2024-25 Winter Sports Preview: Experienced Deer Park girls basketball ready for challenge of Greater Spokane League

On the first practice of the season, Deer Park girls basketball coach KC Ahrens recalls the coaching staff considering ending it early.

“ ‘It’s so good right now; we could call it off early like we’re midseason,’ which is a rare thing,” Ahrens remembers thinking.

That is the benefit of returning the majority of a core group that finished as the State 1A runner-up during the 2023-24 season.

Expectations are high for an experienced unit that may be even more talented and deeper as the program makes the jump to 2A and the Greater Spokane League.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Ahrens said.

The Stags tore through the regular season and Northeast A league play last year, going undefeated until falling 70-67 to Nooksack Valley in the state title game.

The shift to 2A – a classification based on student enrollment – has been a storyline for Deer Park athletics all year after much success in 1A across many sports. Deer Park athletic director Cameron Gilbert and Joe Feist, the principal, appealed the change after some concerns surfaced, but the decision was eventually upheld.

Clarkston, which finished undefeated in league play and took third at state in 2A last year, figures to be Deer Park’s toughest competition and may be the biggest test to the Stags’ 28-game league win streak. West Valley and Pullman will be others near the top.

Ahrens thinks the group’s achievements in the postseason against a strong 1A league shows the Stags’ can carry over success into 2A.

“For us, nothing (different) until hopefully we make it into March where there is going to be more size,” Ahrens said of the transition. “… There is a little more size and length. But 1A last year was very similar to the 2A.”

Deer Park brings back nine of the team’s top 10 players, including sophomore Ashlan Bryant, who took home league MVP as a freshman and was first-team all-state tournament.

Her sister, Emma Bryant, a junior who was league defensive player of the year and first-team all-league, also returns.

Senior Brooklyn Coe, first-team all league, and junior Berlyn Zimmerer, second-team all-league, are two more crucial and experienced returners.

In addition to bringing so many young yet experienced players, the Stags also added a high-level transfer in Jacey Boesel, who led Okanogan to the State 2B title game last season. Boesel, a junior, earned the Central Washington Athletic Conference season MVP and was first-team all-state tournament in 2B.

“She’s going to be a heck of a player,” Ahrens said of Boesel. “She will fit right in exactly with what we do – we’re small, switch everything, we’re physical and press.”

Coe and Boesel could both become 1,000-point scorers this season, done only twice before in Deer Park history.

Due to the low turnover from last year’s roster, Ahrens envisions implementing a more complex system and being able to increase packages as the season goes on with the new group.

A lack of size may seem like a shortcoming, as the Stags have only one player above 5-foot-9 – ninth-grader Kaycee Haney at 5-foot-10. But depth, athleticism and chemistry will be pieces to superseding that weakness.

The Stags will open the season against former Northeast A League opponent Lakeside at home on Dec. 3. The first matchup with Clarkston will come on the road on Jan. 14, and the Bantams visit Deer Park on Feb. 7.

Deer Park will also play on the road against higher-classified schools like Ferris and Coeur d’Alene and will participate in the highly-competitive “Top of the Peak” holiday tournament hosted by Glacier Peak.

“The good thing for us – we knew we were going to be pretty good this year, so we picked up some pretty good games,” Ahrens said. “… We’re going to be challenged, but we knew we could handle it, which is a good place to be.”

The key to Deer Park’s success? Ahrens points to the program’s slogan – “It’s amazing what the Lady Stags can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit.”

“We’ve been preaching, preaching, preaching (that),” he said. “Five, six kids on our team could be the leading scorer on multiple teams in our league. It’s just about buying in and the girls have done it.

“It’s not about your individual statistics if we want to be good and that was a great thing last year – and the girls bought into that – about giving up a little bit of yourself for the betterment of the team and it’s just continuing. Very unselfish kids.”