MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Tribe’s 6th grade Amateur Athletic Union basketball team has qualified for the state competition. Head Coach Tom Howard is happy with the experience his players are getting this season.  

“There’re five on five tournaments, and there's so many tournaments nowadays, a lot of them are state qualifiers, and if you get first or second in your grade division, you qualify for state. We've gotten second twice this year, which is awesome for our girls... and it just gives you confidence,” Howard said.  

Howard and the Tribe first formed when his players were fifth graders. He was seeking more opportunities for local youth athletes to improve on the court year-round. While it was not written down as a goal for the team initially, he was pleased to see them qualify for state competition in November 2024.  

He noted they gained a lot of valuable experience during that time, which they have carried with them since. The Tribe is made up of nine local athletes, which is not as common as other AAU teams who are select-teams.  

A select team can be comprised of players from all over the state, not just the local community the team resides. When the Tribe has played select-teams, they take it as an opportunity to point out where they need to improve to better compete with these teams, Howard said.  

“It's really good for us to play (against) those teams. The whole goal is to try to keep the local group together so they can have success when they get older,” he said. “We're not the tallest, we're not the fastest, but when we play together, starting with defense, play aggressive together and fast and positive, it can be pretty fun.” 

Over the last year, they have competed in a couple of tournaments each month as they worked to get back into the state competition. When tournaments were not as local, they started to travel around the state to find strong competition. Howard was determined to get his players caught up with other AAU teams from around Washington.  

“We've really been going for 12 months, pretty consistently,” Howard said. “There's not a tournament locally and there's not a continuing league, so we really tried to find additional opportunities for the girls to really catch up when they (were) beginning in fifth grade. So that was really the whole goal.” 

Howard’s approach to coaching a competitive and successful team starts with attitude, effort and execution, he said.  

“If you have a really strong attitude and effort, you're going to see the floor... that's kind of the bottom line,” Howard said. “We have to reiterate that a lot, because our girls are competitive and they can be tough on themselves, because they're wanting to grow.” 

An aggressive and disciplined team on both ends of the court is a point of emphasis for Howard and the Tribe. He spends a lot of time hammering those sentiments in practice because he wants to see his players build their confidence as players, he said.  

“The biggest thing at this age level is just having confidence that you can compete with any team, no matter if they're select or not,” he said.  

The state competition is March 13-15 in Spokane. As they spend the next month or so preparing for the tournament, Howard said he confident this team is capable of outperforming last year's appearance.  

While Howard and the Tribe would be elated to win a state competition, their ultimate goal is developing their skills for the future.  

“It's all about the future, and hopefully there's some life lessons because there always is if you're in a team sport. Hopefully we're helping with those and trying to make it fun along the way too,” Howard said.  

Moses Lake Tribe roster: 

Name, Jersey 

Kendyl Howard, 0
Linden Wiltbank, 2
Athena Coleman, 5
Jayani Gordillo, 10
Victoria Aguilar, 15
Maycee Clark, 20
Oaklee Ballard, 22
Bellisima Walker, 23
Hailey Reffett, 24 

    The Moses Lake Tribe 6th grade AAU team after a game earlier this season. From left: Jayani Not pictured is Linden Wiltbank.