Colfax jamboree to start girls’ season

Coach Corey Baerlocher and the Colfax girls will start the basketball season Monday by hosting a three-team jamboree with Lakeside and Colton on the guest list. The action will feature 10-minute games with jayvee and varsity rounds. Colfax and Lakeside teams will be in the first round followed by Colton and Lakeside teams. The final matchups will be between Colfax and Colton teams.

Baerlocher noted the Colton-Colfax matchup will be a prelude to the actual season opener which will be at Colton’s new gym next Friday.

Colfax will start the season with three grads gone from the lineup. Amara Huber, Andra Hamilton and Kori Goodwin were all varsity starters in last year’s campaign which saw Colfax run a 16-0 record on the way to state. They finished in sixth place after being tripped by White Swan in the opening round at Spokane.

“You really don’t replace players,” Baerlocher commented on the loss of last year’s seniors. “You just start with the players you have and see how they develop.”

Baerlocher counts six seniors, two juniors and one sophomore back in the lineup this year. The sophomore is Carmen Gfeller, who joined the varsity squad last year as a freshman and picked up more and more playing time as the season advanced,

“A lot of coaches asked me why I didn’t start her at the end of the year,” Baerlocher commented.

Returnees include Ashtyn Aune, Katelynn Scholz, Scout Cai, Olivia Mellor, Kylie Gronning and Sidney Sheer. The two junior returnees are Taylor Garcia and Faith Markley.

All of the seniors started practice last Monday after wrapping up a another title run on the volleyball squad.

The Bulldogs players totaled 11 games in summer hoop competition, including five rounds at the Colfax camp, and some of the players logged time in other summer events.

Baerlocher said Cai will be sidelined at the start of the season. Cai missed six weeks of the volleyball campaign with a back injury and came back to play in the title round of the SunDome.

Baerlocher said Cai still doesn’t have full medical clearance to play hoops, so they will take it slow at the beginning of the season.

The Bulldogs have a total of 27 players out for basketball for the three teams, and some of last year’s jayvee leaders will get the call to fill the three openings on the varsity. Piper Cai, who was also part of the V-net campaign, and Greta Geier are among players expected to get a promotion, and the team is expected to have players who will play on both jayvee and varsity squads.

In the NE, the Colfax coach expects Davenport, a young team which gained experience last year, and St. George’s to be the top league contenders.

The league also has new coaches at Springdale and St. George’s.

Assistant coaches Emily Dawson and Joel Warwick will be back for this year’s campaign. Also, Jordan Harazin Holmes, a 2008 CHS hoop grad who played at Seattle Pacific and has coached at Juanita and Bear Creek, has returned to the area and will help coach the Colfax club.