2023-24 Winter High School Sports Preview: Mead senior Teryn Gardner hopes to add ‘state champ’ to impressive resume

Teryn Gardner has been a fixture in the Greater Spokane League – and really, across the state girls basketball landscape – for so long, it’s both amazing to realize but also hard to fathom that she has finally reached her senior year.

She’s accomplished so much already, both individually and with her teammates: Three all-league selections, GSL MVP as a junior, all-state, all-state tournament, all-star games. A Division I scholarship. League and district titles. A No. 1 seed to state with two top-five finishes.

Yet, there’s one more bullet point that Gardner – and the whole program – would like to add to her resume before she graduates and moves on to Boise State next season.

State champion.

“I mean, yeah,” Gardner said with a thoughtful pause. “State title’s the big one.”

“That’s a big motivator for her and this team,” Mead coach Quantae Anderson said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve hoisted up that big ball – but it’s not our main main focus. We are doing a good job of just sticking with each day.”

It’s a coach’s prerogative to stick with the daily task at hand. But with Gardner leading a young but already state-tested group, everyone involved with the program expects the Panthers to be playing on the Saturday of state for some sort of trophy – they just hope it’s “the big one.”

“Last one, best one, right?” she said.

“I think our success in the past – my success in the past – I definitely want to be better this year and improve on it and make the team better, and have the team improve on it,” Gardner said. “We’ve had great seasons the last couple years, but again, back to that ‘last one, best one.’ We want to make this one for the books and just make it memorable.”

Gardner has been a natural leader for Anderson since she earned second-team all-league honors playing as a freshman on a senior-laden squad. But now that she’s the one in that senior leadership role it carries more weight, and Gardner both acknowledges and accepts that responsibility – as the three-sport star has done with everything she has tackled in high school career.

“I think I’m more vocal. But still, I think I even have to get even more vocal than I already am,” she said. “Just kind of stepping up, coming in with a positive attitude. Every day, just encouraging others. Playing my hardest and then encouraging others to play their hardest because then it all just translates onto the court and the game.”

“I’ve really been impressed with how hard they compete in practice,” Anderson said. “And she’s the leader of that. She goes 110 miles per hour, which makes everyone else on the team want to go to 110 miles per hour, and no one wants to lose and that’s kind of a fun thing.”

It might sound cliché, but Gardner has so much experience in Anderson’s system, including playing up top on Anderson’s ever-present press defense, she’s another coach on the floor.

“We were introducing a drill, and she started talking to someone because someone had a question,” Anderson said. “She started talking, and then someone else started talking and I just sat back and said to the coaches, ‘Look at this group of girls communicating.’ And, you know, it starts with our leader.”

“It’s me stepping up more into a bigger leader and just growing each game,” Gardner said.

Anderson trusts his star implicitly.

“I just let her be,” Anderson said. “I think sometimes coaches get in the way of some of their athletes. And I’ve tried to do with all of my players – let them be, but also be able to critique them and help them grow as a player.”

He is proud to have a front row seat to watch Gardner develop from “lead by example” to “floor general.”

“She is making sure that they understand what she’s going for, or what we’re going for as a team,” he said. “She pushes them day in, day out at practice and it’s just so fun from my end. I get to be able to say a thing, or I don’t have to say anything, and it’s gonna get done.”

Gardner is thankful she signed her letter of intent last month and is finished with the recruiting process.

“I think it’s definitely nice not having to worry about college and having that wrapped up,” she said. “I think there’s still myself putting a lot of pressure on me because … I want to improve and be better this year and be the best I can be.”

Gardner, who has earned all-league honors in soccer and track in addition to her basketball accolades, is a “Type A” personality who is constantly on the move and putting pressure on herself to succeed. Despite well-earned respect, she feels the need to prove herself every time she steps on the court.

“I feel like a lot of times our team and sometimes me, we tend to get overlooked and so every game you just have to go in there and prove to others and prove to yourself that we’re the best team,” she said. “We’re gonna just play our hardest and play how we play no matter what other people think.”

“You know, it’s just the way we are as a team. That’s our culture,” Anderson said. “They’re so competitive in everything they do. That’s one of my favorite things. We’re just we’re installing something right now, and they’re still trying to go 100 percent.

“I think a lot of times Spokane, in general, gets overlooked,” Gardner said. “And so, I think it kind of translates to ‘They’ve been good the past couple years, but are they going to be as good?’ We just have to prove that again and come back stronger.”

When her high school career is over, Gardner will be one of the most decorated players in the history of the league – which is really saying something considering the college and pro players to come out of the GSL. But she doesn’t dwell on that aspect of it.

“I haven’t really thought about my ranking, but I have thought about (her legacy),” she said. “People mentioned the Hull twins all the time. I’m like, ‘Oh, I wonder if they’re gonna mention me like that?’ Like, I wonder if I’ve made that big of an impact. I mean, I hope I do.”

Anderson has no doubt Gardner belongs on that list.

“She’s one of the best all-around players I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“I’ve been in Spokane for a while and I’ve been coaching at Mead for a while and when I first started coaching here, the best player in the league was Briann January. But then Emily Westerberg preceded her and with all of our Mead greats in the past … she’s up there. As hard as she works, and her natural talent, I think she belongs up at the top.”