From the day she first picked up a basketball in the driveway to catching it in the paint at The Arena in Post Falls, Melody Kempton has given everything she had to get better.

Not just in basketball, but also in the classroom.

And that also includes in 4-H, where she raises pigs in what free time she has.

“One of my really good friends does 4-H and wanted me to try it as well,” Kempton said. “My boyfriend used to be in 4-H also, and I was always at his house helping him with his pigs anyway. He’d sell them at the fair, but I wasn’t getting any money at the end. I started doing it on my own, and it’s a lot of fun and a really good experience to raise your own animal. It really shows if you put a lot of work into something just what you can get out of it. It’s really amazing.”

Kempton, a 6-foot senior standout on the Post Falls High girls basketball team, and a Gonzaga signee, isn’t really sure when she first picked up a basketball.

“I was maybe in the first grade, but my dad (Darrell) got me a basketball hoop for little kids that was plastic,” Kempton said. “I’d go outside and shoot on the little hoop and he’d shoot on the big hoop in the driveway. I’d try to practice dribbling, and I wasn’t very good at it. I just kept throwing the ball around.”

Eventually, the four-year varsity starter got better, joining the North Idaho Elite AAU girls basketball program.

“My best friend (Nina Carlson, who played at Lake City High, and is now a freshman on the University of Idaho basketball team) was on the team,” Kempton said. “It was such a great team.

We played Hoop Dreams from southern Idaho that had Destiny Slocum (the Mountain View of Meridian product who played at Maryland before transferring to Oregon State) on it. They had a lot of really good posts on the team. We weren’t supposed to win, but went out and played our best.”

Kempton remembers the game — played in July of 2015 — the summer after her freshman year — for a few different reasons though.

“The entire bleachers were filled with college coaches — just packed — bleacher to bleacher,” Kempton said. “I’ve never seen that many coaches in a gym to see a game. We worked so well, worked our butts off, and won that game by three points at the end. We won that game completely off hustle alone. If they matched everyone up, position by position, they were supposed to win. We just worked harder and won the game and I remember how cool it was to win that game in front of that many coaches.”

“Melody is one of the best all-around athletes I’ve ever coached,” said North Idaho College women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson, who also coached Kempton with the North Idaho Elite team. “She’s an extraordinary athlete and competitor. I’ve seen her do some things on the court that are just incredible. The thing I always laugh about is she’s maybe 5-11, but when she gets the ball on the block, her arms are so long, she’d just turn on them and go right to the basket and it was just amazing.”

HER LOVE of the game of basketball began with those days in the driveway.

“It started with my dad,” Kempton said. “I’ve always liked the sport and just love how all the girls on the team have the same goal to win and how competitive it is. There’s just so much heart in the game of basketball and so much you can do.”

That being said, Kempton doesn’t like finishing second.

“I’m a very competitive person,” Kempton said. “I don’t like losing. At all. I don’t like the fact that if someone beats me, they can say they beat me. I don’t want to lose. Ever. And that really motivates me.”

Kempton, named the 5A Inland Empire League Player of the Year each of her first three seasons at Post Falls, verbally committed to Gonzaga just prior to her junior season, and signed her letter of intent with the West Coast Conference school last month.

“I’ve always loved Gonzaga,” Kempton said. “Ever since I was little, my dad would take my mom and I to the games.”

Kempton caught the eye of the program during a summer AAU tournament a few years back.

“They saw me playing a few years ago and started contacting me,” Kempton said. “I’ve always liked the school and respected what they’ve done.”

At first, she caught the eye of then-Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves, who is now in his fourth year at Oregon. But it has been current coach Lisa Fortier, then a Gonzaga assistant, who has been on Kempton’s trail the entire time.

“During the first few years, I didn’t have a lot of communication with her (Fortier),” Kempton said. “But since I’ve signed, we text each other all the time and after the games, we’ll talk about what went well and things I need to work on. It’s really great to have that kind of communication with her right now.”

Fortier recalled her first time watching Kempton play in a game.

“They’ve been coming to our camp for a while, but the first time I had seen her play was her freshman year against Moses Lake,” Fortier said. “We were recruiting another player from Moses Lake, Jessie Loera, at the time, but I remember watching her and she was always on her toes. You could tell with her motor, you knew she could rebound. She comes to a lot of our games. She’s a great for us both basketball and student wise. As a coach, you’re always happy when it happens in your own backyard.”

And about that local scene of players?

