After a quick exit at the 2023 2A State Tournament in Casper, the Kemmerer High School girls’ basketball team vowed to improve on that showing in 2024, then did just that, advancing to the Consolation Championship.

The Lady Rangers came up just short against Wind River 55-49, but the fire was lit — the girls coming back for the 2024-25 season would be coming back with something to prove. With head coach Phil Thatcher returning for his second year at the helm and a core group of seniors who have been playing varsity since their freshman year, the 2024-25 campaign looks to be an exciting one. Practice began Thanksgiving week, and games will begin this weekend, on the road at Glenrock and Wright.

“Well, we’re pretty excited,” Thatcher said. “We have three seniors this year — Janae Skidmore, Natasha Martinez and Ella Thatcher — that have a ton of varsity experience; obviously, they’re going to be our leaders. We have a junior in Hadlee Wood that didn’t start last year, but got a ton of varsity time — we’re looking at her to be a starter this year. Those top four will be the ones we lean on real heavy.”

Skidmore was the team’s leading scorer last season, averaging 13.5 points per game; she also led the team in rebounds and blocks, with 6.0 and 1.1 per game, respectively.

Martinez and Thatcher both averaged 5.3 points per game — tied for second on the team — with Thatcher averaging 5.5 boards per game and Martinez 4.0 per game. Thatcher led the team in steals with 3.3 per game; Martinez averaged 2 steals per game.

“Janae is an All-Stater from last year, Ella was All-Conference and Tash should have been All-Conference — a tie didn’t go her way,” Thatcher explained. “It’s nice having that kind of experience coming back, and I know that these younger girls really look to them. Janae was our leading scorer last year, and she’ll be looking to fill a similar role. Tash will probably run our

point guard for us —she worked really hard over the summer, has shown a lot of improvement with her left hand, controlling the floor and I love what she’s doing as far as finishing layups. I have a lot of confidence in her being our floor general. She’s also one of our better rebounders, especially on offense. Ella is our leader in steals from last year, and was our leading rebounder, as well. Those seniors fill all the slots for us. We’ll see what their roles are this season — obviously, they’ll have to expand, a little bit, with losing three seniors from last year. I think they’re up for the challenge — I think they’re pretty excited to get going.”

Junior Hadlee Wood was a spark off the bench last season for the Lady Rangers, appearing in all 26 games as a sophomore; she averaged 2.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.

“Hadlee Wood came in and did a great job for us last year — first sub in off the bench,” Thatcher said. “I think she averaged five or six points per game for us on the varsity, and we’ll be looking for her to do similar things. She works hard, she has a great effort, and a pretty good attitude, so we’re excited to have her up there, giving us full minutes.”

As for the younger players, Thatcher said he believes a few will be able to work their way into the regular rotation.

“We have six sophomores and four freshmen,” Thatcher said. “So after those top four, we are pretty inexperienced — but I think we’re fairly athletic, which is a good thing. But it’s going to take us two or three tournaments — get five or six games under our belts — to figure out what our roles are. Our seniors are pretty comfortable with what we’re supposed to do — the rest of the crew has to figure it out. We’re not super deep, but we should be pretty competitive, if we can stay healthy.”

Of those sophomores, Cambree Tolhurst and Nataly Ruvalcaba saw action on varsity as freshmen, and will look to add to those minutes this season.

“Right now, it’s looking like we have two sophomores that have stepped ahead of everybody else — Nataly Ruvalcaba and Cambree Tolhurst,” Thatcher said. “Coming from last year, both played major minutes on JV, obviously, but got some playing time on varsity, and they look to be the frontrunners to fill that spot. The rest of our sophomores — we just need to get them some game experience. This year — with 14 girls — we’re hoping to have full JV games.”

“Our freshmen — we’re not really looking at them to worry about any varsity time right off the bat,” Thatcher added. “There are a couple  that, probably by the middle of the season, I could see rotating them in, getting a little more playing time. McKenna Whitbeck seems to be one that could help us out, as a leader of that crew. Tazlynn Wagner — great golfer, and also does pretty well at basketball. My philosophy with them is, hey, let’s figure out what you’re supposed to be doing on the floor in the JV game, and worry about varsity later.”

Like their counterparts on the boys’ side, the Lady Rangers will travel to Glenrock and Wright this weekend, then head to Green River and Rock Springs the following weekend for the Flaming Gorge Classic.

“We signed up for that tournament, I didn’t read the fine print — on Friday, we’re in Glenrock, on Saturday, they take us to Wright, in Gillette,” Thatcher explained. “We’re seeing the whole dang state, which is a little bit more than I wanted. The reason Coach Stewart and I wanted to do this was so we could play some teams out of the east, before we got to state. We never see those teams, so we wanted to go over there. But Friday, we play Glenrock — which is a 3A team — then Kaycee, a 1A team, which doesn’t expose us to much, besides playing teams we never really played before. So then we go to Wright and Gillette, and then we play Sundance. So those are two 2A East teams we want to see. It’s just going to be a lot of driving, a lot of getting up early, getting on the bus — our kids will have a little adversity, right off the bat. We’ll see if we can stay mentally focused. I think overall, we’ll be fine. We’ll see how it works out. I’m pretty excited to see those teams, though — I think the east is solid again. Most of those teams bring back everybody, so we want to see a little bit of that competition. Hopefully, we can get to state and play them.”