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Skyline High School
School Info
Conference: 5A District 5-6 Conference
Classification: 5A
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Head Coach: Ty Keck
Years as Head Coach: 1st Season
Previous Experience: Madison Boys Basketball Assistant – 3 years
Bonneville Boys Basketball Assistant – 5 years
Record Last Year: 5-21
Assistant Coaches:
Kelsey Matthews
Eric Bender
Madison Dick
Brittney Boyce
Returning Players:
Rylee Jensen, F, Senior
Nichole Morrison, G, Senior
Bailey Miller, G, Senior
Cami Allison, F, Senior
Erin Jenkins, G, Sophomore
Brittney Dennert, F, Sophomore
Returning Players with Honors:
Rylee Jensen – 5A High Country Conference First Team
Incoming “impact” players:
Ellie Wing, F, Senior
Hattie Austin, F, Senior
Alexis Kuhn, G, Senior
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Team Preview
Written by: Matt Harris (@IdahoSportsMatt)
Flash back to the end of the 2014-15 season. February 6th, to be exact.
The Grizzlies were in the midst of their district tournament, preparing to try to keep their season alive against cross-town opponent Bonneville. But before they could ever play that district game, their head coach Shari Moulton announced she was resigning from the position. No reasons were given publicly to the media outside of ‘personal reasons’. Skyline went on to drop a narrow 55-52 decision to Bonneville the next day, thereby closing a chapter of a difficult 2014-15 season, where Skyline notched a less-than-spectacular 5-21 record. The program was in disarray.
For new head coach Ty Keck, it’s as if last season didn’t exist. He has a clean, fresh slate and is ready to rebuild the program.
Keck has spent time in good basketball programs in the area since his graduation from Bonneville High School in 2005. He’s worked under Tim Hooton at Bonneville and Bill Hawkins at Madison. He hopes to take what he has learned and apply it to Skyline’s girls program.
He is building the program from the ground up – and it could take some time. The Grizzlies finished last season with just 19 girls total in the program and were unable to field a freshman team.
Keck, however, is focused on his squad for this season and expects nothing less than their best.
“The X-Factor to our season this year is the team’s buy-in,” said Keck. “We have to learn to trust the system and let it work for us. If we can do that both offensively and defensively, then we will see some good things happen.”
Skyline returns standout forward Rylee Jensen this season. The senior was a scoring leader last season, stuffing the stat sheet to its fullest. She is joined by frontcourt mate Cami Allison and guards Nichole Morrison and Bailey Miller. The Grizz will also add in sophomores Erin Jenkins and Brittney Dennert and look to turnaround from their dismal 2014-15 campaign.
To do that, Keck says it begins with one concept.
“We want to be smart,” he said. “Uptempo, but smart approach. We want to limited turnovers and get to the foul line.”
Offensively, Keck said that turnovers was the root of many of Skyline’s problems last season and that he hopes to improve on that this year.
“We want to limit those turnovers, but also get up and down the court and put constant pressure on opposing defenses,” he said. “We’re also hoping for improved post play.”
On the defensive side of things, Keck hopes to be able to continue to apply pressure.
“We have some quick guards that can move really well on the court,” he said. “We should be able to force the opposing offense into some uncomfortable situations.”
While Skyline’s quickness is one of their strengths, preventing opponents from getting to the rim has been a glaring weakness.
“We have really spent some time working on protecting the paint and rebounding the basketball,” Keck said. “We hope to improve on that this year.”
Rebuilds can be slow but, if done correctly, can produce great results. Even in the short term.
“I’m most excited to see what this group of girls can achieve together as a team this year,” said Keck. “We just have to learn to trust the system.”
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