Mesa Ridge senior Kylee Shook, 22, closed a stellar career in the Class 4A state quarterfinal. Shook finishes as the state's all-time leader in blocked shots and rebounds.
File photo by Ray Chen
While the visiting team celebrated on the home floor of
Mesa Ridge (Colorado Springs) on Friday night, one of the finest careers in the history of Colorado girls basketball came to a close.
Kylee Shook is officially done as a varsity player in Colorado, but not without revolutionizing the landscape in Class 4A. Sure, the deep rounds of the state tournament will take center stage this week for all classifications, but it's worth taking a look back at the enormously successful career of Mesa Ridge forward/center.
Shook stands at virtually the same 6-foot-4 that she did when she joined the Colorado Springs-based Grizzlies as a freshman, is a McDonald's All-American and has inked to play at Louisville, which currently stands No. 7 in the NCAA poll. But even those achievements don't underscore the precise dominance of Shook, who departs as Colorado's all-time leader in rebounding and blocked shots.
"It's nice to know that I made an impact," Shook said. "In Colorado and for my school."
Mesa Ridge (24-2) was defeated 66-52 by
Holy Family (Broomfield) in the quarterfinals Friday night, which put an official cap to Shook's time in a Grizzlies uniform. She departs with 1,299 career rebounds, which trumps the mark of 1,247 achieved by Sterling's Taylor Chrisman, who graduated in 2013. Shook began the season 11th on the all-time list and leapfrogged her way to the top.
Shook already had the state's blocked-shots record in the bag entering the season and added 124 this season to culminate her career with 620. That total is 184 above that of second-place Angela Pearson, who graduated from Maranatha Christian in 2003. Shook's 194 blocks as a junior were No. 2 in state history for a single season.
Shook wasn't solely about the defensive categories, however. She finished her career with a whopping 1,797 points, including 711 this season, when she averaged a career-best 27.3 points to go with 13.8 rebounds.
"It's more than I would have thought, and that's with acknowledging that she is best player in the gym every night," Mesa Ridge coach Jeff Beatty said in reference to Shook's entire body of work. "Defensively, she was stellar when she came into high school and her offensive game has just improved year to year."
Perhaps the most telling statistic of Shook's career was the success of her team. The Grizzlies went 93-11 during her four seasons, including a perfect 28-0 in her sophomore year, a season that ended with an upset win over fellow unbeaten Broomfield in the Class 4A championship game at the Coors Events Center.
Shook originally gave a verbal commitment to Louisville in September and made it official in the early signing period in November. She chose the Cardinals after essentially narrowing down her choices to three schools.
"I considered CU, just because they were close to home, and the University of Washington because I really liked their athletics and their coaches," Shook said. "But Louisville, just in general they have a good team atmosphere and a good school. They have a lot of support. They're number one in the ACC for attendance at games. And coach Jeff Walz is great and he'll push me to where I want to be."
Where Shook wants to be is playing beyond college, and she believes she is in the proper program with the proper coach to make it happen. Primarily a post player in her early high school years, Shook has refined her outside game to become more of a complete player and projects as a forward at the Division-I level.
"When I was a post player I didn't really like being down there," she said. "My body type isn't really fit to muscle out all of those big girls down there, so I had to evolve and become more versatile on the court. It will help me in college because I won't be stuck down there the 6-7 and 200-pound girls."
How solid was Shook's career? Put it this way: If a region ever becomes named after her in future seasons, it would be fitting. Ninety-three wins. One championship. Blocks record. Rebounding record. Nearly 1,800 points.
"It'll be nice looking back," Shook said.
