Players to Watch:

Hailey Chapa, Burley
Lily Teske, Canyon Ridge
Ava Martin, Canyon Ridge
Emma Allen, Jerome
CJ Latta, Minico
Madi Keener, Mountain Home
Halle Egbert, Twin Falls

Written by: Tristan Gilbert

As the 2021-22 season unfolded in the Great Basin Conference, one thing was abundantly clear: Burley was head and shoulders above the rest of the league. Will they remain at the top of the District 4 standings? There’s no shortage of teams lining up to knock the Bobcats off their perch, but the conversation still starts with Burley.

Howver, Burley’s new head coach has some pretty big shoes to fill. Nicole Baker is taking over a team that finished last season 25-1, and won the 4A Girls Basketball State Championship (their second championship in four years). It does not help that Burley is losing several key players from last year’s championship team including Amari Whiting, Sadie Cook, and Lynzey & Sydney Searle.

However, Coach Baker is excited about this team, primarily to see how “girls step up and fill bigger roles.” The Bobcat’s biggest strength this year may be their quality play down in the post. Burley will rely heavily on forwards Hailey Chapa and Christina Cook in the upcoming season.

Burley’s Conference Title defense will not be easy, as many consider Twin Falls and Minico to be the two strongest teams headed into the 2022-23 season.

Minico is led by CJ Latta, who is in the argument for best player not only in the Great Basin, but all of 4A. Twin Falls features Halle Egbert, who was cited by several coaches as one of the better players in the conference this year.

Canyon Ridge is one of the more interesting teams headed into the 2022 season. This is a team that lost five seniors from last year’s team, but returns four starters. Two of those starters are guard Lily Teske and post Ava Martin, who both garnered 3rd team all-Great Basin honors last season. So while Canyon Ridge may have lost a lot of experience from last year's team, they return a lot of key depth and look to improve on their 13-11 campaign from a year ago.

Mountain Home is another team that enters this season with a lot of question marks. They led all of 4A in scoring last season, but just like Canyon Ridge, lost five seniors from their squad.

Returning for Mountain Home is senior guard Maddie Keener. Keener earned 1st team All-Great Basin honors last season and is believed by many to be the best player in the Great Basin this year. It will be intriguing to see what happens with the rest of the roster, as head coach Brent Keener cited freshman Juli Donez and Payton Blodgett as key players heading into the season, indicating that these 9th graders could see substantial minutes. Coach Keener said, “The freshmen are going to have to grow up quickly to make that jump from 8th grade ball to varsity.”

As for Jerome and Wood River, they appear to be two teams that are currently in rebuild mode. Jerome went 7-16 a year ago and saw two freshmen, Nyla Holtzen and Emma Allen, earn all-conference accolades. Wood River, meanwhile, finished 0-17 and lost their only all-conference performer, Olivia Adams, to graduation. Both teams feature first year head coaches; Kelly Williams takes over the Jerome job, while Wood River will be led by Athletic Director Kevin Stilling.