MVP Kittle repeats

After averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds a game during a stellar junior season, Colusa High's Katie Kittle had her work cut out for her entering her senior year.

The book was out and every team the Redskins faced knew they had to contain the high-scoring forward in order to win.

But despite having everything stacked against her, Kittle outdid herself in 2007-08 by averaging 28.3 points and 12.7 rebounds per game to lead Colusa to its second straight Sacramento Valley League North championship.

Her spectacular play on the court earned her the Appeal-Democrat's Most Valuable Player on the All-Area girls basketball team for the second consecutive year.

"I cannot imagine what our season would have been like without her," Colusa coach Dak Kalisuch said of Kittle, who was second in the state in scoring behind Fairfield High's Paris Gravely's 29.1. "She is a team leader and an unselfish player. Every single night we knew what we were going to get. She made everyone on the floor better, and you can't say that about a lot of players."

Although she put up impressive numbers, what made Kittle's season so special was the amount of work she had to put in to fill up the stat sheet. Often having to fight through double and triple teams to get a good look at the basket, Kittle had to work hard for her points each night.

"It was frustrating. Working for every point was very hard," Kittle said. "You know what the other team's plan was and I had to get around it. Having the pressure to score that much was hard, but I like the pressure."

For her coach, it was Kittle's hard work and dedication in the offseason that set her apart.

"She averaged 16 points as a sophomore and 22 as a junior and I thought, 'How is she going to go up?'" Kalisuch said. "But she got better in every aspect of the game."

Already a high scorer, the 5-foot-9 Kittle credited much of her improvement to Sean Chambers, who coached her as part of an AAU team over the summer.

"I played on a summer team in Sacramento and traveled around the state playing in tournaments," said Kittle, who will attend Westmont College in Santa Barbara next fall. "I learned a lot over the summer and my shot got a lot better."

Coach of the year honors went to Gridley High's Michelle Spallino, who guided the Bulldogs to a 23-2 record and to the Butte View League championship.

After dropping their first game of the season, Spallino and the Bulldogs rattled off 23 straight wins to earn the No. 1 seed in the Northern Section Div. IV playoffs.

Although an overtime loss to Yreka in the section semifinals ended their season, Spallino was pleased.

"When you look back at the season, we can be anything but sad," Spallino said. "Our goal was to enter league with a .500 record. We didn't expect to win 23 games in a row."

After setting the modest goal of winning half of their nonleague games, Spallino realized she had something special during Christmas break. The Bulldogs won their own Lady Bulldog Holiday Classic and followed that up by capturing a tournament in Durham the following weekend, both against tough competition.

Of course, Spallino knows that without the players none of it would have been possible.

"I had a great group of girls," Spallino said. "I coached them since they were freshman and besides being a nice, humble group of girls, they were very talented, too."

FIRST TEAM ALL-AREA

Shannon Cassidy, senior, Yuba City: The 5-foot-8 point guard led the Honkers to their second consecutive league title by averaging 7.0 points and 5.3 assists per game. The Honkers' team MVP was also an all-Tri County Conference performer for the second straight year.

Amarpreet Everest, senior, Yuba City: The TCC co-MVP averaged 8.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 steals per contest as well as guarding the opposition's leading scorer each night for the Honkers.

Sarah Nichols, senior, Gridley: A terrific all-around player, the 5-foot-10 forward averaged 10.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 5.0 steals and 2.3 blocks per game.

Aida Vance, senior, Gridley: The 5-foot-11 forward controlled the paint for the BVL champs, leading the Bulldogs in scoring (17.6 ppg), rebounding (12.5 rpg) and blocks (2.6 bpg).

Julia Virgen, senior, Williams: The senior center/forward led the Yellowjackets in scoring with 17.6 points per game and her 16.6 rebounds per game were tops in the Mid-Valley area.

For a complete listing of the All-Area team, turn to Scoreboard on page B2.

Contact Andy Arrenquin at 743-0512 or at aarrenquin@appeal-democrat.com.