Pickford: A love for the game, and all those around her

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

It’s not much of a secret that Lake City High senior guard Kendall Pickford loves basketball.

The game has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.

But you can also argue that the guard loves her teammates, maybe just a little more.

“We knew our team was going to be a good team this year,” Pickford said. “A lot of the younger kids play on the same AAU team with my younger sister (Kamryn), so I grew up playing with them and going to practices with them. I knew this team was going to be special. There’s a lot of them that stay late to work on things, get shots up, and work on their game. I knew after seeing this that this team was going to be a special one.”

Kendall Pickford, a 5-foot-9 point guard, is the lone senior on a Lake City team that is 20-3 so far this season heading into its state 5A tournament opener on Thursday against Rocky Mountain High of Meridian starting at 11 a.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

“Being the only senior, honestly, it’s made some of the other players step up,” Pickford said. “It’s been really cool to see them grow up this year. Last night (in the 5A Region 1 title game against Coeur d’Alene on Feb. 8), both Allie Bowman and Avery Waddington had huge games for us. Just seeing them grow this year has just been awesome. We’ve had a lot of different girls step up, with multiple high scorers. It’s been a different person each night, which has been nice to see.”

Pickford, as a freshman, was a reserve guard for Lake City in 2019 when the Timberwolves won the consolation title at state.

“A lot of those seniors were good at being a natural leader, so I’ve gained a lot of that from them,” Pickford said. “When I was a freshman, all of those seniors were so nice to me and I looked up to them. I just hope that I’m that person to these girls. Four years later, I get to be that person.”

That year, Lake City lost in the opening round to Eagle, which went on to beat Mountain View of Meridian in the championship game.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Pickford said. “In that first game, we led the majority of the game and then they had this player (Meghan Boyd) that just went off. We just have to go in and play our game and stay composed. Playing in the Idaho Center can be a lot for some players.”

Lake City is back at state this year for the first time since 2019.

“She’s always been a really, really smart player,” Lake City coach James Anderson said. “From Day 1, she’s always been a good decision maker. But I think the biggest place she’s grown is in her leadership and bringing the kids along. We’ve been calling them up instead of calling them out, and just been building them up. Basketball is a brutal game where the fans are close and a lot of confidence struggles are bound to happen during a season. She’s helped a lot of these kids get through those moments and building them up. She’s done a great job of that and leading more than anything.”

Lake City went 3-1 in the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas in December, losing to Spring Valley of Las Vegas in the championship game 48-47. Lake City’s other two losses came against eventual Inland Empire League champion Coeur d’Alene during league play.

“We got to see some really good competition,” Pickford said. “We played against a girl that’s going to USC and a McDonald’s All-American, so it was good to see that kind of speed. The reffing was a lot different and we had to play more of a scrappy game, so getting to play in that kind of competition before league play was big for us.”

As for having such a young team in that moment ...

“We didn’t anticipate doing that well because we didn’t know what the competition was going to be like,” Pickford said. “We knew it was going to be great, but losing in the championship game and losing by one, it was cool for us. We wanted that championship, but it was great competition that helped get us ready for the rest of the season.”

Lake City played in a semifinal game at the Orleans Arena (where the Zags play in the West Coast Conference basketball tournaments), something Pickford thinks will benefit the Timberwolves this week.

“It was super cool,” Pickford said. “It will give our younger players an idea of what to expect when they walk into the Idaho Center. None of them have been in there and played in that big of an arena before.”

Kendall Pickford signed with NAIA Arizona Christian in December to continue her basketball career as a shooting guard. For Pickford, it just felt like home.

“We go there every year for spring break and watch spring training games,” Pickford said. “I just love that area. My sister (Taylor) went to Grand Canyon University for the nursing program and just graduated from there, so we’re going to live together, which is something I really wanted to do. When I went to look at the campus and met with the coaches, it just seemed like a perfect fit for me.”

Pickford also visited Chaminade, an NCAA Division I school in Honolulu.

“I knew what I wanted in a school, in a certain location,” Pickford said. “I just wanted to go somewhere where I can make an impact on the game. I wasn’t super sure about going that far away (to Chaminade), and definitely wanted to live with my sister, so I chose Arizona.”

As a kid, Pickford was a three-sport athlete until opting to focus on basketball.

“Basketball has been my favorite since Day 1,” Pickford said. “But I grew up playing basketball, soccer and softball. I always knew that basketball was my favorite. Around my eighth-grade year, I just stuck with basketball and started working out a lot with my dad and trying to improve my skills with that.”

Her dad, Kevin, was a left-handed pitcher for the San Diego Padres, appearing in 16 games in the 2002 season, and also had stints in the minor leagues in the Pittsburgh and San Francisco farm systems.

“He’s had a big influence on me,” Pickford said. “He’s worked really hard to get where he’s at in life. But he’s never pushed us to go to the gym or work out. I’ve always asked him to help, but it’s been nice that he let me figure that out on my own.”

Her mother, Tambra, was on the Coeur d’Alene School Board for years.

“She’s in the gym sometimes shagging balls or passing the ball to me,” Pickford said. “She’s really good at her pregame pep talks. They’re both really good at positive affirmations and give us little reminders on what we need to do.”

As for sharing the backcourt with her sister ...

“It’s been super cool,” Pickford said. “I grew up playing with her AAU team for fun. To have Pickford passing to Pickford is super cool. She’s knows I’m extra hard on her because she’s my sister. But we’re both really competitive. But it’s been a lot of fun.”

Against Coeur d’Alene on Jan. 21 at Viking Court, Kendall Pickford broke Whitney Meier’s record for 3-pointers in a season (60) from 2016. Pickford now has 70 on the season. Meier, who went on to play at North Idaho College and Eastern Oregon, is in her first year as an assistant coach for Lake City.

“At the beginning of the season, I told her I’m coming for her record,” Pickford said. “I didn’t know I was five away and Anderson told me a few days later he told me I’d broken the record. I’m sure she wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to break it.”

“I’m just so happy that she’s got the chance to finish this thing the right way this year in the sense that she gets to go back to state,” Anderson said. “You could tell she wasn’t going to lose that (regional title game). She just had that look in her eye.”