Yelm’s Maddie Plevyak led Tornados back from the depths to the school’s best record in seven years

Sometimes it’s not hard to figure out when one player’s arrival and development spurs her team to greater heights.

Maddie Plevyak’s enrollment at Yelm in fall of 2016 is such a case.

The season before she donned a Tornado uniform, Yelm won just three games. Her freshman year, the Tornados won nine games and have steadily increased to 10, then 13 and 17 in 2019-20.

Plevyak averaged 16.6 points per game this season. She finished her career with 1,116 total points, the highest total in recent Yelm history if not a school record.

Plevyak is The Olympian’s 2020 All-Area girls basketball player of the year.

Long-time Yelm coach Russ Riches said it was her skill combined with a team-first mentality that makes Plevyak the first Tornado to earn The Olympian’s All-Area player of the year honor.

“She brought other kids along with her,” said Riches. “She didn’t have an elitist type attitude. Everything wasn’t about her. It’s impressive that she did all the things she did and was still the ultimate teammate.”

Plevyak sees the closeness of her team as the reason Yelm finished with its best record this season (17-8) since the 2012-13 Tornados (20-5) tied for the 4A Narrows championship with Bellarmine Prep and advanced to the state regional round.

“We had such good chemistry, all of us were such good friends,” she said. “We knew everyone had each other’s back. It was the best team to play on.”

Plevyak, who also played shortstop on Yelm’s perennial state qualifying softball team, was instantly promoted to the varsity basketball team when she tried out as a freshman.

“That was a little bit of a surprise. It was overwhelming at first, but I was excited and ready to learn,” she said.

Riches had first seen her during seventh grade, when he taught at Ridgeline Middle School.

“You could see her work ethic and her competitive nature went hand in hand,” he remembered. “She was one of those kids you knew was going to be something special because you knew she was going to put the work in.”

A concussion held Plevyak back somewhat as a freshman, when she totaled just 39 points for the season. But little slowed her down after that.

“When she was cleared to go, she went right to work,” Riches said. “She got a personal trainer, she was the first kid in the gym and the last one to leave. She would go home on game day in between the end of school and our team meeting and put in 100 shots at her house.”

Riches saw Plevyak’s ballhandling and shooting range and accuracy sharpen as four years unfolded.

“She was a good basketball player who became excellent,” he said.

Plevyak acknowledges her shot has gotten better, but points more to the mental side of her development.

“My basketball IQ has gone up; learning what’s the right pass to make, situational IQ and basketball IQ in general,” she said.

Though Yelm’s record improved during both Plevyak’s freshman and sophomore years, she remembers a Bi-District playoff win near the end of her junior season, a 56-49 home victory over Kelso, as a turning point.

“It was an exciting night, the gym was packed,” she said.

A post-season win and an overall winning record in ’18-’19 set Yelm up for a strong, if occasionally bittersweet, season in Plevyak’s senior year.

In mid-January, the Tornados traveled to Capital with a chance to tie the Cougars for first place in the 3A South Sound Conference with a victory.

“Because we don’t have a natural rival, the kids get up for the Capital game,” Riches said. “A lot of them have played against each other or on the same (AAU) teams.”

With Riches at home with the flu, Yelm built a 17-point second half lead – only to ultimately lose 68-63. The loss stung but set up one of Plevyak’s other favorite moments as a Tornado.

She scored a game-high 23 points as Yelm ended the regular season with a 50-37 home rout of the Cougars, making four of seven 3-point shots.

“She let her teammates know, ‘they aren’t going to beat us on Senior Night at our place,’” Riches said.

For the season, Plevyak, the SSC Most Valuable Player, finished with averages of 4.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals. She deflected a total of 64 passes. She shot 44 percent from the field and 74 percent from the foul line.

Plevyak’s basketball career is far from over. Committed at one point to Pacific Lutheran University, she de-committed when she began to field inquiries from mid-major NCAA Division I schools. Most would like to see her gain seasoning at a community college.

She plans to select a JC or perhaps an NAIA school willing to let her transfer after a season or two, within the month. In the meantime, she looks back with some satisfaction on how she and fellow seniors Grace Cebula, Imani Tustison and Isabella Foxley helped re-install basketball as one of the topics of conversation in the City of Yelm.

“The morale and the hype behind Yelm basketball has grown so much over my four years, both boys and girls,” she said. “There’s more excitement in the community. I’ve even had store managers talking to me about basketball.

“It’s the coolest thing ever.”

PAST HONOREES

2001 – Jen Stoddard, Tumwater

2002-06 – None selected

2007 – Ashley Andrews, Tumwater

2008 – Sophie Russell, River Ridge

2009 – Tosha Hollingsworth, Capital

2010 – Tosha Hollingsworth, Capital

2011 – Jasmine McDonald, River Ridge

2012 – Sasha Weber, Timberline

2013 – Jamika Parker, W.F. West

2014 – Nike McClure, W.F. West

2015 – Makenna Schultz, River Ridge

2016 – Jenna Randich, Olympia

2017 – Emma Duff, Black Hills

2018 – Kiara Steen, W.F. West

2019 – Maisy Williams, Black Hills