By BRETT MARSHALL
Western Athletic Conference
After winning the Western Athletic Conference title in 2024, the Hays High Lady Indians did a re-set of their goals for the 2025 campaign to include bigger and better final destinations.
The Lady Indians, under fifth-year coach Len Melvin, accomplished that in a big way, repeating their 8-0 WAC double round-robin record, but went two steps further, winning their Class 5A sub-state to reach the state championship for the first time in 29 years.
That ultimate goal, taking a 22-0 record to the state tourney, ended prematurely with a heart-breaking 51-48 to private school St. Thomas Acquinas in the quarterfinals of the state tourney on March 12 in Emporia.
However, that final record of 22-1 for the Lady Indians will certainly go down historically as one of the best in program laurels.
That will be the message for Melvin as he sees a solid class of seniors departing, including all-state guard Molly Martin and center Katie Linenberger, who both notched positions on the All-WAC first and second teams.
Shed no tears, though, as Melvin will welcome a talented underclass group back for 2025-26 spearheaded by rising-sophomore Jenna Schmeidler, who was voted WAC Player of the Year by the conference coaches. It is believed that Schmeidler is the first freshman to garner the award.
“We were blessed to have nearly a perfect blend of players in back-to-back-to-back classes,” Melvin said of this year’s Hays squad. “The seniors had suffered with bad losses as freshmen so they remembered what it was like to not be on a winning team and set a standard of hard work that carried through to the younger players.”
Melvin said the unselfishness of this year’s team was one of the key components of the success they enjoyed.
“Nobody cared about who scored the most points, or who played the most minutes,” Melvin said. “We were fortunate to have games where we were able to have a lot of players get significant varsity minutes.”
That’s what happens when your team is winning by big margins as the Indians averaged 64 points a game to their opponents’ 31. In the WAC, the margin was even higher (65.4-27.5), a 37.9-point differential.
“I think we had a running clock in about 16 or 17 games, so our statistics really don’t give a true picture of what some of the players could have done had the clock not been running,” Melvin said. “But, it gave us a chance to play a lot of young players to give them experience.”
While the WAC served as about 40 percent of the team’s schedule, it was the non-conference slate that provided the most challenges.
The Indians defeated Class 3A state semifinalist Colby, 52-35; they toppled private Sunrise Christian Academy, 64-43, and Life Prep Academy (63-56) while battling 4A power Wellington (in state semifinals) before winning a dramatic 74-72 overtime thriller.
“We wanted to be able to take that next step up to be competitive at the highest level, and I think we proved that we were able to do that,” Melvin said.
The joy of going undefeated during the regular season and then qualifying for the state for the first time in nearly three decades saw the enduring heartbreak of a season not fully realized in the team’s loss to St. Thomas Aquinas, which as the No. 8 seed, won the 5A title on Saturday (March 15).
“We got the worst draw possible,” Melvin said of the Indians’ first-round foe. “They’re very good, but we were right there with them. I still think we are as good as them, but just weren’t on that one night. When you’re playing at that level, you have to be able to meet the challenge and we came up just a little short.”
Aquinas was the only team to score more than 50 points against the Indians’ defense.
“The girls take a lot of pride and I think they did such a good job of transitioning from practice into the games,” Melvin said. “The defense has to be our identity because it gives you a chance to compete.”
Melvin, however, said there is little he would change, considering that despite losing a handful of seniors to graduation, he feels good about the returning group.
“We had a number of players in the lower classes who probably could have played varsity, but we wanted to be sure they got minutes on the court and thus we played them on sub-varsity,” Melvin said. “I think we’ve got a great group of players coming back and I’m excited to see where we go from here.”
While the winning margin in the WAC was significant, Melvin said he still has a lot of respect for the other schools.
“A lot of the teams have some really good underclass players and are well-coached,” Melvin said. “We don’t take anything for granted with any opponent and I’m proud that our team did a great job of preparing for each game and not take anybody for granted.”
Melvin loses Martin and Linenberger along with a couple of other veterans, but will return Schmeidler, the do-everything 5–7-point guard who averaged 15.9 points per game while directing traffic for the Indians’ offense. Martin and Linenberger averaged 13.7 and 9.6 points while the returning Winter averaged 6.3 ppg. Schmeidler’s point output was 366 for the season.
