Katelan Redmon plays key role for Tigers

Katelan Redmon’s life has always centered around basketball.

“I’ve always played,” said the Lewis and Clark High School guard.

“It’s so much fun to get out there with your teammates and run up and down the court. I love it.”

Redmon’s passion for the game is easy to see when you look at her upbringing. Her grandfather, Chuck, played at Gonzaga University, while her father, Chuck Jr., also played in college at Spokane Falls.

As for Katelan, she began her high school career at Mt. Spokane High School, but prior to her junior year, her father moved her to the South Hill to play for her uncle, Lewis and Clark coach Jim Redmon.

“Obviously that raised some eyebrows because of me being a relative,” said Jim Redmon. “Overall, she’s made it very easy for me by doing the things she’s supposed to be doing.

“She’s a hard worker, and obviously she’s extremely skilled. In those aspects, it’s been an easy transition for me anyway.”

Redmon knew of his niece’s basketball passion firsthand, having coached her brother Kyle, a senior basketball player at Mt. Spokane, when Katelan was growing up.

“I keep joking that I had more involvement with her twin brother Kyle,” said Redmon. “He was on the same AAU team as my son. I coached them all the way through eighth grade. Katelan would always come to the practices, but she would always be off to the side doing her own thing.

“I don’t think she said 20 words to me in a long period of time. You could just watch and see this long, skinny kid.”

“Honestly, back in those days, I never thought that she’d become the player that she has,” he said. “Through her work ethic, she’s gotten bigger, and with lifting and all those things, she’s developed into a very good Division 1 basketball player.

“It was kind of funny she ended up playing for me at the high school level.”

“I just remember going to every one of my brother’s practices every time they had them,” Katelan said. “I would just come in and go to my own basket and shoot for however long practice was.

“Then I would leave and the next night come back and stay there and shoot all by myself. Every once in a while he (Jim) would come over and give me pointers and tell me what I needed to work on and then go back to coaching the boys.”

Coming from being the main offensive weapon at Mt. Spokane to a role player at LC turned out to be a big adjustment for Katelan.

“It was hard coming in from Mt. Spokane where everything came to me,” Katelan said. “It was different, but it was nice.

“Everybody knew how to play; everyone knew where they were supposed to be. Everybody came together well, that kind of stuff.

“Coming from Mt. Spokane to LC was a huge change. It was a whole new environment, and I was able to come in and be a part of the team. It was just a lot of fun being able to meet new people.

“I felt like being part of the team was awesome.”

“She came on to a team last year that we had a dominating senior class,” Jim Redmon said. “It was Heather Bowman’s team, and she was part of that.

“Obviously the focus was on Heather (now a freshman at Gonzaga).

“She was very selfless. In fact, I think she could have applied herself more but didn’t because of that situation.

“She deferred to Heather, and I think she did what she felt she had to do to fit in.

“She had the huge breakout game in the state championship. It was an incredible game she played.”

Katelan Redmon’s biggest game of the year helped the Tigers fulfill her dream of winning a state championship.

“It was unbelievable,” she said. “All of the hard work I’ve put into everything, making the transfer, everything worked out so perfectly.

“It was always one of my dreams to win a state championship, and finally last year it happened.”

On Wednesday, LC defeated Puyallup 59-36 in the opening game of the state tournament in Tacoma.

Her work ethic not only paid off with a state title last year, but as she readied to lead the Tigers to defend their state title this weekend, she also will take her skills to the University of Washington, where she will play next season.

“It was a pretty tough decision,” Katelan said. “The recruiting process is crazy.

“You start out, and you kind of enjoy it. You start hearing from coaches, and you get excited.

“By the end of it, you’re so sick of it, you want it to be done. You don’t want to talk to any more coaches.

“I just felt so comfortable with UW. I went through all the possibilities and finally picked the right one.

“I loved the coaches, their playing style, and the area. It’s a bigger city, and I wanted to try something like that.

“The team was awesome. It felt like home.”