This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
On paper, the Woods Cross girls basketball team wasn't particularly special this season. Not many would consider a mediocre 11-10 record and a first-round exit in the Class 4A playoffs to be a great success.
But considering Woods Cross started out 0-7 without its star player and suffered from a pileup of head injuries, the team itself is surprised it got as far as it did.
"Overall, I'm pretty impressed how we ended it," senior Samantha Hart says. "It was kind of a tough how we started, but we turned it around by working hard and dedicating the time. We all stepped it up."
If Woods Cross needed an excuse to give up on the season, it had plenty. For starters, the Wildcats' star forward Xojian Harry transferred to Viewmont because of what coach Craig Geis called "differences of opinion."
The first-team all-stater was not just a key piece, she was the engine. Without her 16-plus points every game, Woods Cross had a gaping scoring hole in its lineup.
"With Xojian, we got used to scoring a certain amount of points every night, so when she left, we needed people to fill that role, but we were never sure who that was going to be," Geis says. "Losing her wasn't easy, and the other girls had to learn that they were the leaders, that they've gotta take care of things themselves."
It became even more difficult to surmount that mental hurdle when the early going was so rough. The Wildcats had assembled a bear of a preseason schedule against teams that would play in the postseason: Sky View, Mountain Crest, Mountain View among them. Perhaps the most difficult of all was heading to Viewmont, where Harry scored 16 points against her old team.
Even after Woods Cross started winning games, the Wildcats fared poorly against top-tier Region 6 opponents Olympus and Bountiful, falling to both in January.
Over the course of the season, eight players missed time with concussions.
In midseason, the team had to learn a new offense and a new defense. Some girls who were used to seeing a lot of game time rode the bench a bit more, and others were thrown into the crossfire when they had expected to come off the bench.
But the laundry list of obstacles the Wildcats faced makes the season sound much more nightmarish than it was. Although it was difficult to adjust to the unforeseen challenges, the players say they grew closer together than ever before.
"We had to do a lot of re-arranging, but it was good for us," senior Amanda Horrocks said. "We all pulled together. I think we shocked a lot of people, but as the year went on, we just assumed we would keep getting better."
Hiding in that 11-10 mark is a 10-2 region record. Woods Cross won its final seven games in the regular season to go on a tear and knock Bountiful down to third place in Region 6.
Former role players such as Natalie Parsons and Emily Howey became go-to scorers and clutch rebounders. Aarika Andersen, so used to dishing to Harry in a run-n-gun offense, became more of a half-court distributor and knockdown shooter. Hart and Horrocks asserted themselves as important contributors after going in expecting less playing time than they got.
Despite the injuries, despite the brand new systems, the Wildcats morphed into a strong team in the latter half of the season.
The impressive run ended with a first-round loss to Sky View, a team that ended up going to the semifinals in the Class 4A tournament. It was a disappointing loss to take after the teams' expectations had risen so high.
But Geis says he'll always remember this particular team as "the strongest group of girls I ever had."
"I won't forget how they stayed together and just kept plugging along," he says. "Normally, when you lose a big part of your offense and identity, you find excuses. These girls weren't that way — there were no excuses in them."
Twitter: @kylegoon Woods Cross at a glance
• After going 1-7 in the preseason, the Wildcats romped with a 10-2 record in Region 6 play.
• Natalie Parsons averaged almost 15 points per game, and Emily Howey averaged a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
• The Wildcats landed a No. 2 seed despite losing their leading scorer and dealing with a multitude of concussions all year.