STORY BY MAKENNA ALLEN
This weekend is a time to celebrate the Fort Hays men’s and women’s basketball programs. It is a time to appreciate the hard work and dedication of the players that have brought the program much success in this year, as well as in years past. The women have clinched the 2019 MIAA regular season conference championship while the men remain in good shape to hold a top-four spot within the conference standings.
As such, this weekend is a time to celebrate the senior members of both teams who have made these triumphs possible. According to their coaches, these groups of seniors have been influential both on and off the court. They leave behind them a legacy of strong work ethic and the desire to win.
This winning mentality is the greatest legacy that Women’s Head Coach, Tony Hobson, believes his seniors create for the younger members of the team. As point guard, Carly Heim, and forward, Tatyana Legette, both four-year players, bid farewell to the basketball program, they exit with the knowledge that they were elements of a record-breaking team.
“They’re going to be really close to maybe win 100 games in four years which is just remarkable,” Hobson said. “I mean if you look at their four years, it’s going to be four 20-win seasons, probably broke a dozen team records for winning, and winning streaks and regionals. They’re going to play in three NCAA tournaments. That will be more than any other class has ever done and hopefully, they’re still writing it as we go. It’s not over.”
Though the legacy of the seniors will live on, the regular 2018-2019 season draws near to its conclusion as the Tigers head into senior weekend ranked third nationally and with a record of 17-1 in MIAA Conference play.
As the team looks towards the playoffs, Legette strives to keep a sense of excitement burning within her younger teammates that she hopes will continue even after the season concludes.
“I hope to leave the excitement that I felt I brought to the team on the bench and on the floor,” Legette said. “I like to think of the game as fun and exciting and not more of a job, just think of it as something you get to do in front of everyone that you love and just have fun with it.”
Legette prepares to wrap-up her college career with a legacy of more than just the energy she brought to her team. Indeed, she leads the team this season in rebounds and also holds the highest per-game scoring average of any of the players (13.2 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per game).
The forward credits a portion of this success to the connection she experiences while on the court with her fellow senior and roommate, Heim.
“Playing with Carly for as long as I have, it’s just a bond that you can’t really put into words. I love Carly and she’s a great teammate,” Legette said. “We don’t have to really say much when we’re out there. She knows what I want to do and I know what she wants to do and it’s easier for us to play with each other and get things going out there.”
Unfortunately, the chemistry on the court between the two seniors ended abruptly when Heim suffered an ACL-tear during the Tigers’ Feb. 2 match-up against Nebraska-Kearney. Though the injury proved to be the conclusion to Heim’s season, the senior from Hoxie has experienced a basketball career that has impacted her on a personal level.
“I’ve definitely matured a lot. I have a lot of close friends now. It’s just fun hanging out with them every day and growing with them and seeing how they grow,” Heim said. “I think that’s going to be one of the parts that I miss most about basketball.”
Similar to Legette, Heim hopes that the mark she’s left upon the team has been one that serves as a reminder of what it means to be fully dedicated to a program.
“Our team word is impact,” Heim said. “I think it’s the impact that we’ve had on everybody, how we show up every day and how hard we work during game days and how we just don’t give up.”
The seniors on the women’s team are not the only players that have demonstrated this strong work ethic on and off the court over the course of the past four years. In fact, the Men’s Head Coach, Mark Johnson, suggests that his group of five seniors has been one that never required extra motivation.
“They’ve been a big part of our program for a long time and you can just look outside some of their talents and the points they’ve had to the quality of people they are. They’ve represented our program well,” Johnson said. “That’s what we’re going to miss most about them. You can’t always guarantee the person you’re bringing in. There’s no guarantee they’re going to be the quality of person we have leaving.”
This year, the team’s roster includes senior guards, Grant Holmes, Trey O’Neil, Marcus Cooper, and Kyler Kinnamon, along with forward, Brady Werth. Werth has led the team this season in both rebounds and points per game (16.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game).
“You look at the year Brady Werth has had. He’s one of the better players in the MIAA and I would be very disappointed if he wasn’t an all-conference player this year,” Johnson said.
Even with Werth’s personal accomplishments, Johnson cites the team’s success as the product of a group effort to which all of the seniors contributed. He credits O’Neil as a key player dedicated to the overall welfare of the team.
“Trey O’Neil, he’s shown character,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that cares more about team success than his own success.”
Johnson believes that this character was supported by the growing confidence of Kinnamon, the willingness of Holmes, and the athletic ability of Northeastern Colorado transfer, Cooper.
For Kinnamon, the four years spent on the court with this group of men have been a time of lessons learned. However, the support of his family, teammates, and coaches has helped him along the way.
“My family has been with me all the time and I’ve had really great teammates and the coaches have been there,” Kinnamon said. “It’s been a lot of fun. I wouldn’t change anything that I’ve ended up here and I’m hoping to go out with a bang.”
Even as the end of the regular season draws near for both teams, Kinnamon stresses the importance of maintaining focus on the team and not on the fact that the senior season marks the end of an era for the players.
“It is in the back of my head and it’s hard to avoid those thoughts but you try not to let it be a distraction and just keep going about your work,” Kinnamon said.
For now, it’s time for the seniors of both the men’s and women’s teams to enjoy the spotlight as they prepare for their games back at Gross Memorial Coliseum this Saturday. Both teams prepare to match-up against Pittsburg State with the women tipping off at 2:00 and the men at 4:00.