Brian Sumpter — Record-Bee sports editor
UPPER LAKE — Katherine Edmonds didn”t accomplish everything she set out to do her senior year at Upper Lake High School, but it certainly wasn”t for a lack of effort.
Edmonds, known to her teammates and coaches as “Kat,” played three sports for the Cougars during the 2011-12 high school sports season and was rewarded with All-North Central League II first-team honors in all three. The 18-year-old, who is headed to Mendocino College, is the Lake County Record-Bee Athlete of the Year for girls” sports.
Of all the talented Lake County athletes — boy and girl — who participated in athletics during the recently completed sports season, exactly one — Edmonds — garnered a trifecta of All-League first-team honors.
About the only thing that got away from Edmonds during her senior season was a MVP award.
“I wanted to be MVP of basketball,” said Edmonds, who finished her three-year varsity career with 946 points on the hardwood, including 430 during a senior season when she led Lake County girls in scoring at 16.5 points a game.
Under the leadership of first-year coach Mike Smith, the Cougars turned in a competitive 12-14 campaign — the best during Edmonds” three years on the varsity — including a 5-9 mark in the competitive NCL II. They reached the Division V playoffs as an at-large team, losing to Roseland Prep in the opening round.
Edmonds was a near-automatic double-double for the Cougars as she also averaged in double digits in rebounds. Despite being double- and sometimes triple-teamed by the opposition, she found a way to make it happen for Upper Lake.
“Basketball was probably my best sport,” Edmonds said. “Mike Smith sent in a highlight video (to Mendocino College) and we (Edmonds and Mendocino women”s basketball coach Jody Steliga) started talking.”
Edmonds and Steliga hit it off, resulting in Kat”s decision to sign a letter of intent to play basketball for the Eagles in the upcoming 2012-13 season.
“Mike”s a great coach and he did everything he could to help everybody on the team,” Edmonds said. “He used to tell the other players, ”Kat is the great white shark, keep feeding her the ball.””
Without a consistent second scorer on the team, Edmonds said she was constantly the prime target of the other team”s defense.
“I guess it”s flattering when teams do that because it means you”re a good player, but it can also be frustrating,” said Edmonds, who received her fair share of elbows — and bruises — during the season. “I didn”t mind because I would give it right back to them.”
Upper Lake also reached the sectional playoffs in volleyball thanks in large part to Edmonds” play at middle/outside hitter, where she led the team with 178 kills. Unfortunately for her, she had to sit out the playoffs for medical reasons, which wasn”t easy for a top-notch athlete who otherwise enjoyed great health during her high school career.
“Yeah, I missed two weeks and I had to sit out our last game,” Edmonds said. “It was so hard. We definitely could have beaten them (Marin Academy) if I had played.”
If the end of the volleyball season was the worst moment of Edmonds” senior year because of her inability to compete in the postseason, a basketball game against Round Valley on the final day of the round-robin Lady Cougar Classic in early December of 2011 was the best moment.
Trailing a good Round Valley team 45-22 after three quarters, Edmonds scored 20 of her 38 points (a season and career high) in the final period to rally the Cougars to a 56-52 victory.
“We were losing and we were all tired because we didn”t have many players, but they (Warriors) didn”t have many either,” Edmonds said. “We were pressing them on defense and our two guards Kelsey (Pearl) and Shayla (Wyman) kept stealing the ball and passing it to me.”
Edmonds” senior season ended with softball although she almost went out for the track team instead.
“My mom (Tara) is an assistant (softball) coach and she told me they really needed me,” Edmonds said.
Splitting time between the mound and infield, Edmonds banged out 27 hits and drove in 24 runs for an Upper Lake team that played only 13 games, going 6-7, including a 3-5 mark in the NCL II.
“I just wish some of my teammates had taken it a little more seriously,” Edmonds said of her time on the softball field. “I spent 2 1/2 hours a day putting in the time (at practice). I wasn”t out there to goof around.”
Between playing three sports and attended classes at Upper Lake where her GPA ranged between 3.2 and 3.7 during her four years there, Edmonds said there really wasn”t much free time for her to do much of anything else.
“You”re practicing or playing sports five days a week and sometimes six,” Edmonds said. “On Sunday it was nice to rest, relax and do homework.”
Finding it hard to finish her homework on the bus or van ride home from games on weeknights, as many of her teammates did, Edmonds pulled many a late-nighter to keep up with class work and assignments.
“I”m the type of person who can”t concentrate with a lot of people around,” Edmonds said. “I would often get home from (a game), take a cold shower to wake up and do my homework.”
Edmonds said she hasn”t decided on what her major will be in college but that she would like to do something that keeps her close to sports. She”s already enrolled for 13.5 units in the fall semester at Mendocino, and that number could go up before classes begin.
“I still have to add an English class,” she said.
Edmonds will commute back and forth from Lake County to Ukiah when classes begin, driving a Honda Accord that features a message to Los Angeles Lakers” star guard Kobe Bryant on the back window.
“Kobe is my guy,” Edmonds said. “I tell everyone I”m going to marry him one day.”
Edmonds has a sister, Shannon, 28, who lives in Stockton and a brother, Charles, 15, who will be a sophomore this coming school year at Upper Lake.
