‘When we play together, we’re just crazy good,’ says Inglemoor High girls captain | 4A Kingco basketball

Published 12:57 pm Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Larissa Ashby can’t contain her energy and thoughts when discussing her basketball team. While some of her teammates are soft-spoken about the Inglemoor High Vikings, Ashby simply goes for it.

“When we play together, we’re just crazy good,” the senior forward said following a practice last week. “And our defense is insane — it’s just crazy.”

The Viks are a fast team, a well-rounded squad, Ashby continued, and the girls have bounced out of the gate with a 1-1 record in 4A Kingco and a 2-2 overall mark at the Reporter’s press time. Senior guard Taylor Peacocke leads the way scoring-wise with an average of 18.3 points per game, followed by junior guard Kelly Conroy with a 15.3 average.

In Kingco play, Inglemoor handily defeated Newport, 58-44, but lost a tough one to Northshore rival Woodinville, 43-40.

“Our team chemistry is a huge deal this year. We’ve done a lot of team bonding and everybody gets along and likes each other on and off the court,” said Peacocke, who will play Division I hoops for Sacramento State next year. “During basketball season, we’re like a family.”

Coach John Augustavo is in his 11th year at the Inglemoor helm and said he’s just as fired up about Vik basketball now as he was on Day One. Along with the hard-working Ashby, Peacocke and Conroy, the coach points to seniors Kate Taylor and Lauren Moses and juniors Julia Haining and Chalayia Fuller as keys to the Viks’ success. Haining is heads above the other players at 6-foot-1, and Fuller stands in at 5-foot-11 and notched two years of varsity experience at Holy Names before transferring to Inglemoor.

“It’s a real athletic group of girls,” said Augustavo, whose squad finished 14-9 last year. “The nice part about living around here is that I know most of them, watched them grow up and a handful of them are finally here. It’s just a real happy group of kids.”

Taylor added that some of the girls have shared the court together for a long time, either in junior high and Inglemoor Select, or both. Taylor and her teammates are thrilled to be a part of the Inglemoor basketball tradition, she said.

“I remember going to the camps and seeing the older girls that ran the camps and being like, ‘I can’t wait till I get there.’ So it’s fun that I’m actually here now,” she said.

Peacocke noted that Inglemoor hasn’t made it to the state tournament during her time on campus, and she hopes the team can stay healthy, take every game seriously and peak at the right time to achieve that goal.

As for Ashby, she enjoys the friendships and the hard work that comes with being a member of the Inglemoor squad. “It’s really fun and we know how each other plays, so it makes it a lot easier to go out in games,” she said.

Picture: Chalayia Fuller, left, watches Julia Haining lay one in during practice. Andy Nystrom/Reporter