A strong season at the junior varsity level saw the Powell Panther girls finish with a 15-3 record, which included several different winning streaks in a season that saw significant growth.

It started with a loss against Lander, before the Panthers reeled off eight straight wins which stretched just over a month.

“Each year when you are blending together two or three classes there is certainly an adjustment period as everyone figures out the strengths of each others’ games,” coach Troy Hildebrand said. “I thought this group was able to really get that figured out early and they truly fed off of each other to lead our group to the success they had all season.”

Unfortunately the winning streak came to an end on the road at Cody, before the Panthers rebounded to defeat Lovell.

Powell then lost to Lander, before earning six straight wins to end the season including a 55-16 road win in Thermopolis.

The team was led in part by a strong group of guards, including freshmen Emery Hernandez and Kaedenze Carter, as well as sophomores Ivy Agee and Neveah Garcia.

That guard play was backed up on the interior, with the posts consisting of sophomores Shelby Zickefoose and Hali Hancock alongside freshman Leah Graham. Powell also got contributions from Melanie Garcia, Kate Mainwaring along with other players who worked into the rotation either swinging down from varsity or up from the freshman level.

“As a team the JV group really grew together defensively and that was the true calling card of this team,” Hildebrand said. “Our guards were able to create a lot of chaos for our opponents with great full-court pressure and then we had very good size on the inside that made it equally hard for teams to score in the post.”

Looking ahead to next year, the Panthers will have some players moving to the next level to replace four outgoing seniors on varsity, but may retain several players at the JV level as Hildebrand is excited that the program continues to retain committed players regardless of what level they are playing.

“We certainly do plan to return a number of these players to the JV team, while some may move on to just varsity time and others will be splitting quarters between the two levels,” Hildebrand said. “Our program has been very lucky to have girls that are willing to buy in and play hard at whatever level we ask of them and this group really exemplified that trait. I would expect the same from any of them that I have the opportunity to work with next year as well.”

He said that a lot can change in the off-season, but he is excited about what this group of players can bring at both the JV and varsity levels next season.

Hildebrand added that the team continued to show up for each game 100% committed, bringing contagious energy each and every time they played.

“Everyone bought into their role and fed off of the energy of the group which made us stronger as the season wore on when many teams were losing steam. That energy made this a very fun group to coach all season,” Hildebrand said. “I loved the way that this team was willing to share the ball and find teammates so unselfishly along the course of our 18 games.”