For Baylee Pruitt, St. Regis High School senior, dribbling a basketball came not long after learning to walk.

"I’ve always had a basketball in my hands since I was really little," Pruitt said.

Pruitt, who has loved the game all her life, is overjoyed to be continuing her basketball career at the University of Providence in Great Falls next year, where she will take the floor as an Argonaut. But long before high school games and visits to potential colleges, Pruitt has been around basketball all her life.

"Even before I was in school I would go with my mom to practices, because she was one of the coaches, and I would just be around to dribble or learn. Then when I got into kindergarten I started doing Tiger Cubs."

Then in fifth grade she started doing competitive junior high sports. Before even making to the high school playing level Pruitt suffered a serious injury.

She recalled, "I tore my ACL twice. The first time was in the fourth game my eighth grade year where I fully blew out my ACL, and the second time was in my first game of my sophomore year where I tore my ACL and part of my meniscus."

These setbacks not only took her out of the game each season, it was even more an emotional hardship. Pruitt said, "It affected my mental health very poorly, but luckily I had a very loving family and caring teammates that helped me get better and kept playing basketball."

Looking toward the future of her final season as a Tiger, Pruitt ha been busy this past year deciding on where to attend school.

She shared, "I did have some goals of going to some other big schools so that I could get a really good education but then I went and visited the team and school at University of Providence and really liked it."

After meeting with the head coach and several of the players Pruitt knew this was the school for her. She added, "I really liked the atmosphere. Besides the sports part, the school was a perfect environment for me because the class sizes were small and they had many opportunities for me to pursue my interest in forensic science and medicine."

Overall, Pruitt noted that she feels excited, relieved, and a bit nervous about next year. But she expressed, "I am mostly excited though. I have always wished I could play college basketball somewhere and the fact that I am actually able to makes me super happy. I can’t wait to be able to play at the next level and I’m excited to still be able to show my basketball skills."

As practice starts up soon for her final year at St. Regis, she admitted, "There is a lot more pressure now because there are more eyes one me."

But as Pruitt has handled everything else in her basketball career, with grit and determination, she'll face her last season the same way.