By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
JEFFERSON, Ore.– The Jefferson Girls Basketball last season made school, and program, history.
First final site appearance since 1993 that was followed up by the program’s first-ever Final Site victory that led to their first-ever State Placement trophy. A fifth-place finish as the Lions finished the year 22-8.
Now, on the second day into the young 2025-2026 season, the question becomes if Jefferson can duplicate that kind of success again. Despite losing two big seniors in Gretchen Orton and Bella Kunkel to graduation from that squad, they do return some experience.
Aziza Saad and Aliyah Saad return. Genevieve Orton and Luella Campbell also return with valuable experience as the core four look to lead the squad going into this Winter.
“It’ll be big just getting the confidence that we played in games that really mattered the last couple of years,” starts Jefferson Head Coach Zach Maison. “And having confidence to step up and take their games to the next level and know that they don’t need those seniors who graduated to be able to do the stuff that they’re capable of doing.”
For those four returners, they know what is needed of them this year to continue their recent success as a program. Success that has seen the 3A program progressively from just getting into the playoffs to now looking for a return trip to the Final Site once again.
And for them. These two, two-plus weeks of practices going into their first game of the year in December, will go a long way as they’ll look to pan out the finer details before their season opener against Pleasant Hill on December 3.
“We all got to work together more and contribute more. I think we can do that as a team, we really got to put in some work,” adds Aziza Saad.
As like last year, the non-league slate is once again going to be a tough one. The Billies of Pleasant Hill, Banks, Sutherlin and the Valley Catholic Tournament. All games that will hopefully place them in a position come PacWest Conference play and hopefully the postseason.
“It’s going to be really big, but I think we’re going to keep it winning,” said Orton of the preseason slate. “We got to use all of our practice time. I want to win our first game, it’s been two years, but I want to win our first game and really come out big.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
