February 14, 2008
Local Girl Excels

Picture provided by University of Utah University of Utah star, Kalee Whipple

By Dave Maxwell, Staff Writer

Going from a little Eastern Nevada school that has only 87 students to a starting forward on a major college women’s basketball team is quite an accomplishment in anybody’s book.

19-year old Kalee Whipple of Alamo has gone from class 1A high school ball at Pahranagat Valley, to a starter on the 20th ranked University of Utah women’s team. The Lady Utes (20-3) are currently on a 15-game winning streak

Kalee is an important player on the team both offensively and defensively. In just her sophomore year, she is the team leader in rebounds at 6.6 per game, and averages 14.2 points per game. She has started every game this season, averaging about 34 minutes per game.

She scored a career high 30 points in 60-50 win at TCU on January 26, 2008, marking the first 30-point effort this season by a Utah player. She has also been the Player of the Week in the Mountain West Conference twice this season, and received that honor at least once during her freshman year.

Playing alongside two of the premier players in the Mountain West Conference, Morgan Warburton and Leilani Mitchell, Utah Coach Elaine Elliott says at 6-1, Kalee is a “prototype small forward with great strength and has an overall offensive game. She can shoot the three and is a great rebounder. She has all the tools to figure out the mentality of the game and play consistent. And, as just a sophomore, obviously has a lot of her career still ahead of her.”

Basketball is in the blood of the Whipple family. Her grandfather and father both played, as did her three older brothers and sister. Her younger brother is playing now at Alamo. Her mother, Ginger, has coached the PVHS girls volleyball team for almost 30 years and won the state title 11 times, including nine in a row (1996 - 2005).

As for herself, Kalee says she was very serious about basketball in high school, and although her skills were obviously better than most, she didn’t think so, didn’t really notice. She just played the game her own way.

At PVHS, Kalee helped her team win four consecutive state basketball championships, and four state volleyball titles. She holds the girls 1A state tournament single-game scoring mark of 36 points, set her sophomore year. She received the Greater Nevada Female Athlete of the Year award her senior year in 2006, and was the state scoring leader with an average of 25.7 ppg. She is the first athlete at Pahranagat Valley to receive a full athletic scholarship to a Division 1 University.

During the summer of 2005, between her junior and senior year, she was invited to play on an AAU girl’s team based in Wisconsin. She traveled all over the country and learned a lot about the competition at a much higher level, and found she did have the skills to play at the Division 1 level.

Utah has had a successful women’s basketball program for a number of years and had their best season in 2006 when they advanced to the Elite Eight during the NCAA Tournament, losing in the Western Regional finals to eventual National Champion Maryland.

Kalee says her game has "gotten a lot better in college, because of the people I play with, plus the coaches. In every aspect, I think I have at least improved since high school." Toward the end of her freshman season with Utah she made the starting team several times.

About this year she says, “Going into your sophomore year you feel a lot more comfortable about playing.”

A Human Development and Family Studies major, Kalee says Hawaii is the place she likes most among all those she has visited. Utah played in a pre-season tournament there in 2007, just a few days before Christmas.

What does life after college look like for Kalee? If given the opportunity, she would like to play in the WNBA. Two girls from the 2006 Utah team are now playing in the WNBA. It’s too soon to tell what Kalee’s chances might be.

It does though, make for big dreams for a girl from a little rural country town in the high desert of Eastern Nevada and a school with less than 90 students. And to quote Sam Spade, “It’s the thing that dreams are made of.”