When Kisa Unruh arrived for her freshman basketball season at Dodge City High School, she and her classmates/teammates had high hopes for success.
After all, they had been playing basketball together since elementary school days.
But success was elusive for Unruh and her Red Demon team. They posted an 11-11 season record and a 4-4 Western Athletic Conference mark that year.
Fast forward to the 2020-21 season just recently completed, and it was a season for the memory book as Unruh and Dodge City went 21-2, finished a perfect 8-0 in the WAC, and advanced to the final four teams of Class 6A before falling to eventual state runner-up Topeka High in the semifinals.
During her final campaign, Unruh passed the 1,000-point career scoring mark and was rewarded with being voted WAC Girls Player of the Year by the league’s coaches.
“I was very shocked when coach (Kelley Snodgrass) told me,” Unruh, a 5-8 senior guard, said in a telephone interview. “It could have been a couple of other teammates because I don’t think any one player stood out from the others. But it feels good to be recognized for the hard work.”
It seems as though the recent season was just waiting to happen after struggling in her and her team’s earlier seasons. Her sophomore season, the Red Demons struggled to an 8-13 record and 3-5 in the WAC before pulling themselves up and improving to 17-5 and 6-2 in her junior campaign.
“Liberal had won it (league title) the past three years, so it was finally nice to be able to beat them and win the WAC,” Unruh said. “They’ve been really good, and for us to beat them three times this year was very gratifying.”
Posting a perfect record in this year’s WAC race was like icing on the cake, she said.
“When we first started practice, we didn’t even know if we’d get the season (due to COVID-19 pandemic),” Unruh said. “Then we got the chance and we really came together and had a great season.”
Unruh scored a career best 311 points in her final season (13.5 ppg avg.) and finished her 4-year career with 1,098 points. She cleared the 1,000-point level when rival Garden City came to town and that accomplishment was celebrated by her team afterward.
“I was amazed at what my teammates had planned,” Unruh said. “They had this big poster and the school had a nice ceremony for me. The coolest part, though, was I scored the basket that put me over 1,000 points on an assist from my sister (sophomore Becca). I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better.”
Once through the regular season, the Red Demons won both games of sub-state to reach the quarterfinals of the state tournament, and with a new format in place, hosted Derby, a traditional powerhouse in 6A, and thumped the Panthers, 55-30, to reach the final four in Wichita.
“Getting to Wichita and playing in the big (Koch) arena was really something special,” Unruh said. “We progressed a lot and beat them pretty soundly. I think it shocked a lot of people around the state. It was just a lot of fun to compete.”
Unruh will leave her high school playing days owning six school records: Career Points (1098), career field goals (349), career 3-point field goals (189), career free throws (211), season free throw percentage (85.3 percent, 2020), and most 3-point baskets in a game (8). Her career-high scoring was 32. Her career-best game totals included field goals (11), free throws (9), rebounds (11), assists (7), steals (6) and blocks (4).
In many ways, the maturing of Unruh and overall expansion of her playing skills and development mirrored the improvement of her team.
“I think I started to drive the ball to the basket more,” Unruh said of the evolution of her game. “I used to just stand out there and shoot and the changes I’ve made I think have made it more difficult to guard me. I still have things to work on to get better, but I can create a little more space between me and someone guarding me now.”
Both defensively, and offensively, Unruh said she sees the court better now than when she was younger.
“I think I’m seeing ahead of the play more,” she said. “I can anticipate better what is going to happen. My freshman year I wasn’t the best at guarding.”
While she indicated her playing days are not quite over, she is unsure as to where she will go play in college. That decision, she said, would likely be made after making a couple of campus visits in the new few weeks.
She hopes to become a dental hygienist and depending on where she goes to play basketball, she will eventually find her way to Wichita State University for their dental hygienist program.
Unruh was the only repeat first-team selection from 2020. Teammate Camree Johnson, a second team pick in 2020, also made the first team as did Garden City’s Amaya Gallegos and Keyhana Turner, a pair of second teamers last year. Liberal junior Ashley Carrillo rounded out the top 5.
The second team was comprised of juniors Bree Horyna of Liberal and Amaya Perez of Dodge City, and seniors Aubrey Warden of Liberal, Lauren Gleason of Dodge City and Sydney Unruh of Great Bend.
Dodge City Coach Kelley Snodgrass was voted WAC Coach of the Year.
2021 Girls Basketball All-WAC Teams
First Team
| Player | Year | School |
| Kisa Unruh | 12 | Dodge City |
| Ashley Carrillo | 11 | Liberal |
| Camree Johnson | 11 | Dodge City |
| Amaya Gallegos | 10 | Garden City |
| Keyhana Turner | 12 | Garden City |
Coach of the Year: Kelley Snodgrass
Second Team
| Player | Year | School |
| Bree Horyna | 11 | Liberal |
| Aubrey Warden | 12 | Liberal |
| Lauren Gleason | 12 | Dodge City |
| Amaya Perez | 11 | Dodge City |
| Sydney Unruh | 12 | Great Bend |
