Tonight, December 28th, Junior Kaylee Van Eps and Sophomore Mallory Heyer each scored their 1000th point in their respective Chaska Hawks Varsity career. This is an amazing accomplishment for both players, who were quick to thank the support of their teammates, coaches, family and friends, as well as the hard work they both put into their game – which all started in CAYBBA youth basketball.
Earlier this year in May, both Kaylee and Mallory had the honor and opportunity to participate in the U16 USA Women’s National Team Basketball Trials at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. This is a highly selective honor to be invited to tryout to represent Team USA and play with the best players in the country.
We asked Kaylee and Mallory to answer a few questions about this Incredible honor as former CAYBBA youth players and now key players on Coach Tara Seifert’s Varsity Girls team:
Tell us about the Team USA U16 team? This was an opportunity to make Team USA and travel to Chile in South America to compete in the U16 World Cup.
This is an incredible honor to participate. You both made it pretty deep into tryouts. Were there a lot of players involved? 146 girls from across the US participated in the trials. 30 players were formally invited, the rest had to apply, were reviewed by the staff and then also invited to participate. We both (Mallory and Kaylee) applied and accepted the invitation to compete for a spot on the USA National Team. There were 4 other girls from the Minnesota that participated in the trials.
While you didn’t make the final cuts, tell us about the tryouts and the competition to make the final team. The first two days of trials were competitive drills, informative seminars and a little scrimmaging. After the first two days the selection committee started making cuts following each session, eventually narrowing it down to a final 18 which would then go to camp for another week. After that, Team USA would pick the final 12-person team from there. Throughout the trials you could tell everyone was stepping up their game to make an impression for the Selection Committee, all of us hopeful to make the team.
Kaylee, what was it like for you? “You walk into the training center and see all the USA logos and long line of girls just waiting to get checked in, you can get a little nervous. But once we got on our gear, it just felt like an honor to be there and wear the USA name across our chests.
Mallory, tell us your emotions trying out for Team USA and the competition you experienced? “It was such an amazing opportunity to be able to compete with the best girls in the country. It truly showed me the level that I aspire to play and motivated me to work harder than ever.”
How do you think your youth basketball experience helped make you the exceptional players you are today? Being able to play for CAYBBA really helped prepare and shape us into the players we are today. Our coaches and teammates were always there to push us at practice to make us better players. It was a great program to grow up in and develop our game at a young age.
Congratulations to both Kaylee and Mallory!
