Trio of sophomore guards have been battling in NPSL for two years. They’ll get two more

Battles already have been waged and won. More – and bigger – battles are to come in the Class 4A North Puget Sound League.

The NPSL wraps up high school sports in Washington with 4A-3A crossover championship basketball games for boys and girls on Saturday. The girls game will feature Tahoma at Auburn at 1 p.m.

Once the final buzzer sounds, it will be just over four months until teams return to the gym for the 2021-22 season.

For three sophomore guards – Hope Hassmann of Tahoma, Jewel Young at Decatur and Jersey Huerta of Kentwood – November can’t get here soon enough.

“It’s going to be fun,” Decatur coach Elon Langston said. “I’m excited for it. I think all the coaches are excited.”

Over their first two seasons, including this Covid-19-truncated current year, Hassmann and her Bears teammates have gotten the best of the battles between the three budding stars.

Tahoma’s 4A NPSL title this spring and berth in the crossover championship game included wins over both Decatur and Kentwood.

“We only lose one senior,” Hassmann said. “We have a lot of goals set for next season already. We definitely want to get as far as we can at state.”

Hassmann was a first-team all-league selection as a freshman, and raised her game again during this shortened season, averaging 23 points and six assists. Hassmann has grown up with the game. Her brother plays for the Bears boys and her father played collegiately.

Her dad even built an indoor half-court at home.

“That’s been very nice to have over Covid,” Hassmann said with a laugh. “I think every basketball player in the area knows about it and most have been over to play.”

One that has been invited but couldn’t get there was Huerta. Hassmann and Huerta have played against each other for years in club ball, and Hassmann even joined Huerta’s team for a tournament last summer.

“It was super fun to finally be on the same side with her,” Huerta said. “Instead of always playing against her. We have kind of a rivalry with Tahoma.”

A year ago, Young and the Gators entered the fray in a big way. Decatur made unexpected post-season noise, battling highly-regarded teams like Rogers, Bellarmine, Beamer and Union to earn a 4A regional spot. The young Gators lost to Moses Lake, 63-54, in the regionals.

That success had the Gators chomping for 2021 until the pandemic eliminated the WIAA’s post-season.

“It has been strange,” Young said. “It was like a yo-yo, going back and forth. First there was going to be a season, then no season. Then finally it was like, ‘It’s showtime.’ We could see who stayed consistent.”

Young played through pain this season, not missing a game or even practices despite a lower back injury. She finally got healthy for this week’s final two games of the season.

“She didn’t let anybody see it,” Langston said. “She didn’t want any excuses. She’s growing as a leader. That’s the best thing I’ve seen from her this year.”

Leading by example, including playing hurt, comes naturally for Young. She has watched the Decatur program’s struggles since the fifth grade. She attended practices with her sister Jazmin playing during those years.

“I’ve been a competitor for a long time,” Young said. “I hate losing. Even in the fifth grade, I wanted to go play. We are going to win. It was our coaches that put that mindset in me.”

Langston and his staff started to rebuild Decatur’s program six years ago. The coaches’ commitment trickled down to Young and her teammates. Everyone stayed for success.

Huerta, by contrast, barely had to step outside her own front door to find basketball success. The fifth of six children, all but her youngest brother have or are just finishing (her senior sister, Savannah) their Kentwood careers.

Older sister Kylie Huerta won a state title with the Conquerors in 2009.

“Everyone before me set a tone, set the bar for me,” Huerta said of her siblings. “I need to reach everything they’ve done and more. I’ve seen it. I don’t want to be the one sibling that doesn’t.”

That desire is something her coach sees every day.

“Overall, her outside shot has gotten better and more consistent,” Kentwood coach Jordan Nero said. “And her leadership – she’s become comfortable enough to call things out on her own, even as a young player. That is something I want. The (basketball) IQ is always going to be there. As she continues to get a better feel for and control for the game, she’ll just grow into that even more.”

Even this season’s timing may work for all three guards, who will move almost immediately from the late finish of the NPSL into AAU tournament season this summer. Then it is only four months until their high school teams will be back to work preparing for a long-awaited chance at a state run.

“It’s going to be great,” Nero said. “We would have all made some noise this year. They definitely are leading the charge in the new era. That’s going to be awesome.”

Led by these three guards, the NPSL race shapes up to be quite a battle – followed by district and bi-district wars against perennial powers from Kent to Vancouver.

“We were so bummed to not have a chance this year,” Tahoma coach Peter Smith said. “Tahoma hasn’t been to state since 1992 or something like that. It’s been so long, and this year was supposed to be that next step. To get a taste of it. Now, we have two years to make a run at it with this group. They just have to grow up a little bit faster, like everyone else.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.