Jalen Carpenter (left) and Kourtney Carpenter

By Terry Mosher

Editor, Sports Paper

Even though sophomore Jalen Carpenter, 6-2 forward for the Bremerton Knights, helped lead her team to the postseason, averaging a double-double in points (14.1) and rebounds (10), there is a lot more in the tank, so to speak.

“She is raw at this point,” says former Little All-American Rick Walker, who has begun to train her and twin sister Kourtney, a 5-11 sophomore post, with Total Package Hoops.

Adds Megan Murray, co-director of Total Package with husband Craig Murray, “Jalen’s definitely got a lot of potential with her athleticism and length. She really is trying to work on her ball handling and that kind of stuff.”

Jalen and her sister both started this year for the Knights and first-year coach Al Valencia. Jalen began playing basketball in the eighth grade at Mountain View Middle School and with Kourtney were at one time training with Stacey Scott at Seattle’s Best Basketball Academy. A couple months ago, they switched to Total Package for their training.

“We weren’t getting developed,” Jalen Carpenter said of the reason they left SBBA. “We didn’t know how to dribble, and we’re almost juniors. With Megan, it’s going great. She’s teaching us a lot of fundamentals.”

Valencia saw a lot of improvement in Jalen this season and believes there is a lot more to come.

“Jalen can handle the ball better and she can go close out in our zone,” says Valencia. “She’s got a lot more opportunities to dominate. She’s not that dominant yet, but she’s working very hard on it. She just has to learn the tools of the trade a little bit.”

The twins get their height from father, who lives in Arizona.

“My dad is like six-eight,” says Jalen. “He was going on scholarship to North Carolina State when he hurt his knee. He stopped playing.”

Carpenter’s mother – Kiesha – is 5-7, so it’s possible she may grow to 6-3 before her high school days are done. And with the additional work on fundamentals and all the other little things involved in the making of a solid basketball player, Carpenter could be a dominant threat in the next two years for Bremerton.

The growth in women’s basketball the past 10 years has been remarkable in terms of the quality of talent. It’s not uncommon now for guards to be 6-feet tall, so the whole idea in the development of Carpenter is to help her on those skills that will make her either a shooting guard or a small forward.

“We’re trying to get her to be more of a threat on the wings,” says Murray. “She’s been putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basketball more. She has never really worked on that before and developed it so that is what is going on now with her – the basic stuff. She really needs to improve on that to be able to play at the next level. But she definitely has the potential.”

Carpenter, who scored 17 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked six shots as Bremerton was eliminated from the postseason in a 60-33 loss to Yelm, is honest about her ability. She says, “I really need to work on my dribbling, my ball-handling. I think my basketball IQ is a little off. So I’m working on that.”

She says she works on her game six days a week, and now with Total Package in the mix there is the opportunity for weekend tournaments during the summer, including one in Las Vegas, that will help in her continued development.

Carpenter and her sister drew attention early at Mountain View for their height and that has not changed in high school. What will continue to change is their ability to take over games the next two years, especially with all the hard work and effort they both are putting in during the offseason.

And while college is a ways down the road yet, Carpenter is already thinking about it. She has a 2.9 GPA (Kourtney is at 3.2) and is hoping to use basketball to get there.

“My sister and I have a few letters from coaches,” Carpenter says. “I’m hoping to go to one of them.”

Murray is hoping the same.

“The more she works on things the better she will get,” Murray says. “She’s got that long, lengthly, athletic body. She’s got to grow into it and mature a little bit more.”

“When she gets more experience, she should be right there,” adds Valencia.