Rogers has high hopes for new season

Progress is frequently measured in small increments, and over long periods. For Rogers High School girls basketball coach Nicole Kilgore, that yardstick is just around the corner.

The Pirates, who last year had a 2-18 season, have higher hopes this year and Kilgore, in her fifth season at Rogers, is their biggest cheerleader.

“We have six girls returning this season,” she said, “and five of them were starters. I expect us to compete with every team we play, and if we compete, we can win. In our last few games last season, we were close enough that if we’d done a few things differently, things might have gone a different way. And we’re already as good now as we were at the end of last season.”

Denisha Whitehead and D’Erica Jones are four-year starters for Kilgore, and will be joined in the lineup by Rikeya Crossley, Mary Fairbanks and Melanie Humphries. The sixth senior returner is Ashley Partridge.

“I’ve been looking forward to this year for a long time,” said Kilgore. “I’ve had four of these girls on the varsity since they were freshmen, so this is the season I’ve been waiting for. Over the years, I’ve been teaching them basketball skills, and now they’re practicing what I’ve been teaching.

“Many of the other Greater Spokane League teams have AAU teams feeding into them, and girls get to high school knowing fundamentals, team defense, screening and things like that. My girls got here not knowing a lot of that, so my job has been to teach, then to reteach.

“We had a good summer, playing in several tournaments. We won the majority of our games, and it was good for the girls to know what that feels like. It’s good for them to know what winning’s all about.”

One of those veteran returners is 6-foot post Melanie Humphries, who’s been there during all the bad times and is looking forward to better things this year.

“Emotionally, it’s hard when everyone around you is expecting you to lose,” she said. “I’ll admit that there’ve been times when things other people have said have started to get to me, but that’s where Coach Kilgore and the other girls who’ve stuck it out have helped me dig a little deeper.

“Coach Kilgore is the most supportive coach I’ve ever had in any sport. She pushes us all year, not just during the season, but when we need anything, she’s there for us. She could easily have given up like so many coaches have at Rogers, but instead she’s helped us get better and to believe that things will come together.”

Kilgore admits she has no idea what will happen once the ball goes up, but she knows that the girls have already met one of her personal goals – to create a team from scratch, nurture it and watch it grow.

“I was looking forward to that project four years ago,” she said, “and I’ve been able to watch this team grow together. I love coaching them every day. I’m excited for them, but I’m also excited for myself.”