A goodbye to the Skyview and Prairie seniors

Skyview sophomore Stephanie McDonagh is wise beyond her years. A few minutes after Skyview won the 4A championship, she went all philosophical on me.

“This team will never be the same team,” she said.

So true. There will be a Skyview girls basketball team in the future, but it will not, cannot, be the same. Changeover happens in every team in every sport.

While McDonagh has two more years of high school ball left, and while the Storm might win more state championships in the future, those squads will never be exactly like this team.

McDonagh wanted to acknowledge the leaders of this team.

“The seniors have impacted us so much. They brought us here, they led us here. We wanted to play hard for them,” McDonagh said.

Obviously, she was talking about her team. Her words, though, ring true for Prairie. The Falcons had a good mix of seniors and younger players.

Here is to all the seniors from both squads:

Katie Swanson had a huge third quarter for the Storm in the finals. Delaney Keser led the Storm in scoring in the semifinals. Brooke Bowen was the tournament MVP. And Katie Hendricks, a reserve, got to play in a state tournament game for the Storm.

At Prairie, Heather Corral was the MVP of the 3A tournament. Kelsey Asplund grabbed a bunch of boards this week. Andrea Smith, a reserve, had one of her biggest games of her career, 10 points in the final. And Aleah Walz, a junior varsity player this year before being called up for the playoffs, saw action in all three state playoff games.

Special players, all of them.

Congratulations on your state championships.