Valor Christian’s girls have risen near the top of Class 4A and 5A basketball for the better part of a decade, and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Since 2015, the Eagles have taken part in three championship-worthy performances, including as recently as 2021. Earlier this year, they finished state runner-up to Grandview and continued the legacy that head coach Jessika Caldwell has carefully crafted over the past eight years.
With her guidance, winning hasn’t just become the culture. It’s become the expectation. Senior guard Macey Huard, whose sister Haley played in the program before her, understands that more than most.
“Every girl on the varsity team this year has been in a state championship before from my sophomore year and then our junior year,” Huard said. “I’ve experienced both the victory and the defeat of it so I just think that victory feeling is what we want to get. I have high expectations, and I think we all do. I’d love to be back in that victory position again.”
This team, of course, will have to absorb the loss of Raegan Beers, who as a senior led the Eagles in points, rebounds, steals and blocks. The reemergence of senior guard/forward Ali Wetta should help.
“It’s always difficult to come back from an injury, especially ACLs, but I’m just expecting to get better every game,” Wetta said. “Obviously, I have a great support system with my coaches and my teammates, so I’m just improving and trying to get back to where I was before.”
As the season begins to gear up, the Eagles will look most to Huard and sophomore Quinn VanSickle, who averaged 12.8 and 11.4 points per game last year, respectively. Beers’ absence, however, means they’ll need to collectively make up for her dominance in every other statistical aspect of the game.
Caldwell, who has presided over a 176-29 record since taking the helm in 2014, believes her girls have what it takes.
“Of course, we look a lot different,” she said. “We graduated some really impactful seniors this last season and so systematically, that changes a lot. And so I think that we have to really rely on a number of people in order for us to be successful, whether that’s defensive pressure and intensity in the back court to being able to hit some 3-pointers. We have the ability to stretch defenses in that capacity. We have a lot of really long, lean, fast guards. I think it’s just going to take a little bit from everybody in order for us to be successful.”
The Eagles kick off their season on Dec. 1 in the She Got Game Classic against Louisiana team Liberty Magnet.