The honor of being named 2019-20 West Central Activities Conference Girls Basketball Coach of The Year will belong to a local coach.

Panorama’s Kylee Boettcher was named WCAC Coach of The Year when the WCAC post-season accolades were released last week. This was the first year Boettcher was head coach for the traditionally dominant Panther girls basketball team. Don’t let that fact fool you, she’d been around the program for more than a decade and have coached a lot of the current roster as they were coming through the junior high system. Coming off a 22-2 season the year before, the Panthers graduated three of their top four scorers and their top four rebounders. Between the first year head coach and one of the youngest teams in Class 2A, there were a lot of question marks entering the season.

The first two tests this year did not bring positives results as Panorama started 0-2 with losses to Woodward-Granger and IKM-Manning. Coach Boettcher did not hit the panic button and the team was able to ralley back and win 17 straight games, including a 51-48 victory of Des Moines Christian, who was ranked sixth in Class 3A at the time and would go on to advance to the state tournament. During that impressive stretch, they were able to avenger their season-opening loss to Woodward-Granger with a six point win on the road. Panorama ended the season with a 13-1 conference record, and with a head-to-head victory over Des Moines Christian, gave the Panthers a WCAC banner to hang in Panora.

As a Panorama graduate, Coach Boettcher told Raccoon Valley Radio that giving back to the school and program that gave so much to her was the most rewarding part of the season. While this Panorama team had its share of success, the most exciting thing about this team is they are bringing back four of their five starters and are hungry to get back to work next season.

You can hear Coach Boettcher recap the season on Monday’s Guthrie County PM Sports Page on K107.9 FM starting at 6 p.m.