Taylor Stephens, now in her freshman season at Central Washington, is La Center’s all-time leading scorer. The sisters played one season of high school together, but the mentorship rubbed off on the younger Stephens. She even changed her jersey number to 24, the number the elder Stephens wore at La Center.
Edwards has playing experience with both Stephens sisters, and sees a similar resemblance in styles of play. Kylee Stephens leads La Center in scoring (16 points per game) and assists (six) this season.
“She fits the part,” said Edwards, who is right behind Stephens in scoring at 12.6 points per game, plus three assists per game.
Before last week’s 44-34 loss to King’s Way to end the regular-season, La Center’s win streak reached a season-high 10 games. It wasn’t that long ago La Center won three straight league and district titles from 2016-18, and the team’s two seniors — Edwards and Lewis — know what it takes to make a deep playoff push. After going 9-1 in league, a victory Saturday would put La Center into a winner-to-regional game Feb. 18.
For VanWeerdhuizen, staying on course has been key to success.
“I kept saying, ‘Don’t take these losses personally,'” the coach said. “We’ll get into league and we’ll see what happens. We’ll be better than what people think we are.”
And winning has put smiles on the faces of Stephens and Edwards, too.
“Now,” Stephens said, “we’re all working together to prove something.”
