2007 Queen of Courts - Tara Mitchell

by Gary E. Mitchell

One of the largest crowds to ever witness a Royal Valley girls basketball game saw RVHS defeat Pleasant Ridge 59-38 in late January. Pleasant Ridge, at this point of the season was the number two rated girls in 3-A basketball. Royal Valley improved their overall record to 10-3. It appears that each game is an improvement over the last one for the RVHS girls team.

Of course more than a few fans came from both the Potawatomi and Kickapoo Indian communities came to see how Tara Mitchell would fare in the King and Queen of Courts. She didn’t disappoint her many relatives and friends. On the court she scored 15 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, four steals and 4 blocked shots. Defensively she held her own against their top player 6’1” center Kate Stafford. Stafford scored 16 points and fouled out mid-way through the second half.

Tara’s average for the year is 15.7 points a game and 11.7 rebounds a game and those averages put her among the state leaders. Her rebounding average puts her at 3rd in the state.

A personal highlight was her 35-point performance in a 66-63 win over league rival Nemaha Valley. Tara also scored 23 points against Hiawatha.

At the halftime of the boy’s game, Tara was announced as the Queen winner along with Josh Streeter who was chosen as the King in this annual event. The winners are chosen by the student body. When they were officially announced both choices were meet with applause by the crowd. Other candidates were Andy Massey, Trent Andler, Jordan Beckerman and Haley Nocktonick .

Tara is the daughter of Joanna Mitchell and Stephen Thorpe. Her grandparents are Gary and Voncile Mitchell, and Pat Lorentz. Tara’s great grandfather or "Misho" is Maynard Potts, who can be seen at most of her games. He is 91 years old. Other family members are her Aunt Martie, her brothers Nyeh Washkeh, Hooty, Pat ko shuk and her sister Kek. Overall it was a good day in the Potawatomi neighborhood.