The defending co-Region 1 champions return to the court with First-Team All-State forward Kendra Kitchen – who recently signed to play for Utah Valley University – ranked third in the 6A ranks. The Darts have high hopes after a final four showing in last year’s state tournament.

Also expected to contribute heavily for Davis, who lost just one senior starter from last season, are seniors Kate Richards, Avery Dain, Olivia Lifferth and Maya China, along with sophomores T’Maea Eteuati and Chloe Peery.

“We were pretty young last season and feel like this year we have veteran, experienced players,” head coach Anne Jones, who is in her 14th year with the Darts, said.

Jones said she challenged her girls to use the offseason to improve their fundamentals and come back stronger and in better shape. “We want to be stronger in the areas we felt were weaknesses last season,” she said. “We played quite a bit in the spring and summer and wanted to keep that chemistry going that really developed over the course of the season last year.”

Davis begins the season against Viewmont Nov. 21. The Darts are also scheduled to play Mountain Crest, Riverton, Woods Cross, Timpview, Cyprus, American Fork, Olympus, Murray, Northridge and Mountain Ridge before Region 1 home-and-away matchups with Fremont, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington and Weber. The 6A state tournament will be held Feb. 20 through March 2. 

“We want to have fun, make lasting friendships, learn life lessons as well as have a successful season,” Jones said. “This is a really fun, hard-working group to be around every day. They want to get better each day at practice and take one game at a time and show improvement throughout the season.”

Also on the DHS squad this year are senior Shea Miller; juniors Sydney Plummer, Aubrey Simons and Maki West; sophomores Tatiana Faulua, Emma Loveland, Emy Richards and Kiara Zwonitzer; and freshmen Boston Buhler, Hadlie Chamberlin, Cambell Christensen, Hannah Garlock, Brooklyn Harbertson, Lydia Tarbet and Kate Willard.

Jones is being assisted on the coaching staff this season by Rebecca Parker, Nicole Waddoups and Hannah Loveland.