Big Park Community School continued its rule of the Verde Valley League, winning its fourth straight girls basketball tournament title, 36-24, over Camp Verde Middle School on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Head coach Kirk Westervelt’s self-titled “Fantastic Four” continued to be unstoppable in their drive to four-peat, holding their first two opponents of the two-day tournament at Beaver Creek School each to single digits.

“I told them, ‘You’re the better team,’” Westervelt said. “‘If you girls play defense like you did the last time, you’ll handle them.’”

That assurance was also motivation, Westervelt added, for his daughter, seventh-grader Mary Westervelt, and eighth-graders Braeden Feldtkeller, Grace Hafner and Audrey Perry as they steamrolled their opponents in the first two rounds — West Sedona and Oak Creek schools — by scores of 52-8 and 28-4, respectively.

“Mary and Braeden are our leading scorers,” Kirk Westervelt said. “Mary had 16 in the
first quarter of the West Sedona game.”

In fact, Westervelt combined for 31 points, Feldtkeller for 25 and Perry for 15 in the two games as Hafner’s physical defense locked down the Wildcats and Roadrunners.

Even in the championship game, Camp Verde Middle School ultimately doubled those first two teams’ combined scoring outputs but still faced a double-digit deficit to the Coyotes by halftime.

For the full story, please see the Friday, Feb. 6, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.