Hemingford’s Shelby Campbell, Scottsbluff’s Madison Keller and Mullen’s Taylor Puttergill never played together or against each other on a team in high school. Saturday night, the three will change all that as the Panhandle Prep All-star basketball game will take center stage at Western Nebraska Community College. The girl’s game tips off at 5:30 p.m. with the boy’s game to follow.
The three all-stars will also be playing on the floor that they will call home next fall when they enroll at Western Nebraska Community College and become a part of the Cougar women’s basketball program. The three, however, are not teammates in the all-star classic. Campbell and Keller are members of the Gold team, while Puttergill is a member of the Blue team.
The all-star classic will be a chance for them to get ready for the college season and see a little bit about their upcoming teammates.
“I am very excited to be playing in this game and I think it will be an experiment, a lesson, and a good learning experience [for next year],” Campbell , who scored over 1,100 points for the Bobcats, said. “It is sad knowing this is it for my high school career, but I know I will be playing throughout college. It is just like when one chapter closes, one more opens. I will be sad, but I will carry on from it.”
Puttergill, a 5-10 wing player, is excited that she gets the chance to play in this all-star classic.
“I was really excited that they invited me to come,” Puttergill, who averaged 19.3 points and finished with 1,137 career points, said. “This is a good experience especially with the different classes here combined. It will be a good experience for all of us.”
Keller, unlike Campbell and Puttergill who haven’t played at Cougar Palace before, is ready
“I am ready to play in the game and it will be fun,” the Scottsbluff graduate said. “It is the last chance to play with the high school girls and some of my friends.”
The teams should be pretty balanced. The Gold team, what they lack in height, make up for with speed and tenacity on defense.
“We have pretty good talent,” Keller said. “We have some good shooters and we are pretty fast and we are athletic. We are little short, though.”
The other think Keller needs to worry about Is going against her former teammate DaNae Quijas, who is a member of the Blue squad.
“That is going to be the hardest part because we get after each other on the court,” she said. “But we will see what happens. I know her strengths and weaknesses. She also knows mine, so there are drawbacks.”
Campbell said height doesn’t matter in an all-star game, it is the heart and the drive that counts the most.
“We are short, but that is OK. We are up tempo. We have a couple of tall girls that know how to post up,” she said. “I have a wonderful group of girls to work with, and it seems like we will have an awesome team. I think it will be great and a fun time.”
Puttergill’s all-star team will definitely have the height advantage five girls 5-10 or taller, including Chadron’s 6-4 Kelsie Lliteras, who is headed to North Carolina State next year, and 6-1 Alyssa Norton, who will do volleyball and track at Chadron State.
“We definitely have quite a bit of height and they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t an all-star,” she said. “I think everybody has pretty good talent. We will all put it together and I think it will be a good game.”
Puttergill loves basketball so much that she is actually giving up her second love this weekend, rodeo.
“I am actually missing a rodeo for the Panhandle Prep all-star game,” she said. “I like rodeo, too, but basketball is my first love and I will choose it over Rodeo.”
After the game, the three will then have a couple months off before heading back to WNCC to begin their college careers for the Cougars. All three are excited for that chapter in their life. Keller said that she can’t wait to begin those college workouts.
“I won’t really have any time off,” she said, because I have to work out for the Cougar team.”
The other two are also excited to be playing for the Cougars.
“I chose WNCC because they have a really good basketball program and Coach [Dave] Harnish has a reputation that speaks for himself,” Puttergill said. “I am pumped up to play for WNCC and Harnish. I don’t have words for it. I am just pretty lucky.”
Campbell is also pumped to putting on the blue and gold of the Cougars for the next two years.
“It has always been my dream since I was a seventh-grader to play here [on Cougar Palace],” Campbell, the 5-4 four-year starter at Hemingford, said. “I never got to fulfill my dream in that in high school, so this all-star game is the first time playing on this court.”
For Campbell, her decision to come to WNCC was a pretty easy one.
“I actually decided to come to WNCC because it has a good basketball program and it is far enough to be close to home, if that makes any sense,” she said. “It is also a good place to start, a good foundation and the coaching is really good. All together it is a really good school.”
Campbell realizes that it won’t be easy, but she has the work ethic to succeed. Her long-term goal next year is to finish her career at WNCC the same way she finished her high school career, scoring over 1,000 career points.
“I would love to do that at the college level,” she said. “It is just doing it that will count. I just have to work double hard because the college level is a lot different and more up tempo. I am just very excited to become a Cougar and get a feel of the court this weekend. This is going to be my future home. I am going to give it my all [today] and just give an insight of what will be happening [for the next two years].”
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