Kaylee Jensen (54) has adapted well to the merging of schools and is seeking to bring home a state title.
Photo courtesy of Deb Jensen
At one time
Kaylee Jensen was a threatening menace to basketball success at Humphrey High School. So when she received word that she and her Lindsay Holy Family teammates were consolidating with their former Cornhusker Conference rival, Jensen had to admit there was just a little bit of doubt on her end.
After all, learning to play with the very girls she used to knock around for hardcourt supremacy would take some getting used to.
"At first I was a little skeptical," Jensen said as the merger nears the completion of its first basketball season at
Humphrey/Holy Family (Humphrey, Neb.). "I didn't know how we'd get along. We had just played them in a district final game. But we are getting along great and it's been a lot of fun."
Jensen joined Travis Friesen's Holy Family basketball program shortly after it won a Class D-2 state championship in 2010. She earned playing time as a freshman in 2010-11 and started as a sophomore and as a junior, guiding the Bulldogs to the state tournament at the conclusion of each of those seasons.
Humphrey hasn't fallen short of athletic success either. The other Bulldogs played their way into the D-1 state basketball championship game in 2012 before falling to Guardian Angels Central Catholic, and added state volleyball titles in Classes D-1 and D-2 the two seasons prior to the merger.
Collectively, the powerhouse programs produced a 127-28 basketball record during Jensen's first three varsity seasons. Yes, Holy Family had found an extremely competent counterpart in which to go after basketball greatness with.
"I just want to be a leader on my team so we can get to the C-2 state tournament and hopefully win a state championship," Jensen said after settling for a pair of state tournament consolation wins and a fourth-place finish as a junior. "We like to get up and down. We try to wear out our opponent. We are a deep team so that works to our advantage. But we are strong in the half-court too. We have good guards that can shoot the ball and that can really handle it."
The added enrollment from the merger has forced the Class D powers to compete together in Class C-2 this season. Should Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family (22-3) get through its sub-district bracket, the Bulldogs will likely battle Shelby-Rising City, a team they knocked off earlier this season, for an opportunity to compete at the state tournament.
Illinois signee Chatrice White, who scored the 2,000th point of her career just one day after Jensen accomplished the same feat in early February, leads Shelby-Rising City. By reaching the milestone, Jensen and White join an elite group of Nebraska girls basketball players that now totals 10.
Leading the way at the top of the 2,000-point list is Darcy Stracke (2,752) of Stuart and Chambers, KC Cowgill (2,427) of Grand Island Central Catholic and 2013 Humphrey High graduate Alyssa Frauendorfer (2,267). Jensen scored 20 points against former Cornhusker Conference rival Howells-Dodge to etch her name in Nebraska girls basketball lore.
Just like Stracke, Cowgill and Frauendorfer, Jensen is loaded with talent. There isn't anything she can't do on a basketball court.
"The question should be, ‘What doesn't she bring to the table?'" NEN Xtreme elite level girls basketball club director Brandon Schaecher said of Jensen. "She plays for the love of the game. She's a big player that has a very physical attitude. She'll knock you down and then pick you back up. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, but she doesn't play that way. She's a physical player, but in a nice way."
Schaecher said that at 6-foot-4, Jensen was the perfect height to play post at the D-1 level, yet he said she has the athleticism of a guard, which is essential in today's recruiting wars.
"She shot me a look the first time I asked her to shoot a 3(-pointer)," Schaecher recalled. "She has a terrific shot. All it took was for her to realize it. I haven't seen a lot of posts her size that have her soft touch."
Playing in her third league in four seasons, Jensen was averaging nearly 22 points and just more than 10 rebounds a game going into last night's 62-22 second round sub-district basketball win over Battle Creek. Jensen's career point total stood at 2,044 going into that game as she prepares for state championship greatness and then a move to the Big 12, where she will compete at Oklahoma State.
"Obviously they liked my size and they said that I had good hands and feet," Jensen said. "I will need to become much more physical when I reach that level. I guess I'm kind of soft with the ball."
Unlike fellow Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family co-head coach Marty Moser, Friesen has never had to try to slow Jensen down. And he is grateful for that.
"Everything she does would drive me crazy," Friesen said. "But I think her defensive awareness and ability to score would be most troubling for other coaches to solve. She has good hands and finishes around the basket. She is also a terrific rebounder and she blocks shots. If she doesn't get the block, she alters what other teams do."
As far as putting the brakes on Jensen's offensive game, if he himself had to, Friesen isn't sure he could.
"It would depend on the who I have and the how many of them I have," Friesen said of how he would attempt to stop her. "She has seen every defense and gimmick there is and she still puts up a lot of points. I guess I would try to limit her touches as much as possible. You can't stop her so you try to contain her. She is just a very nice ball player."
