Two years ago, the Fountain Hills High School girls basketball team went 9-14, but 5-3 in region and they earned a playoff berth. The Falcons had 12 rostered players, and only three were underclassmen. Less than a month after the 2019-2020 season ended, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the girls basketball program has been different ever since.

The 2020-2021 season was tough on the Lady Falcons. The roster was cut in half, and the Falcons went 1-9 (0-7) with six girls last year. The Falcons only won their final game of the season, and they were an older team. As a sophomore, LJ Holland was the youngest and only underclassman on the team.

The Falcons started this season with eight players, and they had two playmakers in Soliel and CC Smith. The Falcons tended to get their momentum going in the first half, but they usually struggled in the second half thanks to exhaustion. When the Falcons won, it usually meant that one of the Smith sisters hit a clutch shot late.

Take the first game of the season for example. On Nov. 23, the Falcons won 39-36 over Valley Christian. The Falcons built up a 25-8 lead at halftime, but the Trojans came back in the second half and tied the game 36-36 with 1:09 left. Soliel found her freshman sister open in the corner, and CC knocked down a three-pointer with 21 seconds left. Soliel blocked a pass on defense, and the Falcons started the year with a win.

“It was a good start [to the season], but it started to drop down a little bit,” senior Soliel Smith said. “We hit a bump in the road, and everything started to go downhill. That’s when you have to adapt and go through adversity.”

The Falcons were 2-3 entering the Epic Tourney’s New Year’s Classic in late December. First, the Falcons played Mountainside, a team that had the same number of players as them, and the Falcons crushed them 57-17. It was the largest margin of victory for the Falcons all season. The Falcons did not win any more tournament games, but they were all close losses; 36-31, 61-50 and 24-23.

The Lady Falcons seemed to carry momentum into 2022, as they won their first two games in January. The Falcons beat American Leadership Academy at home 44-38, and then they beat Chino Valley 46-40 on the road. The Falcons were 5-6 at this point, and they had just won their first away game in two years.

Just when things might have taken a turn for the better, the Falcons faced internal issues. Two upperclassmen left the team in January for varying reasons, and the Falcons lost their next eight games. The Falcons only played seven of those games, because they had to forfeit to Blue Ridge due to a lack of eligible players.

The Falcons won one of their final 12 games, and they finished the season 6-17 (2-8). In the end, the Falcons did not qualify for the playoffs, but they don’t define their season by wins and losses.

“At one point in time at the beginning, everybody was scoring,” Soliel said. “Then you get to the middle with harder teams, and one or two people scored. In the end, I’m just trying to be thankful. At least I got to play all these games, and at least I got to play with my sister and Michaela came back, too, so this ending is kind of a good one.”

Soliel led the Falcons in points and assists per game, averaging 10.6 and 2.8 respectively. The Falcons relied on the senior’s experience and leadership in every game, and because she drew more attention from the defense, other players had better opportunities.

CC led the Falcons in steals, rebounds, three-point shooting and free throw shooting percentages, and she was second in points with 9.3 per game. Kaylee Lewis joined the team late and averaged eight points on 60% shooting, and 6.3 rebounds through three games. Both freshmen made an immediate impact for the Falcons this season, and they will be asked to do the same next year.

Michaela Quintana and Star Camacho will graduate with Soliel this spring, and the Falcons will be a young team next year. Holland will be the only returning upperclassmen, and CC, Lewis and Shania Rivera will all have more responsibility as sophomores. Head coach Amanda Baca believes she will bring over four or five players from her middle school team to the high school next year, and they will be the core of the future.

“[Holland’s] got big shoes to fill with the seniors leaving, but she’s an awesome kid,” Baca said. “She’s already asked about offseason activities and we’re getting her in the weight room. She’s getting the freshmen excited, and I think she’ll be a great leader for the incoming freshmen and returning freshmen.”