Beky Beaton - Daily Herald | Posted: Saturday, April 3, 2010
Springville's Lexi Eaton knows how to score.
She led the state in that category this year, in fact, with 26.1 points per game. She made nearly half of her field-goal attempts, including 38 percent of her 3-point tries, on the way to 600 points.
But there's so much more to her than that.
She also averaged 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 2.5 steals and a block per contest - and she did it on a team with two other Division I prospects plus a really good supporting cast, which lifts her achievements to a whole new level.
What's most impressive about Eaton, however, isn't the gaudy numbers, the undefeated record and the state title she helped to secure.
It's that she understands it took her whole squad's efforts to make her individual accomplishments possible, and that she had a great responsibility and opportunity to help her teammates to reach their common goals as well.
It's for her leadership, as much as for her outstanding athletic ability, that the junior guard has been selected as the Daily Herald Valley Player of the Year for girls basketball.
"People sometimes forget that everybody knows Lexi can shoot," said Red Devil coach Nancy Warner. "Other teams have to put their best defender on her or send two. She knows that's going to happen and doesn't let it frustrate her.
"That mental maturity to be patient, to work with her teammates and to let things come to her is what puts her leaps and bounds past other athletes," the coach continued.
"The best example I can think of to illustrate this is when we played Spanish Fork at home this season," she said. "They put two girls on her who followed her everywhere, but she was never scared or uncertain.
"She crashed the boards for 12 rebounds. Despite all they tried to do, she still got her points with 14, and she dished out 10 assists. That's Lexi. No matter what the situation, she'll go out and get things done for her teammates."
Warner added that although Eaton is confident, she's also humble. "No one on the team knew she was getting all these awards. I had to brag about her to them, and her teammates are all pleased and happy for her."
Eaton herself wasn't interested in talking about anything but her team. She had a ready answer when asked what was different this year from Springville's other recent successful seasons that allowed the squad to go all the way this time.
"Probably the biggest thing was that everyone was focused on the same goal, to win state," she responded. "Going undefeated was never a goal, but it came with the championship mindset.
"It also helped that we'd been to the tournament before and knew what it took to get to the end," she went on. The Red Devils finished second in 2009. "We learned from what happened and were determined not to make the same mistakes again."
She drove home the point by contrasting the mood on the bus after the team won in the semifinals. "Last year, there was a lot of celebrating and hype," she said. "This year, everybody was focused on preparing mentally and physically for the next day."
Eaton added that another factor was what happened out of the spotlight of the games.
"We had no bad practices," she said. "We all stepped forward and worked hard to help make ourselves better, as well as others and the team too.
"This has been the most fun team to play on," Eaton continued. "There has been no drama at all, and that was a huge plus. It helped with our focus, because we didn't have to worry about anything else.
"What made this year the most special was the people I got to share it with, my teammates, the coaches and the parents," the player added. "It's also my first title, so I'll remember this experience forever."
Eaton recognized a couple of things which helped her personal progress this season.
"I learned that I have a lot of stuff to work on," she said. "There's always more I can do. And, I realized that the mental part of the game was way more important than the physical part. That was a huge step forward for me."
Her coach agreed, on both counts.
"She still wants to improve in all aspects of the game," Warner said. "She's always working hard, especially on her passing, and you can see the results of her practices in her composure on the floor."
Eaton's efforts extend to other parts of her life as well. She has a 3.97 GPA and was the leading scorer on the Region 8 champion soccer team, which reached the Final Four last fall.
"Lexi was one of our captains and knew she had that responsibility to lead the team and to set the tone for the others," her hoops coach said. "Her desire and determination to be the best in all that she does was an example on and off the court."
Although her leadership is exceptional, Warner singled out another trait that sets her apart from other elite athletes.
"It's her toughness -- mental, physical and emotional," the coach said. "Kids who have that to the degree she does are very rare. We're glad she's on our team."
