By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
For the 14th year in a row, the FHSU women’s basketball program finished the season with over 20 wins – the longest active streak in the country – ending the year 28-5. FHSU seemed invincible for large parts of the season, starting the year 12-0 and going on another 12-game winning streak through much of January and February. However, the season ended similarly to the last season. After a successful regular season, the Tigers lost in the MIAA championship game to Pittsburg State for the second year in a row and finished their journey in the NCAA national tournament at the regional semi-final round, the same round they were eliminated last season.
Despite those disappointing losses, the Tigers were one of the most consistent teams in the regular season and FHSU Head Coach Talia Kahrs will look back fondly on the 2024-25 campaign.
“I think what we talked about after our last game was just how much fun it was. It was a really fun group of girls to spend time with every single day, and that makes my job as a head coach a lot of fun,” she said. “I enjoyed going to practice where the team was ready to work and bring their best every day, and our goal was to get better every day, and I thought they did a great job of showing up and trying to do that.”
Kahrs credits that hard work and consistency in practice to the success the team had. Prior to losing to the regular-season finale to UNK, FHSU had only lost twice – both to Missouri Western by a combined two points.
In the second round of the NCAA tournament against Southwest Minnesota State, the consistency the Tigers were so proud of got lost in the moment. And with an unusually bad offensive game, the Tigers lost 77-65. Regardless, Kahrs was proud of how the team approached each game, knowing it could be their last and how this time of year is hard when seasons and careers end.
“Definitely a tough, tough way to end the season, just like it always is. There’s only one happy team ever at the end of the year, [so] this is definitely just a hard type of time in the year, going from just such high intensity, high stress to nothing, and so I think it’s just a shock to the system a little bit, whether you’re a player or as a coaching staff,” she said. “Spring break was nice that the players could go home and get away since they haven’t been home since Christmas break, and just get a little break. [We’re] meeting with them this week, and they’re excited for what the future holds.”
What the future does not hold for the Tigers is the presence of back-to-back MIAA Player of the Year Katie DeGarmo and MIAA Defensive Player of the Year Olivia Hollenbeck, who graduate this spring and won’t be returning. FHSU will also lose the services of Megan Earney, Kate Dilsaver and Bailey Wilborn, who are graduating as well. However, two other players will be at Fort Hays to lead the team next year. Brooke Loewe, the team’s assist leader, and Talexa Weeter, who broke the school record for the most points for a Tiger in the MIAA tournament with 35 points during their first-round win, will be in Hays to keep leading the program to success.
Kahrs said maintaining success between seasons is one of the toughest things as a coach, but something that is doable. According to Kahrs, replacing DeGarmo and Hollenbeck as individuals can’t be done, but instead, finding new players who can fill those gaps and embrace those roles is the goal of her and her coaching staff.
“I think that it’s tough, because you do it every year, and it’s everybody thinks, ‘well, you can’t replace this,’ and, no, we probably can’t replace them. Hopefully, we can find a player that can kind of fill in that gap and embrace that role,” Kahrs said. “I think that’s the cool part about being a part of a successful team, is that you have those kids that maybe weren’t playing the scoring role last year, but I think knowing that they have to be more of a scoring presence, it just kind of allows them to step up into that role.
Kahrs said she knew two years ago they would have to replace DeGarmo and Hollenbeck, as well as the other seniors on the roster.
“You’re always planning for that. I feel like our freshman class coming in for next year can come in and make an impact right away. And so that’s just kind of part of maintaining a successful program, is you’re always recruiting for the next year, every year, and so just knowing you’re going to lose pieces,” she said. “Sometimes there are some surprises. Luckily, there haven’t been very many surprises for us, so we’ve been able to just combat that loss from the previous year and then carry over and try to maintain and improve.”
The Tigers were fortunate enough to have a player like Weeter coming off the bench, where she scored over 14 points per game. With the graduation of several players, Weeter will have a chance to step into the starting lineup and be even more influential for the team.
“I think she’s definitely excited to embrace that role, and I think we saw her even do more of that late in the year, of just really realizing like that we needed her to score and we needed her on the court,” Kahrs said of Weeter. “I think she’s excited about what that looks like moving forward, and I’m excited for what that looks like moving forward. She’s just a really dynamic player and changes things up a lot, and she’s a hard player to guard, and so for the other team to figure out what they need to do is definitely kind of a match-up nightmare.”
While the returners will be the core of the team, to stay competitive, FHSU has to bring in talented recruits constantly. As a leading Division II program, it’s not always easy to find players who will be good enough to play competitively at this level, but who are also not recruited and by Division I teams. For Kahrs, a key selling point is the fact that a lot of those players will have a chance to play at a high-competitive level from the start of their careers and not have to wait for an opportunity in a Division I school.
“Those are the type of kids that we do have to get to be successful here, and just trying to find ways that we really kind of fit their niche, whether it’s the small town feel of Hays, the support system that we get at every single game, and there are very few teams that experience the atmosphere that we do day in and day out, and so that that’s a huge selling point for us,” she said.” “Also just being on a really good team and being a really good player on a really good team. I think they have a really good opportunity to come in and make an impact right away.”
Kahrs said sometimes it is important for athletes to come and play right away as freshmen and have really good chances to play.
“That’s usually not a guarantee at a D1 school,” she said. “I think another big selling point for us is that we have an opportunity to compete for a championship every single year, and winning games is a lot of fun, and losing games is not, and so I think just coming to a program that’s winning a lot of games is also a really, a really big selling point, and then you’re going to be on a team with a lot of really cool people, and you don’t always get that everywhere either.”