In addition to Schmeidler and Martin, the first team all-WAC included juniors Shamari Lewis and Kylie Rhine of Liberal, and K.J. Pinchon of Garden City.
Schmeidler earns WAC Player of the Year
Len Melvin will be the first person to tell you that he expected Jenna Schmeidler to be a good player going into her freshman basketball season at Hays High School.
But what he could not have told you is just how good she would be in her rookie high school campaign.
All Schmeidler did was to come into an already-talented Hays High roster, find her way to the starting point guard position that allowed all-state guard Molly Martin to move to the No. 2 shooting guard spot.
“It opened up a whole new playbook for us,” Melvin said of Schmeidler, who is believed to be the first freshman in the WAC’s 40-plus history to win the award. “She has given us so many options that worked to the talents of the other players.”
Schmeidler proved to be adept both on the offensive and defensive end of the court, averaging 15.9 points per game to lead the team in scoring. She shot 50.6 percent from the field, including 37.6 percent from 3-point range while making 89.9 percent of her free throws on 62-of-69 charities.
“Everybody around just becomes a better player,” Melvin said. “Obviously, there are things where she can get better, but her work ethic is as good as any player I’ve coached. I just wasn’t sure how she would transition to the varsity level as a freshman.”
For Schmeidler, the WAC honor was something of a mild shock if not total surprise.
“I knew I’d been working hard and knew that Molly and others were seniors and very deserving of the award,” Schmeidler said. “So, when Coach (Melvin) told, me I was just grateful that others saw that I had worked hard at playing the game.”
Schmeidler said she gives all the credit to her teammates who share in the award.
“The seniors accepted me from the very beginning,” Schmeidler said. “They took me right in. We were able to change the offense and was able to use my knowledge to help.”
Schmeidler said that her commitment to excelling in the sport started in the sixth grade.
“I knew I wanted to focus on basketball and to work to become the best player I could possibly be,” Schmeidler said. “I spent two hours a day working on all areas of my game. I’m never satisfied with how I play.”
Schmeidler said that her continued improvement will include getting stronger to help her in the drive to the basket and to improve her court vision.
“If I have a bad shooting night, I’ve got to find other ways to contribute,” Schmeidler said. “If I get stronger I can be more effective in protecting the ball on offense.”
Defensively, Schmeidler also sees areas in which she can improve.
“I think I do a pretty good job of playing on-ball defense,” Schmeidler said. “It’s important to have good communication with my teammates so I can help them more. My off-ball defense can get better, too.”
Her plans will include an intensive summer workout program with a personal trainer.
“We’ll work the first 30 minutes on agility drills and then work on all the specific individual drills to get better in all areas,” Schmeidler said. “The biggest thing is to get physically stronger and quicker and be better at seeing the game at a pace that benefits our team.”
While knowing she will miss the graduating seniors from this year’s squad, Schmeidler is excited with her other underclass returnees.
“A lot of them got valuable junior varsity minutes and they were tearing it up at that level,” Schmeidler said. “I think we’re gonna have an awesome team, and we just want to get back to state and improve to work toward a championship.”
Melvin, too, says he likes the roster that will return for 2025-26.
“We’ve got nice pieces in the junior-sophomore classes and it’s been beneficial to stack back-to-back classes with quality players,” Melvin said. “When you have somebody with the skill set of Jenna, you know you’ll have a good chance to win a lot of games.”
All-Western Athletic Conference Team
Player - School - Class
FIRST TEAM
Jenna Schmeidler - Hays - Fr.
Molly Martin - Hays - Sr.
Shamari Lewis - Liberal - Jr.
K.J. Pinchon - Garden City - Jr.
Kylie Rhine - Liberal - Jr.
SECOND TEAM
Katie Linenberger - Hays - Sr.
Zoe Winter - Hays - Jr.
Myah Korf - Garden City - So.
Cassie Ellegood - Great Bend - Sr.
Emily Gutierrez - Dodge City - So.
Player of the Year: Jenna Schmeidler, Hays
Coach of the Year: Len Melvin, Hays