Miranda Payne Wellpinit Year: Junior Sport: Basketball Position: Post

Wellpinit’s Miranda Payne has showcased her basketball skills around the world.

Payne played with a U.S. national team in Amsterdam last summer. The previous summer, she played on a national team in China.

Payne’s team won the gold medal in Amsterdam in a game that was televised across Denmark.

Wellpinit coach Tiger Peone hopes to keep the jet-setter in the Inland Northwest this summer. Peone said Payne is a potential Division I player if she fine-tunes her post play.

Payne (17.1 points per game) hit a late shot last Saturday to lead the seventh-ranked Redskins (12-1 overall, 10-0 Panorama League) to a 57-55 win over Selkirk.

Wellpinit, the North Division leader, hosts South Division-leading St. George’s (12-2, 9-0) Friday.

“If we keep the ball away from their pressure, I think we’ll be fine,” Payne said of the matchup.

Payne, a longtime member of the 4-H Club, owns two horses and five head of cattle. She won the grand-champion ribbon for the steer and heifer categories at the last Spokane Interstate Fair.

Payne plans on majoring in criminal justice and working in a law enforcement agency’s K-9 division.

Payne’s freshman sister, Amber, plays for Wellpinit’s junior varsity.

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