Last year, the Jefferson High girls basketball team won 19 consecutive games — the program’s longest streak since 1990 — and finished its regular season 20-3. Despite stellar player performances and an impressive record, though, the Panthers abruptly crashed out of the Class B Southern Division tournament after consecutive losses to Sweet Grass County and the eventual state champions, Baker High School.
After that startling near miss, many in Boulder and across Jefferson County quietly anticipate an extremely successful 2024-25 season for the JHS Lady Panthers, if not a state championship. But new Head Coach Clint Layng, who currently coaches the JHS football team and once, for eight years, coached the Panther boys’ basketball program, is focused on preparing his team one game at a time.
“Don’t you print a word about a state championship in that newspaper,” said Coach Layng in an interview with The Monitor. “Our division is loaded with good teams; some might say getting through the divisional tournament will be harder than the state championship. But we’re pretty good this year. Young. But talented. We’ll see what happens.”
