by Paul Moseley

Now and then, a team emerges that has just the right mix of everything they need to be great - The skills, the attitude, the coaching, and the opportunity. The West Seattle Girls basketball team just may have found the recipe.

An eclectic group of athletes who spend time together on and off the court, the Wildcats have dominated the Metro League this year. They will put a period on their regular season Friday night as they take on Franklin at home for the season finale. If they win, they will finish the season with an undefeated 14-0 record in the Metro and an 18-2 overall record. Whatever the result of the final game, they are the regular season League champions going to the State tournament - and even though they won’t say it publicly - this team has the State Championship in their sights.

The Journey

This 2015 team is the latest product of a program that has been on a steady, upward trajectory since 2010. Five years ago, when the current Wildcat team was watching Toy Story 3, the then-new Wildcat head coach Sonya Elliott was figuring out how to build a team from a struggling program. “We had four uniforms and four dollars” remembers Elliott.

Elliott, who played at Eastern Washington and describes herself as ‘super-competitive’, started by bringing on Ashley Ioane as her assistant coach. “We met when our kids were playing basketball in Middle school.” Elliott found out that Ioane also played college ball at Olympic and Pacific University, and the two had similar approaches to the game. They have been a duo since.

That first year, West Seattle posted a 3-16 record. Undaunted, Elliott took the approach of appealing to potential athletes. “We wanted to get kids to want to be a part of it. We set up a camp, held an open gym. We started a free spring league”. She also invited other Metro Schools who didn’t have money to do a tournament at West Seattle high school.

Fundraising ensued - Summer camps, a Taco dinner, a Free-Throw-a-thon.

In 2011-12, the Wildcats planted the seeds of the current team – Charli Elliott (Coach Elliott’s daughter) and Annalisa Ursino joined as freshman. The Widcats improved slightly to 5-15.

In 2012-13, the team added three more players who are starters today. 6’6” Lydia Giomi, Lexi Ioane and point guard Gabby Sarver were friends off the court and joined the team together. The new blood on the team clicked, and the Wildcats finished 2013 and 2014 with strong winning records of 14-10 and 15-10. Coach Elliott credits much of the improvement on having fun and building a solid base through intense training. “Even in college …it's not the type of drill it’s the intensity. Leave it on the court ladies, give it everything you have”.

This year, three new players joined to round out the team. Senior Emily Fiso and Junior Lani Taylor transferred in, and Sophomore Izzy Turk came up from the JV team.

Together, this group of seven – Elliott, Ursino, Giomi, Ioane, Sarver, Fiso, Taylor and Turk – have teamed up to dominate the Metro League and put West Seattle on the map as the team to beat. The best part is – they look like they are really having fun doing it.

The Season

The Wildcats opened this season strong, winning 6 straight, some by huge margins. Their first defeat was a three point loss to regional powerhouse Bellarmine Prep. Immediately after that game, they travelled to California for a tournament, and won two out of three – losing only to undefeated Cajon (ranked 8th in California) in a close game.

The losses were less important to Elliot than the improvement.
“It was an excellent tournament for us because we had competitive games and that’s what we needed to better prepare us going into the remainder of the season and ultimately into post season. We learned, or were exposed to, working under pressure. The top Metro teams love to put the pressure on so the more practice we get at handling it, and staying within our game plan, the better.”

Since the tournament, the Wildcats have won 10 straight, including wins over strong teams from Bishop Blanchet, Garfield and last year’s champ Cleveland. Their performance has earned them a place among the elite teams in the State. The Wildcats are ranked #2 in the state by MaxPreps and #3 by AP.

What makes this team so fun to watch is how they win. They play a complete game and can adjust on the fly. In last week’s game against Garfield, the Bulldogs keyed in on center Lydia Giomi. West Seattle just moved the game outside. Ioane and Fiso started popping jumpers and combined for 33 points between them.

Individually, the Wildcats are all over the top-5 lists for the Conference in key stats.

Lydia Giomi leads the team in scoring at 15.1 points per game (4th in the Metro). She is followed on the leader board by Lexi Ioane at 12 PPG (5th in the Metro).

Gabby Sarver leads the League with 5.4 assists per game, and is joined on top 5 list by Lexi Ioane (3.7 assists) and Charli Elliott (3.3 assists).

Rebounds? Giomi leads the League with 10.6 boards per game. Ioane is third in the League with 8.5.

And those turnover forcers… Elliott is second in the League with 4.3 steals per game and the Wildcats have three players in the top 5 for blocks – Giomi, Ioane and Fiso.

When one part of the team starts to struggle, another part picks up, and that’s the way Elliott likes it. “If we had five of one of our best players I don’t believe we’d be as good as we are with the mix that we have. Their individual strengths really complement one another. ”

For the seniors (Elliott, Fiso and Ursino), they have one more regular season game to enjoy before the tournament, then it's one game at a time for them.

Regardless of the tournament results, something special happened this year and Coach Elliott recognizes it.

“I can’t even explain how amazing it’s been. This is a special group of girls. As a group they are excellent athletes, with varied skills that complement one another, and they also work hard and put in the time, but the most important thing is that they have positive attitudes and that makes coaching them so much fun.”

The Wildcats play Franklin Friday night at 6:30 at West Seattle High School. Come out and cheer for the undefeated Metro champions.