Prior to her sophomore season Kelsey Winfrey verbally committed to play basketball at the University of Missouri, but for the Lebanon senior, she knew that was her destiny long before that.
“I’ve always dreamed about going to Mizzou,” said Winfrey. “My dad and sister went to Mizzou. It’s always been my dream school and I’ve known since I was little I wanted to go to Mizzou.”
Winfrey officially signed her letter of intent Wednesday morning in front of a packed Boswell Auditorium crowd.
Winfrey earned all-conference, all-district and all-state honors as junior when she averaged 21.2 ppg, 7 rpg, 3.4 apg, 4.6 spg. She enters her fourth year starting with 1,425 points, within striking distance of the coveted 2,000 point milestone.
Those individual accolades are nice, but Winfrey is more concerned about the wins and losses.
“Definitely a district championship, this is our year to get that,” said Winfrey, who started high school the same year coach Brendan Kelley took over the Lady Yellowjackets. “He pushed us so hard and he wanted it as bad as we did, and I give him a lot of credit for that. I’d rather have a coach that pushes us hard than a coach that doesn’t care.”
Winfrey will leave Lebanon next May as one of the school’s most accomplished female athletes. The “1 Awards” Female Athlete of the Year finalist from a year ago has lettered in basketball, volleyball, cross country, track and field and even kicked for the football team last fall.
“It’s stressful at times, but I love it so much. Football was so much fun and I’d never take that back. Running, volleyball, I love it so much.”
