It was the summer of 2020, when COVID-19 mandates limited indoor activities. So the first time Mission Hills High School girls basketball coach Chris Kroesch spotted Kyara Walter was on the pavement, the breeze blowing jumpers, on an outdoor court at North Coast Church in Vista.
Kroesch’s club team was practicing and there was Walter, a soon-to-be Grizzlies freshman.
“Watching her before practice, shooting around, the ball in her hands, I knew she was special right there,” said Kroesch. “Just because of her coordination.”
Kroesch proved to be prescient. Walter is an 18-year-old senior now, bound for Cal State Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship. This is her fourth season of varsity basketball at Mission Hills. The 5-foot-8, left-handed guard has walked onto the floor as a starter the past three seasons.
She’s the best player on the San Diego Section’s No. 1-ranked team, and when the season concludes will without a doubt earn All-CIF honors for the third time.
“She’s a super-high-IQ player,” said La Jolla Country Day coach Terri Bamford. “She plays hard. She can really shoot it. When she hits her first couple 3s, she’s tough to stop because she can put the ball on the ground and finish.”
Walter has increased her scoring every season at Mission Hills, from 4.9 points as a freshman to 11.9 as a sophomore to 12.3 last season to 17.1 as a senior heading into Wednesday night’s game at Rancho Bernardo.
Her 96 made 3s rank fourth in the state.
Yet Walter is hardly one-dimensional. Her 4.2 rebounds per game rank second on the team. She’s third in assists (1.7 per game) and first in steals (1.5 per game).
“She can do it all,” said Kroesch, whose Grizzlies are 16-8. “She’s the most-coordinated athlete I’ve ever coached.”
To improve their athleticism, the Grizzlies play touch football in the offseason.
Said Kroesch: “The first time I saw her play football, I said, ‘This might be the greatest female football player of all time.’ ”
When Mission Hills decided not to field a flag football team last fall, the first time it was a sanctioned CIF sport, Walter wasn’t happy.
“I was so upset,” she said. “I would have been an All-American wide receiver, safety or something.”
Athleticism oozes from Walter and her siblings. Older brother Kai played linebacker and first base at Cathedral Catholic High School before going on to play football at College of Idaho. Older sister Kaelene is a fifth-year senior and starting shortstop on the University of Dayton softball team.
As a young child, Kyara wasn’t intimidated by her siblings.
“She was the troublemaker, for sure,” said her father, Joe. He recalls Kyara punching Kai with the TV remote control and pulling Kaelene’s hair.
Said Kyara: “I was bullying my siblings.”
Whatever her big brother and big sister were doing, Kyara wanted to copy.
“She has all the skill,” Joe Walter said of Kyara, “plus all the tenacity to put her foot on your throat.”
Walter doesn’t get by solely on God-given talent. Last summer she routinely squeezed in three workouts or practices a day, leaving home at 5 a.m. to drive to Irvine to train with former La Jolla Country Day star Te-Hina Paopao, now the starting point guard at No. 1-ranked South Carolina.
In addition to training with Paopao, who like Walter is of Samoan descent, there were sand workouts, weightlifting sessions. The athletes used cryotherapy treatment to take care of their bodies.
Where Kroesch feels Walter can most improve is being even more assertive on the court. Early in Walter’s Mission Hills career, she often deferred to older teammates.
“Part of that evolution as players get older is understanding that role is now on you,” Kroesch said. “Sometimes the right play is you being aggressive.”
Walter’s brother and sister have bragging rights in one regard. Both won section championships, Kai in football and baseball at Cathedral Catholic, Kaelene in softball with the Dons.
“They say I can’t sit at the big-kids table because I don’t have a ring,” joked Kyara.
In the 1990s, University of Arkansas men’s basketball coach Nolan Richardson brought national attention to the Razorbacks with what was dubbed “40 Minutes of Hell.” The Razorbacks pressed and played at warp speed.
The Grizzlies should be dubbed “32 minutes of Hell.” From the opening tip, they suffocate teams with a full-court, man-to-man press. In a 66-52 win over fifth-ranked Westview on Friday, despite missing two starters, the Grizzlies forced 31 turnovers.
Mission Hills launches 3s so often and so rapidly there’s no need for the 30-second possession clock when the Grizzlies have the ball. Former Grizzly Jessica Grant holds the state record for career 3s (486) and single-season treys (162).
“Everyone’s touching the ball,” Walter said. “It’s not like one person is carrying the whole team. I think it’s a privilege. It’s a freeing experience. As a basketball player, that’s like a dream.”
Just as Walter longs for a title to match her siblings, this year’s Mission Hills team is yearning for a championship, too. Under Kroesch’s guidance, Mission Hills won section titles four straight years, Division 1 in 2014, then Open crowns in ’15-16-17.
Since then, the Grizzlies have finished second four times, in 2018-19-20 and ’22. In addition to Walter, three other seniors have earned college basketball scholarships: Lindsey Jones (Colorado School of Mines); Marina Gorbushin (Cal State San Marcos) and Mariah Brown (Westmont).
Come the playoffs next month, the Grizzlies don’t plan on settling for second.
“We have a winning culture,” said Walter. “We always figure we’re going to win out. We just never expect to lose, and that stems from the confidence of our coach, 100 percent.”
Norcross is a freelance writer.
