Snohomish’s No. 13 Jenna Pahre makes a break during a game.
Photo courtesy Becki Koehler
SNOHOMISH — A team of eighth graders who have played together for four years recently captured a state championship.
The Snohomish Panthers, a select team that feeds middle schoolers into Snohomish High School, captured the girls basketball crown during a tournament in March that took place in Spokane.
“They have a lot of grit, a lot of guts and no-give-up in them,” coach Becki Koehler said.
The nine-member team played five games during a two-day tournament March 8 and 9. The tournament, which had boys and girls teams, offered three brackets. The silver bracket, where Snohomish competed, consisted of middle school teams that generally feed into 3A high school. The gold bracket had teams that fed into 4A schools and then there was an AAU bracket, Koehler said.
The first two games saw Snohomish coast to wins. They defeated Battle Ground, from Oregon, 50-8 and then topped Redmond 42-19.
The third game saw the girls edge Ellensburg 37-35.
“It was our toughest game in my opinion. They had a bunch of tall people,” Allie Koehler, who played for Snohomish, said.
The semifinals saw Snohomish top Monroe 40-34. Allie said the championship game had Snohomish play against White River which also had a lot of tall players. She added Snohomish played a zone defense against White River. “We just kept getting points and stopped them.”
Becki Koehler said Snohomish was down by seven points at halftime against White River and the team made a huge second-half comeback.
Key players included Allie Koehler and Terrayia Baisy. “They definitely scored most of our points and got a lot of our rebounds,” Becki Koehler said. Sadie Seamons had a good game in the tournament and Jenna Pahre played good defense.
“They’re such good teammates. They’re unselfish,” Becki Koehler said. Filling out the team are Carlie Sparlin, Kayleigh Moran, Kayden Witherow, McKenna Harkins and Kaitlyn Mills.
The team has been together since they were in the fifth grade, Becki Koehler said.
The girls basketball season starts in October and continued through the state tournament. They played a 14-game season where they finished 5-9. She said the record wasn’t as good as previous seasons. The team had to deal with injuries and illnesses.
They qualified for state on the strength of their tournament play. In two qualifying tournaments, Snohomish placed second at a tournament at
Glacier Peak and they won a tournament in Stanwood, Becki Koehler said.
Every player on the team is an eighth grader at Centennial Middle School, which feeds into Snohomish and will have a chance to try out for the girls team as freshman, Becki Koehler said.
