Youthful Kit Carson surging toward Colorado girls basketball finish line

One game away from a second consecutive unblemished regular season, things are a little different for the Kit Carson girls basketball team this time around.

Last year's breakout player is now the star, and this year's breakout player indicated she "wasn't very good" before she joined the team. The latter turned out to be a pronounced case of modesty and one of the primary reasons that the Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the CHSAANow.com poll, enter Friday's regular-season finale against McClave a sizzling 18-0.

This comes on the heels of a 24-1 campaign in which Kit Carson finished third in Class 1A and didn't lose until the state semifinals.

"We've got new players filling different roles," said Wildcats sophomore forward Micayla Isenbart. "But everybody on the team is committed to doing their job and our coaches are getting us in position to do what we want to do."

Despite her underclassmen status, Isenbart has morphed into a clear leader and one of the top players in the classification. She is averaging 15.9 points and 8.1 rebounds. Those numbers are actually slightly down from her freshman season (17.3 and 10.4), but they don't need to be as glitzy with the Wildcats exhibiting more balance than last season.

As a freshman, Isentbart had the luxury of playing with her sister, Aurelia, who is now studying at Colorado State. That allowed her to ease into her playing role without having the pressures of becoming an immediate leader-type figure.

"The really great athletes are the ones that put in the time, and I'm telling you, she does and always has," Kit Carson coach Sara Crawford said. "We start working with the kids when they're in second grade with basketball camps and different things, and she has since Day 1 always been in the gym."

While the elder Isenbart has departed – although she still keeps close tabs on the team – her presence on the floor has been replaced in large part by a freshman. Tess Hornung, who grew up in nearby Stratton on the Eastern Plains, came to Kit Carson this year as a freshman and made an immediate impact. Asked if she was going to play basketball, she indicated that she probably would, although she wasn't exactly awesome.

After playing point guard and junior high, Hornung experienced a pronounced growth spurt over the past year and came to camp at 6-foot-1. Crawford decided to utilize her as a post player, and her immediate impact has been very similar to Isenbart's as a freshman last year. Hornung, who has a sister and a cousin on the squad, is averaging 16.8 points and 10.1 rebounds.

"This is one of the most humble kids you'll ever know," Crawford said. "I hadn't seen her play before, so I kind of went into the season thinking it's OK. She's young, she's raw and we'll work on it. Well, holy cow, she's way better than she let on."

The frontcourt tandem of Isenbart and Hornung has been devastating, and the remainder of the starting lineup has played solid, complementary roles. Junior point guard Shayla Bogenhagen is speedy and aggressive, but plays in control and is an ideal piece to run the show. Crawford terms Bogenhagen "a little spitfire who is so much fun to watch."

Senior shooting guard Yulissa Gutierrez is perhaps the Wildcats' finest defensive player, know for getting several deflections every game. Forward Alexandra Hornung, Tess's cousin, is the emotional leader and plays with an energetic edge. The Wildcats also have the luxury of having sharpshooter McKenzie Smith off the bench, a freshman who is averaging a solid 7.1 points a game. Add it up and Kit Carson is firmly in the title hunt.

"We've talked about the postseason a little bit," said Isenbart, the second of six siblings. "But we take each new game with a clean slate and try to get better each trip up and down the court. We have new aspects to our team this season, but they all work together well."

What makes 1A unique as opposed to some of the larger classifications is that it is so spread out, so many of the top teams don't see each other until the postseason, if at all. Jim Elliot Christian (Englewood) and Sangre de Cristo (Mosca) also are unbeaten, but the Wildcats only know what they've heard and what they've read (although it was Sangre de Cristo that eliminated them last season).

Crawford said that she maintains good relationships with some of the other top coaches in the class and doesn't mind trading film, as long as it's reciprocal. She doesn't mind if other teams have a hint of what Kit Carson is doing.

"The idea isn't to be hard to scout," she said. "It's to be hard to be beat."