Shelly Hoyt played collegiate basketball at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska and started coaching in 1990 in Missouri. She came to Kansas in 1997 and coached at Utica and Attica before coming to Hoxie in 2001.
She has now led the Hoxie girls team to three straight 1A Division I championship games and two straight state titles. If Hoxie wins a state championship this year for a three-peat, the Indians would be the first team in class 1A to win three straight since Little River won four straight 1A championships from 1995-1998.
Hoxie went 24-1 and won the state championship the year before last so Hoyt said it wasn’t hard to motivate them to continue the run. To win the championship last year, the Lady Indians had to play powerhouse St. John Hudson in the semi-finals, a team they had beaten in last year’s finals.
Hoxie avenged another loss in the championship game, defeating Olpe, which had defeated the Indians in the 2011 state finals. Hoxie beat St. John-Hudson by six and Olpe by five to finish the season a perfect 26-0 and win a well-deserved second straight championship.
Hoxie returns some great players off of last year’s team including: Kristina Farber (12 ppg, 7 rpg), Gabi Spresser (14 ppg, 3 apg), Carly Heim (14 ppg, 6 apg), and Lexi Schamberger (8 ppg, 5 rpg).
Natasha Allmer, Terran Hoyt, Kelsey Kelch, Scout Washington, and Kelsey Geerdes are also expected to have a major impact on the success of the season for the Lady Indians.
It will not be easy to three-peat as 1A Division I champions for many reasons and the schedule is definitely one of them. The Lady Indians will play 14 of their 20 total regular season games on the road this season.
They also play three tough non-league games before Christmas break against Dighton, Sharon Springs, and 2A Ellis. Hoyt expects lots of good competition for the Division I crown this year and thinks Centralia, Goessel, Centre, and Spearville will have very solid teams this year.
