For Central Valley, varsity girls basketball combines players’ best

The road to making the Central Valley varsity girls basketball roster is different for everyone.

Take a look at the Lady Bears’ four seniors.

Madison Hovren has been a starter since her freshman year and is headed to play basketball at West Point. From the time she arrived as a freshman, she has forced opposing defenses to contend with her game.

Megan Dimmler was asked to move to a new position as a sophomore and play point guard, where she’s a three-year starter. She went from playing on the freshman team to starting on varsity the next year – a big jump for a high school athlete.

Shayla Vegas transferred to Central Valley from Texas at the start of her junior season. Vegas missed much of last season with an injured ankle, but has won over her teammates by having fun and making everyone around her laugh.

And then there’s Kyley Jenkin.

Jenkin is one of those rare players in high school basketball: a first-year senior.

“Kyley had to work her way up,” coach Freddie Rehkow said. “She started out on the freshman team. She was on the junior varsity for two seasons and didn’t make varsity until her senior year.

“Some kids would’ve quit when they didn’t make the varsity by their junior year, but Kyley stuck it out and was an intricate part of the JV last year and now has a very crucial role with this year’s team – something I honestly didn’t think would happen. But I’m very happy it has. I’m very proud of Kyley and her dedication to the game and to our program.”

Jenkin said there’s a very simple reason she stuck it out: passion.

“I just love playing basketball and I love playing with other girls who have that same passion,” she said. “Everybody here has the same attitude and is putting forth the same effort. Nobody here is guaranteed a spot, you have to earn it.”

At midseason, Jenkin is dedicated to playing her role off the bench for the Lady Bears. As a 5-foot-10 forward/post, she brings a nice touch around the basket and an unselfish spirit to her time on the floor.

“Kyley is a very solid shooter whose production numbers are very deceiving,” Rehkow said. “Many people will see her on the floor and if you didn’t see her stats you wouldn’t think she’d done a whole lot. However, when you look at the stats she has 6-7 points, 3 rebounds, an assist and a steal.”

Rehkow calls her one of his biggest surprises as a high school coach – a much welcomed surprise – because of her maturation and willingness to stick with the program.

“It feels rewarding,” she says. “I feel like, as Rehkow puts it, I wasn’t entirely ready before. It’s all pretty unexplainable. It was challenging. I’m not going to lie about it.  It was a little bit difficult and it took a lot of hard work.”

Jenkin said it’s a little strange, being a first-year varsity player and a senior at the same time. Even though she’s new to the varsity, there are teammates watching her and looking for leadership.

“I try to let Maddy and Megan handle a lot of that because they’ve been here longer,” she said. “But yeah, I do feel some leadership responsibility. When things start to lag in practice, I try to get it back up where it should be and make sure everyone is working hard and trying to get better.”

And it’s paying off.

“There are times, especially in practice, when I see things that are going real well,” she said. “Times of, for lack of a better word, geniusness. When we play together as a team and everything seems to be flowing and clicking.”

What Jenkin sees as this team’s strength lies in its level of trust.

“With this team in general, the most important thing is that everyone knows we have each other’s backs,” she said. “Part of it’s a chemistry thing. We just trust that our team will be there for each other.

“We may need someone different to step up and score on a given night, but we will always come out and play hard for each other on defense.”