By VINCE LOVERGINE
TopSports.news
Whether it's spraying 25-year head coach Bob Wells with water after every win in the locker room or tossing pre-game jerseys in the air before every game, Shawnee Heights girls basketball could be an exciting team on the court in 2025-2026.
Junior KK Emmot returns for Shawnee Heights after earning All-Shawnee County Top 10 honors a year ago. [File photo/TSN]
Wells says even in 39 total years of coaching, you always wonder what the team chemistry will be like but this year, he said that’s coming along very well.
Two transfers Shawnee Heights adds to this group are Highland Park’s Pearmella Carter and Topeka West’s Imani McGlory. The T-Birds also added Sami Baum, who had previously been homes-chooled and played volleyball for the T-Birds this fall.
Funny enough, Wells said he coached Sami’s dad back in the day when he coached with the boys. Wells said he didn’t know anything about these girls coming to the school, but when he got word they were coming, he was thrilled to plug them into the game plan.
“It’s been a really smooth transition, she (Carter) played with all these kids up until eighth grade at Shawnee Heights. She fits in real well,” Wells said. “Everyone was saying she (McGlory) was coming here and I said, 'Yeah right.' Then when enrollment happened and they were here I just said, 'Oh wow,' and the great thing is the girls on roster already have been very accepting and hopefully it will stay like that.''
“I think having Pearmella is very beneficial because we don’t have very many bigs out here, we’re mainly shooters and watching her put in the work has been fun. And Imani, she’s a really good shooter, so she just adds to that strength," Senior Reianna Vega said.
Wells said the T-Birds are lengthy and they’ll need a number of players to score. If they limit their turnovers and translate the shooting in practice to game time, Wells said it’ll be a lot of fun watching them.
Wells has coached a lot of different players in his coaching career and there are some tweaks he preaches to his players, but standards and expectations don’t change. That is, play together, play hard and do what it takes and his teams always have responded to that to replicate the success over the years.
“That expectation comes from the group, the coaching staff and the parents,'' Wells said. "They get those positive vibes from home that it’s time to go to work and we’re not messing around and that really helps hearing that in the right voice,” Wells said.
Vega, Aubrey Hamilton, Lauryn Brees are names Wells said will help this team along with junior standout KK Emmot. However, Heights lost senior guard Taylor Hanshaw to an ACL injury on the first day of practice.
“I think our energy is a lot better than previous years because a lot of players, basketball is their only sport so there’s a lot more focus,” Emmot said.
