SLO County girls basketball player of year, all-stars named. Here’s who made the list
Makennah Simonson can do it all on the basketball court.
Nipomo High School’s junior point guard averaged 15 points, five rebounds, five steals and three assists per game to lead the Titans to a 22-8 record and a second-place finish at 8-2 in the Mountain League.
Simonson, 17, played lockdown defense to earn Mountain League Defensive Player of the Year and racked up accolades.
She stood out to coaches, in her highlight reel and her statistics among a talented group of Tribune all-stars.
Simonson is The Tribune’s high school girls basketball player of the year.
“She’s extremely well-rounded as a player, always on the attack,” Nipomo Coach Chris Litvinchuk said. “She’s always aggressive and strong with the ball. She looks to push in transition.”
“Makennah is very versatile going left, going right and she can finish with either hand,” her coach added. “And for a guard, she gets to the rim quite a bit. She’s very talented.”
Her other honors included Most Valuable Player of the Tulare Mid-Winter Showcase Tournament and All-Tournament honors in the SLO High Holiday Classic and Tournament of Champions in Santa Barbara.
Simonson frequently was assigned to guard a team’s best player and didn’t disappoint, her coach said.
“As a team, we had so much fun because we had so much chemistry this year,” Simonson said. “And we had fun whatever we did. In practices, we were laughing but also took it seriously. Personally, it was my first time back after a year off (due to a concussion injury), so it was great for me. The game makes me happy.”
Leading Nipomo High School girls basketball team to victory
Simonson, who’s 5-foot-7, describes her style of play as quick, looking for transition buckets, while also keeping her head up to pass to teammates as the point guard.
Simonson has showcased nifty dribbling, long-range sharp-shooting and driving layup finishes with both hands, and good vision in her passing — not to mention her defensive presence and ability to swat balls.
“I like to capitalize on any opportunities and push the ball,” Simonson said. “I like to create opportunities for my teammates. I like to be very unselfish with my play.”
Nipomo’s 22 wins during the 2021-2022 season was the most in school history, Litvinchuk said.
The team won a California Interscholastic Federation-Central Section Division 2 championship over Paso Robles in the 2020-2021 season. Nipomo went to CIF state regional playoffs for the second straight year this season, but didn’t take home the section title.
“These back-to-back seasons have been two of the most successful or decorated seasons in school history,” Litvinchuk said.
Simonson and Kacie Slover, a 5-foot-8 small forward, provided a formidable one-two punch as the Titans’ top players.
Slover, a senior, eclipsed 1,000 points this season in her high school basketball career and averaged 12 points, six rebounds and two steals this past season.
“Kacie always pushes me to be better and is very competitive up there with me and I love playing her,” Simonson said. “She’s a great teammate. We have good chemistry on the court.”
Nipomo’s big wins during the season included topping much bigger San Luis Obispo County schools in Arroyo Grande and Paso Robles, as well as a 48-25 win over Morro Bay, one of the county’s better teams this season at 17-8, 11-1 in league.
“That comes back to the chemistry,” Simonson said. “We all got along and knew how to reach each other on the court.”
Also, with a 4.0 grade point average, Simonson’s standards in the classroom equal her high bar on the court.
Nipomo ran into tough opponents in playoffs, earning a berth in the prestigious Open Division playoff bracket, facing the top teams in the area such as No. 1 Clovis West (25-3) in CIF-Central Section action.
The Titans ended up falling 68-18, while dropping their next playoff games to St. Joseph (undefeated in Mountain League) 59-36 and Sage Hill 52-41 to wrap up their season.
But just to get a Open Division berth, selected even from the talent pool of the Division 1 teams, and a state regional was an honor, Litvinchuk said.
“It’s nice to have put us on the map a little bit,” Simonson said in term of team success. “We are a small school. Not a lot of people know about us. These past couple of years have helped widen the ‘know’ of Nipomo.”
SLO County player has competitive edge
Simonson’s older sisters — Shantille, now 19, and Clarissa, 18 — played at Nipomo on varsity all four years, and her younger sister Isabella “Bella” Simonson, 15, is a current varsity teammate.
“A lot of backyard practices and games went on,” Makennah Simonson, 17, said of her older sisters. “And they taught me to enjoy the game, but also it was competitive for sure.”
She hopes to play in college, and currently plays on the Cal Sparks Platinum AAU team based out of Fresno that travels to play against top talent, even out of state to Texas and Indiana.
“I would love to continue to play basketball in college because of my passion for it and that’s something that I definitely would like to pursue,” Simonson said.
She credited Litvinchuk for pushes her to be the best that she can be, along with the rest of the team. “He has a love for the game, which makes us want to do better for him,” she said.
Here are all of the selections for this year’s Tribune all-stars.
Tribune SLO County Player of Year
Makennah Simonson — Nipomo
All-Tribune SLO County First team
Kacie Slover — Nipomo
Emily Horzen —Mission Prep
Jade McRae — Morro Bay
Emma Boehm — Mission Prep
Carys Villani — SLO
All-Tribune SLO County Second Team
Jhade LaPaz — AG
Jacey Loewen — Paso Robles
Sophie Graves -- Morro Bay
Allyson Cramer — Nipomo
Ashlyn Janzen — Templeton
Honorable mention
Kristielyn Biado — Morro Bay
Lillie Parish — Mission Prep
Honnalee Kennedy — Nipomo
Magic Woodbury — Morro Bay
Mary Marsalek — Mission Prep
Leah Miller — Nipomo
Elise Happel — Coast Union
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 11:42 AM.
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