THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: As challenges grew, Rewers learned along the way

Anytime you get to share the basketball court with a pair of two-time state champions, you learn from it.

Lake City High senior Brooklyn Rewers did.

And she might be a lot better for it.

LAST SUMMER, while playing for the Northwest Blazers travel basketball team, Rewers played alongside Trinity Slocum and D’Nia Williams of Mountain View High in Meridian.

Since the club team Slocum and Williams were going to play on ended up not playing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they wound up playing for the Blazers.

“It was great,” said Rewers, a 6-foot-4 post, who has signed with Michigan State. “I only got the chance to play one tournament with them, but it was great to play with those girls. Getting to have that experience, and Trinity is such a great player, having that, it was great to be on their side for once.”

Lake City faced Mountain View in 2019 at home — Rewers’ junior year — falling 55-22. In that game, Slocum had nine points and Rewers finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.

“Trinity's awareness on the court is great,” Rewers said. “She’s a great point guard too. She has great vision and can attack the basket really well and knows what to do at certain times in the game. Even when she’s not scoring all the points, she’s a great facilitator and does a great job of getting someone else a shot.”

Trinity Slocum is the younger sister of Destiny Slocum, who graduated in 2016 from Mountain View and played at Maryland, Oregon State and now Arkansas, which is playing in the NCAA Tournament. Lauren Rewers, Brooklyn’s older sister, is a grad transfer from Hawaii who is playing as a senior at Michigan State, which is also in the NCAAs.

“I remember they played my sister’s team one year in a December tournament (the 2014 Coeur d'Alene Classic),” Rewers said. “I just remember hearing her name and thinking, ‘oh yeah, she’s really good.’ All I really knew about them was that they’re both really good players.”

The Northwest Blazers are coached by Steve Klees.

“He’s got such a good program that’s well known,” Rewers said. “People trust that he’ll be a good coach for them. He’s super easy to get along with, so you’ve got a lot of trust in him.”

Speaking of trust, when Duke contacted Mountain View coach Connie Skogrand about a player, Rewers' name came up as another potential fit.

“When we played, I noticed Brooklyn’s hands and her ability to move for being 6-4,” Skogrand said. “Talking to Division I colleges over the past years, they want a post player who has good hands and play with their backs to the basket. Brooklyn has those two qualities.”

Rewers verbally committed to Duke in May 2020, then de-committed when the Blue Devils went through a coaching changed. Rewers committed to Michigan State in July.

REWERS WAS selected to play in the 18th annual Idaho high school all-star basketball games, which are today at Post Falls High with the girls game starting at 1 p.m. The game, traditionally held at North Idaho College, was moved to Post Falls this year to allow for more spectators. The boys game will follow at 3:30.

“I’m going into the game with an open mindset,” Rewers said. “I definitely want to go out and have fun. I’m just happy to play again and hated the way that the season ended. So I’m happy to get to play one last time in a high school game.”

Rewers will be playing on the Region team. Slocum and Williams are also in the game, on the Metro (Boise area) roster.

Lake City finished 14-7 this season, and fell short of the state 5A tournament for a second straight year.

Rewers added the pressure of going to Michigan State didn’t faze her on the court.

“I didn’t want going to Michigan State to get in the way of how I played,” Rewers said. “I got better with driving to the basket, shooting 3s and shooting from the mid-range. But I really stuck to my post game. Maybe the way people viewed me was different because they thought, ‘she’s going to Michigan State, so let’s make it hard for her.’ But I don’t think it fazed me too much, and if it did, I just looked at it as a rough game.”

Even as teams tried to limit her production in the post by double-teaming her.

“Teams definitely played us differently,” said fourth-year Lake City coach James Anderson. “I think she impacted opposing teams' game plans more than any kid in the state. Brooklyn handled that really well. I think she was even ahead of the curve because she put so much work in to expand her game and find new ways to score.”

That included working on her outside game with her father, Brian, who played at Wyoming and professionally overseas for 11 years.

“My dad told me that going into college nowadays, it’s not just about posts and guards, and if you’re tall, you’re just stuck in the post,” Rewers said. “Now, anyone can shoot 3s and it doesn’t matter your height. Going from my freshman to sophomore and junior seasons, he definitely made an emphasis on working on developing my shot and working on attacking the basket. By my senior year, I was definitely more confident in everything.”

“We were able to use her very differently from one year to the next because she became so skilled on the perimeter,” Anderson said. “She did a good job of expanding her skills as a facilitator and perimeter scorer.”

As well as off the court.

“In addition to becoming really skilled on the perimeter, I thought she became more of a true leader in our program from her junior to senior year,” Anderson said. “She learned to control what she could control and stay positive from there. So many of our second-half rallies this year had to do with her leadership at halftime in the locker room and on the floor helping others stay aggressive and confident.”

“He had a lot of trust in me,” Rewers said of Anderson. “Knowing where I’m going next year, he wanted me to have that leadership experience going into next year.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.