Chewelah Girls Basketball Focused on Competing

Head coach Jacob Lee said the Cougars are aiming to be more competitive night-in and night-out.

“You know, we ended last year on a really rough 0-20 through regular season play,” Lee said. “Won one game in our district tournament and then lost out the rest. So we want to be able to put a few more wins up on the board. We've got some competitive games coming for us.”

Lee said Chewelah will have a deeper pool of athletes to work with. Participation has reached its highest mark in Lee’s three-year tenure.

“As of today, our numbers sit at 22,” he said. “We have eight seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and nine freshmen. Five of them have played before pretty consistently. The rest of them, this is new, this is year one for a lot of our upperclassmen.”

Leadership roles are expected to be filled by players who have already demonstrated year-round dedication.

“I've got Elyse Warren and Megan Watts,” Lee said. “Elyse and Megan were our two seniors this summer that if we had anything basketball-related, either they were both there or at least one of them was there. It was impossible to get them both out of the gym. So that hard work pays off. They should see that this season and it should be really helpful for our team.”

In the Northeast 2B League, the Lady Cougars know the competition will be fierce.

“Our league is tough,” Lee said. “I mean, we've got Northwest Christian coming off of their state championship run, Reardon is always a good, ferocious, strong basketball team. It's amazing to watch them play.

“If Northwest Christian didn't win state, Reardon was going to,” he added. “So they're both coming back fierce. Davenport's going to be strong.”

Despite the challenges, Lee said there is a renewed optimism and growing excitement surrounding Cougar basketball.

“It's nice to have,” he said of the team’s numbers. “So we're just seeing a little bit of growth in basketball culture here in Chewelah every year and that's what we're excited about, is just bringing basketball back to this little town.”

Lee said the team is looking forward to “a fun year of basketball” as it works to turn that growth into success on the court.