2025-26 Winter Sports Preview: Deer Park girls basketball’s ‘Fab Four’ put lengthy league winning streak on the line

It’s been almost four calendar years since the Deer Park girls team has lost a league game – either regular season or in the district playoffs – a period which included moving up a classification from 1A into the Greater Spokane League 2A division.

In fact, they’ve only lost seven games total over that span, which includes a loss in the State 2A semifinals last season and in the 1A title game in 2024 – losses that prevented two undefeated seasons.

“My sophomore year, we got second, and then getting third (last season) was kind of disappointing,” senior Emma Bryant said. “I mean, we worked our butts off. … But I think we’re coming back ready this year. So, it’s kind of just more motivation than anything.”

Stags stalwart Brooklyn Coe – a three-year first-team all-league guard – graduated, but four starters return: two-time league MVP junior Ashlan Bryant, her sister Emma, and fellow seniors Jacey Boesel and Berlyn Zimmerer.

All four will play at the next level. Ashlan Bryant and Boesel are undecided, while Emma Bryant signed at Idaho State and Zimmerer is headed to Rocky Mountain College in Billings.

“I’m kind of sad, just because it’s my sister’s last season. All my seniors that I love, it’s their last season, and I’m going to kind of be a little bit on my own next year,” Ashlan Bryant said. “But I have faith in us this year, faith in us next year, so I’m just hoping for a ‘ship.’ “

“I think about it every day,” Emma Bryant said of graduating and leaving Ashlan behind in high school. “I mean, it’s just so sad. We love playing with each other. We’ve played together since we were little. Play with each other every day. I mean, I can’t imagine playing without her. But I’m excited for this last season with her, so that’s really another reason why we want to win. Just make it that much more special.”

“I’m trying not to look ahead, but boy, we’re gonna miss them next year,” Deer Park coach KC Ahrens said. “We’re gonna have to change our schedule, for sure.”

That schedule includes games against bigger schools such as Kennewick, Coeur d’Alene, Bonners Ferry and University, and smaller powers Toppenish, Selah and Zillah before they get to league play.

“We’re really excited about the new games we picked up this year,” Boesel said. “We have a little bit more competition at in the beginning. We want the biggest challenges we can get so that when we go the SunDome (for state), we’re the best prepared we can be.”

“We are traveling all over,” Ahrens said. “We had to do a lot of calling to try and get people to play. And when you’re going to be, you know, pretty good or really good, it’s hard to get people to pick up the phone sometimes.”

“I feel like last year we didn’t really get a chance to have any tough games before state,” Ashlan Bryant said.

Admittedly, the GSL 2A division has been top heavy the past couple of seasons.

“I think Clarkston and Pullman are going to be good, with length and athleticism. And then I think West Valley kind of got a kid, so they’re competing,” Ahrens said.

But realistically, Deer Park will be judged against themselves most of the season. And the ‘Fab Four’ will carry them as far as they go.

“We’re not big. But they can all shoot. They can all dribble the basketball,” Ahrens said. “It’s just a testament that they all put in the work.”

“I feel like we play to our skills big time, because we don’t have a lot of height,” Ashlan Bryant said. “We’re all kind of around 5-foot-7, so we’re pressing the whole time and we like to play fast.”

Zimmerer, who has known Ahrens since she was in his sixth-grade class, is the only one of the four who grew up in the Deer Park system. The Bryants came in when Emma was a sophomore and Boesel transferred in last year as a junior.

“It was hard at first to adapt,” Zimmerer said when the transfers happened. “But they came in and they’re just great people. It’s really easy to when you have great people to come together and put aside any differences. We love each other off the court as much as we do on the court, which I think really helps.”

Boesel helped Okanogan reach the State 2B title game as a freshman and sophomore before moving to Deer Park, so she’s played in a state semifinal three years in a row.

“I think everyone on this team has definitely wanted to win for a while,” Boesel said. “Coming from a school that also lost the championship, and then we also lost the championship – we definitely have been in that spot, and we are definitely hungry to get back.”

Using one’s self as a measuring stick can also set one up for disappointment if those goals go unfulfilled.

“I watched my siblings win state, so it’s definitely been a dream of mine,” Boesel said. “But as long as we all work really hard and put our best effort, whatever our last game comes to and whatever the outcome is, I think we’ll be happy if we try our best.”

“I think we have a good chance of winning,” Emma Bryant said. “If we lose, it’ll be disappointing. But if we bust our tails, work our way up – I mean, it’s all you can do, right?”

It’s Ahrens’ job to keep things in perspective while encouraging his crew to reach for the highest goal attainable.

“If we can win in league and in the district championship, we get a chance to play at state,” he said. “It’s hard to not look ahead. We’ve talked to our parents, and I said, ‘You don’t get to go 26-1 every year.’ You kind of get spoiled. … So, I won’t see it as a letdown if we don’t (win state), but if we don’t get there, I think that would be disappointing.

“You’d hate to have this group of kids not get to the state tournament. That would be heartbreaking.”