• SVHS Coaches leading South Girls
In a week, players and coaches for the annual Wyoming Coaches Foundation North-South All-Star Games will begin their practices leading up to the event on July 20. The games, which include a volleyball match, followed by girls and boys basketball games will be played at T-Bird gymnasium on the campus of Casper College. The volleyball match begins at 1 p.m. with the basketball games to fol- low at 3 and 5 p.m. respectively.
Kade Erickson, head coach of the Lady Braves basketball team, is the head coach for this year’s South squad. He will also be joined by Jason Cazier from the Star Valley staff. Erickson spoke with SVI about the process and what the job entails.
“During the week of State basketball we get together as coaches and nominate who we feel like would benefit from attending these games, “ he said. “We select the girls and then they talk about who could be the coaches. For some reason this year they nominated me. They also nominate the assistant coach as we gather as South coaches. Jason decided to jump on board with us. Clay Evans of Little Snake River is with us. We are excited to work together. I’m a little nervous about it but I’m excited too.”
The lead up to the games begins on Wednesday July 17.
“We meet there on Wednesday at noon,” Erickson continued. “We have a team meeting and introduce ourselves and we start off with a practice and then a dinner. Then we turn around and practice again. Then there’s an early morning practice and team pictures and such. Then we practice again followed by a Union Wireless event in Casper. That night we get some team bonding. Friday will have a couple of practices and then a dinner for the players. Saturday morning has a program and some awards and then the games.”
A quartet of LCSD No. 2 graduates will be part of the weekend. Mikayla Christiansen of Star Valley, along with Bryli Groll and Reagan of Cokeville will be part of the South volleyball team which will be coached by Kassidy Johnson of Douglas. The North squad will be coached by Alli Nikont of Big Horn.
Erickson will have a familiar face in Kenlee Engelhardt for the South basketball squad. Some in-season SVHS opponents that will be on the South that readers may be familiar with include Addison Forry of Laramie, Sydnee Harris of Rock Springs and Bradie Schlabs of Cheyenne East. The North girls basketball team will be coached by Ryan Sullivan of Sheridan.
The South boys do not have any players from the local school district but will have Kemmerer’s Chase Bowen and other former SVHS opponents such as Theran Archibald of Green River. The South boys will be led by Denver Allard of Rawlins. The North boys will have Joe Samuelson of Upton as their head coach.
•Lady Braves Off-season
Erickson also spoke about the schedule for the Lady Braves this off-season which was a busy one.
“We hit five weekends in a row,” he said. “This group of seniors wanted to get out and play basketball so we played a total of 30 games this off- season. We ended up winning 13. We didn’t have a full squad and we’ve just got a few girls with some varsity expe- rience so it took some time for us to get used to it. We got a lot of varsity experience. I feel like we played our very best at the Marsh Valley tournament at the end.”
“Emily and Ambree and Kambree got some experience that will help them be the leaders this next season,” Erickson continued. “We learned a lot as a team and what we need to work on but the girls learned a lot about their individual selves. It was a lot of fun. The JV played really well this summer. They played two tournaments that were bracketed and they won both of those tournaments. The freshman is a big squad so that’s a good group that’s quick and feisty and will be fun to work with and build.”