“There’s a lot of people that want to be Gonzaga players, and we get that a lot,” Fortier said. “But we’ve had some great players stay home and those are usually the ones that really want to be a Zag. She’s talented enough, but you want people to be here and want it to matter to them. Right after she committed, we ran into her at a club tournament and the entire family was decked out in Gonzaga gear, so you know it matters to her.”

Fortier added that Kempton will likely play at forward upon arriving on campus.

“She’s got a lot of potential,” Fortier said. “We’re going to have her at the stretch 4 and she’ll be a drive player for us. I think Mel is a better driver than a shooter and kind of a prototype, but is going to be a mismatch player. We’ve got good guards that love to pass it and she’s got an ability to get to the basket. We’re really looking forward to watching her continue to develop and see her again in the fall.”

Kempton narrowed her college choices down to Washington, Washington State and Gonzaga.

“Washington State and Gonzaga were my big two,” Kempton said. “Washington was also up there, as were a lot of schools in California. But I wanted to stay closer to my little brother. My parents just had another child that is just a few months old, so that really changed my decision. I wanted to stay closer to home and be a part of his life and watch him grow up. I’ve got another brother that’s 7, and I really wanted to stay close to him as well. Gonzaga’s academics and athletics are amazing.”

In preparation for the next level, Post Falls coach Marc Allert has moved Kempton into different roles on the court in order to prepare her for her college experience, not just playing her at center.

“This year, we’ve made a conscious effort to move her around a little more and not just put her down in the post,” Allert said. “We’re trying to make it a little tougher for people to guard her. Not necessarily hide her, but put her in different spots and they can’t figure out where to find her. We have her playing more flashing to the post and playing outside the post a little more, what she’ll be doing more when she gets to college.”

“Coach Allert has taught me so much,” Kempton said. “He’s found a way to push me in different ways in games and shows me a way to get better. He’s challenged me and it’s made me a better player. It’s a quality that he has where he can see what everyone is good at and can push them to be better. And he’s pushed me to get better each day.”

And that’s something that Allert has noticed in Kempton’s four years on the varsity team.

“She’s gotten a lot stronger,” Allert said. “As a freshman, she got pushed around a lot. She’s always been athletic and played with a lot of energy. Now, she doesn’t get pushed around a lot and she can go in and get around people and be more physical.”

KEMPTON HAS averaged 15 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and three steals a game throughout her career at Post Falls High, and is approaching the school’s scoring record held by Katelyn Loper with 1,377 points. Kempton is 31 points from breaking that mark.

“She has done this without playing in over 20 fourth quarters due to running clock in blowout games in her four years,” Allert said. “She is a player who could easily average 20-25 points a game if that was what she was about. However, she is the ultimate team player and always puts the team first — one of the reasons for winning so many games in her career. Never once has she ever complained about not getting enough shots. She does a great job of making those around her better.

“For all the things she can do offensively, I think her biggest contribution is on defense. She can guard any position and is a great help side defender. She makes up for a lot of other people’s mistakes by rotating and blocking or intimidating shots. Some of her best plays are coming from nowhere to block a shot.”

Aubree Johnson, who went on to play at Arizona State, holds the career wins record at Post Falls with 81 in her time from 1999-2003.

Kempton, as well as teammate Bayley Brennan, a senior point guard, could finish as high as 78 depending on the outcome of three remaining regular season games, as well as at least six in the postseason.

Post Falls is 16-2 entering Thursday’s home game with Mt. Spokane, and can wrap up the 5A Inland Empire League title on Friday at Lake City.

“We’ve got great team chemistry this year,” Allert said. “Everyone gets along and is positive, and it kind of starts with Melody. She’s kind of in a leadership role with her and Bayley. Mel’s real positive about things. Sometimes I want them to get on someone about how they’re doing things. Mel can do it in a positive way and is more tactful than I am sometimes.”

In track and field, Kempton will attempt to win a fourth straight state 5A high jump title this spring.

Allert also coaches jumps at Post Falls High.

“Of course I wanted her to pursue track and field in college,” Allert said. “She’s made me look good in two different sports.”

So, any interest in competing in track and field while at Gonzaga?

“I’m trying to get into a medical, or at least a nursing program,” Kempton said. “So trying to do that would be way too much for me.”

“As good as she is as a basketball player, she’s a great student,” Allert said. “The best thing about her is that she’s just an awesome person. Anyone in the world would want to have a daughter like her. She just does the right things and makes the right choices. She’s pretty humble for all the attention that she gets. She’s just an awesome, awesome kid.”