Pirate Girls Ready To Face Long-Awaited Post-Covid Season

By DAVE BELCHER

The Progress

It has been two years since the Moapa Valley High School Girls Basketball team left the court in the 2020 state tournament. In that last game, they were beaten by Truckee in the state semifinals 38-26.

The Pirates had beaten Boulder City and Pahrump Valley by two points in each game to win the southern 3A region title and the #1 seed in the state tournament.
Truckee ended up winning the 2020 state title with a 54-42 beating of Fernley.

But that seems a world away. It was COVID-19 that won out last year, shutting down the season and ending the careers of the likes of Makayla Baldwin, Kyla Bradshaw, Annabella Lounsbury, Emile Lyon and Alissa Wolfley.

Despite all of that, this year the Pirates may have their best team in years. “I am really excited about our team this season,” said MVHS Head Coach Brandon Jones. “We have the most athleticism and depth that we have ever had. We have 11 girls that can all play, so we plan to play uptempo and use our depth and athleticism to our advantage.”

Because basketball didn’t have a season last year, the division is up for grabs. “No one really knows what the other teams are returning because we didn’t play,” Jones said.

Moapa Valley will be led by 4-year varsity player Emma Humes and 3 year varsity player Sydney Reese.
Linn Engelgren, an exchange student from Sweden also joins the team this year. She has played for many years and is very talented.
Humes and Shanlin Totten were voted team captains.

The Pirates start the season Tuesday night, Nov. 30 by hosting Enterprise, Utah who has a record of 0-1 so far. The team will then travel to Sparks on Thursday for a tournament over the weekend. They will play Hug High School to start the tournament.