COLORADO SPRINGS – Sibling rivalries have a funny way about bringing out the best in some high school athletes. Kasaya Krause couldn’t help but think of her older sister Liliani, who had led the Widefield girls basketball team in scoring during the COVID-19 shortened season in 2021.
Kasaya had just walked off the court from the Gladiators 49-7 win over Conifer to open the 2021-22 season. Her sister and the other key seniors from last year’s team were gone. She had tied a team high with 10 points on the night and knew that she couldn’t wait to recap to Liliani, who is currently playing basketball at Salem University.
“Last year didn’t score a lot,” Krause said. “This year is my year and I have to fill some big shoes.”
Krause’s mentality very much fits in with how the Gladiators plan on attacking this season. The scorers from last year are gone. The leaders from last year are gone. Those who are still here have some big shoes to fill.
They look like they’re up for the challenge. By no means do they expect every game to end the way Tuesday night’s did, but it was a good way to dive into the season. The Glads (1-0 overall) got to see what was working and the area in which they need to keep improving.
“This is a group that hasn’t had a lot of minutes on the floor together,” coach Jeff Giovannone said. “We were looking forward to seeing how they would react and play together. They’re a group that in practice so far that has played better than other groups have.”
This group did quite a few things well in its debut. Krause and Cami Carmody led the team with 10 points each. Abby Vsetecka added seven points and did some work on the glass, pulling down eight rebounds on the night. Krause, Bailey Solano and Emma Conroy each snagged four steals and Solano dished out three assists.
These Gladiators understand that there isn’t one person that replace the production that was lost to graduation. This small and scrappy team needs everyone to contribute to find success this winter.
“It was nice to come out really strong with a really close group of girls,” Carmody said. “It’s just a really good family aspect. Not only are we doing great on the court, but we’re doing great off the court.”
Starting the season with a win is always ideal, but Giovannone understands that this is game one of a 23-game stretch and his girls must always strive for improvement. They’ll see talented Discovery Canyon and Lewis-Palmer teams in the near future and he knows that when he reviews the film from Tuesday that there are going to be some areas where the team can grow and evolve into a Colorado Springs Metro League contender this year.
“Even in a game like this, we can do a lot wrong,” he said. “Offensively, we have to be better. We’re going to see some defensive teams in our league that will be able to shut down what we gave them tonight. Defensively, I loved our energy and loved our effort.”
As long as he can see the effort, he knows the improvements will come. And that’s the ultimate name of the game. His team doesn’t measure success based on how the season starts. He wants to see how they’ve improved at the end.
And now that he has a starting point for his girls, the task of getting them to play better basketball every day begins right now.
