PREP PROFILE
Who: Emily Allard
School: Deer Valley (Antioch, Calif.)
Sports: Basketball, softball
Scholarship: Full ride softball to Northwestern
Numbers: 17.5 points, 9.8 rebounds 3.98 GPA
Tonight's game: NCS Division I semifinals against Berkeley
ANTIOCH, Calif. - Deer Valley (Antioch, Calif.) senior Emily Allard is a straight-A student. She hangs with the school’s co-principals and tutors her teammates.
But she’s no geek.
“She’s a bright kid beyond her years,” said her head basketball coach Lindsay Wisely.
Said assistant coach Nick Wisely, husband of the head coach: “She’s the team comic and full of personality; The nicest kid you’ll ever meet and the one everyone wants to be around.”
She sports bright socks with smiley faces. She wears her hair different almost every day, from a pony to pig-tails to French braids to a bun to straight down. But she’s not seeking attention.
“I’m just always open to try new things,” she said.
Said Lindsay Wisely: “She dresses a little quirky but she’s not trying to fit into a certain image. She’s absolutely unique. She’s fun. She is who she is.”
On the basketball court, the 6-foot-1 center leads one of Northern California’s top teams (21-6) in scoring (17.5 points per game) and rebounding (9.8) and is second in steals (3.5).
But she can also face up and drive fiercely from the wing, dribble fluidly up the floor and best of all, runs the court like a banshee.
She leads the Wolverines, winners of 17 straight, into tonight’s huge North Coast Section semifinal showdown with perennial state and national power Berkeley (22-5), winners of 10 straight.
“She’s everywhere,” Nick Wisely said. “She grabs every loose ball, grabs every rebound and runs by everyone. There’s nothing she can’t do.”
Emily Allard drives on an opponent.
Heston Quan
Said Lindsay: “She literally plays every position on the court for us. She’s our emergency point guard. She’s a 1 or a 2 or a 3 or a 4 or a 5. We shift her everywhere at a moment’s notice and she’s smart enough to figure it out immediately.”
Amazing, considering she just picked up the game as an eighth grade as a fall back to her first love softball.
She’s one of state’s top high school pitchers, but earned a full ride softball scholarship to Northwestern as a center fielder where she’ll utilize her speed, instincts and vast slap-hitting skills.
“You won’t find many in the country who are as dominant or elite in two sports as Emily is,” Lindsay Wisely said. “She’s just an amazing athlete.”
Judging by all who describe her, Allard isn’t “just” anything. She’s a lot of everything – everything good about high school athletics – high school period.
Her prep days are winding down, however, and every one is counting the days. A loss tonight would end the Wolverines’ basketball season.
They go against a team that has won 18 NCS crowns, all but four Div. I title since 1990. Under legendary coach Gene Nakamura, who has come out of retirement to replace Cheryl Draper (out on leave of absence), Berkeley has won two state crowns (1991 and 1997) and nine Northern California titles, including the last three straight losing all three years to Long Beach Poly in the Division I state finals.
Deer Valley, meanwhile, has won one NCS championship in 2005 and seeks its first NorCal championship. Every year it seems Berkeley gets in the way.
Lindsay Wisely doesn’t want to even consider a defeat, not only because her team’s season would end. But it would also mean the end of Allard’s basketball career.
“We always talk about all her points and rebounds and steals and hustle, but from her teammates to coaches to the staff, what we’re going to miss or talk about most when she’s gone is who she is,” Lindsay Wisely said. “It’s all about her character and personality. I’m going to miss her presence most. Basically I’m going to miss everything about her.”
“You come across kids like her once every few decades.”
The coach said Allard’s truest color and influence is best revealed at practice. She often splits up the starters and Allard is paired with four reserves.
“Her work ethic, her enthusiasm never changes,” Lindsay Wisely said. “Whatever team she’s on she mixes it up and she brings those teammates up. Every one on her team steps it up a notch.”
Said Nick Wisely: “Every one loves her. She leads by example. They do what she’s doing because if Emily is doing it then it must be the right way.”
By all accounts, Allard has had exceptional role models at home. Janet and Bill Allard are not only good parents, but they were both basketball standouts and sweethearts at Westmont High in Campbell.
Janet, only 5-5, was also a volleyball standout. Dad is only 6-foot, but he had three sisters 5-10 or taller.
“That’s where I get my height,” Allard said.
Her folks eventually got into recreation softball and that drew their middle of three children to the sport. She played soccer too as a youth but picked up softball competitively as an 11-year-old.
With a height, speed and a natural exuberance for all games, Allard excelled. But the parents suggested to give basketball a whirl at Dallas Ranch Middle School just in case softball didn’t work out.
She tried out for the basketball team as a freshman and the husband and wife coaching staff was mildly impressed.
“She didn’t have a lot of skills then and plus we had a lot of older post players so we kept her on JVs,” Lindsay Wisely said. “That was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in high school.”
Sort of. At least Allard got to show what she could do.
“She dominated at the JV level,” Nick Wisely said. “I remember she had 28 rebounds in one game.”
It didn’t exactly come naturally, Allard said.
“The hardest part I had was with the terminology,” she said. “I knew the basic rules and what a layup and screens were, but backdoor? Back pick? Flex screen? Cross screen? Ball screen? I was kind of lost.”
But physically, it all came quite natural. Her speed, her long legs and athleticism served her well.
She immediately started on the varsity as a sophomore and has been doing so ever since. It’s not a coincidence the Wolverines have gone 69-16 in those two seasons plus.
“I think basketball has definitely helped my softball in terms of a first step (in the outfield) and reaction time and speed,” she said.
Though she’s locked into college softball, Division I college basketball coaches keep calling Lindsay Wisely to see if she’d reconsider.
Allard, who can defend perimeter and post, would love to give college basketball a whirl but it’s an impossibility with school and softball.
“I asked the Northwestern (softball) coach about it and they were open, but by the time basketball ended, I’d miss 30 softball games,” Allard said. “I’m going to miss the game terribly and it’s hard to think about. But my commitment is to softball.”
That makes her current devotion to basketball all the more passionate.
She’s bent on helping the Wolverines to second NCS title but it won’t be easy.
Besides Berkeley, top seed Monte Vista (24-2) will likely be waiting on the other side of the bracket. The Mustangs play Granada, a team it has beaten by 13 and 29 points earlier in the season, in tonight’s semifinals.
This is the third straight Allard has started with point guard Patrice Saindon and with other standouts like Deserie Azlin, Cydine Mixon and Raven Fox, the Wolverines seem in synch.
“We’ve found our stride,” Allard said. “We got off to a rough start and with the tough schedule that was to be expected. Now we’re just trying to perfect the little things so we can reach our goal of the state title game.”
Lindsay Wisely would love to reach that game and goal for no other reason than this.
“I’m going to have a tough time facing Emily’s last game,” she said. “I hope we extend it as long as humanely possible.”
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
