After experiencing the highs and lows of high school basketball, the Fillies say goodbye to six seniors: Emery Driskel, Addie Haar, Jo Loh-man, Lexie Long, Kyra Moore and Emma Piazza.
To these girls it’s more than just the end of the season, but the end of a four-year effort. The group has played together since their freshman season.
Last Saturday’s loss to Girard in the finals of Class 4A-II Sub-State may have been their last game, but they left the program in much better shape.
Back in the 2012-13 season, the Fillies finished the year 1-19 overall. In the past two seasons combined, Iola went 26-17 and won the Pioneer League Title last season.
“They got in the gym and worked. They have turned our program around because they didn’t give up,” coach Becky Carlson said after their final game against Girard. “They’re just really hard workers. I can’t say enough about every one of them. Between their character on the court and what they add to the team and their support of each other will be something that will really be missed.”
Seniors Haar and Piazza agreed their hard work has paid off in building a good foundation for the girls program.
“We’re really proud of all the girls who put in the extra time to really work on their skills,” Piazza said.
And of course, everyone wished they could have won at least one more game.
“It would have been nice to get two wins (at substate) and go to state at the end,” Haar said. “But, it was still a really fun run.”
When the team walked out of the locker room after last Saturday’s loss, there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen. The team was tight-knit.
“It was one of those teams — and I’ve been on a lot of teams throughout my life thus far. It’s pretty rare to have a team or group of girls that all get along so well together,” Piazza said.
“There was no drama this year,” caused by outsized personalities, Haar said.
“We could all trust each other and just have fun,” Piazza said.
The way the girls communicated off the court translated to better communication on the court.
“It helped a lot knowing what each player was going to do,” Haar said. “Like Emery and I are so close, I knew where she was going to be in the post. I know her as a person and knew what she was going to do.”
Piazza agreed there were certain “duos” that worked well together.
“It was where you could tell one player could read another player,” Piazza said. “That helped a lot and we all kind of played well together.”
“It was really fun getting to grow as a team,” Haar said. “We didn’t start really well, but improving as a team was good.”
“Obviously, starting off it was super intimidating,” Piazza said. “Going from our freshman year, we had Kelsey Larson and Kendra Taiclet to look up to. Sophomore year it was like, ‘now it’s you’re turn.’ So, it was really nerve-racking. It was always fun, the competition was always good and was usually fast-paced.”
Senior Fillies leave program in better shape
