Canyon View girls are rolling with 10-0 start
On the fringes of the West Valley, five miles south of Surprise Shadow Ridge and three miles northeast of Buckeye Verrado, Waddell Canyon View opened its doors on Aug. 6, 2018. Desirae Carranza joined the project then, carrying her experience as the first girls basketball coach at Phoenix Sierra Linda when it opened in 2008 into this new endeavor.
Even with lessons learned from her time there, Carranza expected growing pains. One part of her plan was starting the varsity program a year sooner — when it consisted of just freshman and sophomore in 2019-20. Inherently, such inexperience is supposed to bring struggles.
Instead, the Jaguars went 12-11. Last year, in a season shortened by COVID-19, they went 9-5 and reached their first state tournament — all without a single senior.
The reason, beyond Carranza’s experience, was quite simple. Caidyn Spickler, part of this year’s inaugural senior class, had developed into a star, scoring 14.8 points per game while running the point guard position with aplomb.
So before the season, Carranza says now, she expected success. If you had told her Canyon View would be 10-0 with wins over Glendale Deer Valley and Mesa, she would’ve believed you.
What if you had told her Canyon View would be 10-0 without Spickler?
“No,” Carranza responded emphatically. Then another no, this time laughing. That, though, is exactly what’s happened. In the Jaguars' fourth game of the season, Spickler went down with high and low sprains in her right ankle. She’s expected back in January.
In the meantime, Canyon View has kept chugging.
“They've really — as a whole — they've really just done so well sticking together without her,” Carranza said.
At the center of that is sophomore Madison Reibel.
Since her first days on campus as a freshman, Carranza knew Reibel could be special. Last year, Reibel found her role as Spickler’s sidekick, scoring 11.8 points per game, with over half of that production coming from 3-point range.
“She can shoot the ball — flat-out shoot the ball — with the best of them, just as good as anybody in the state,” Carranza said. “If you leave her open, she's knock-down, for sure. So just being a freshman and seeing that. And then I think she has a confidence about her that a lot of players don't have. So that was something right away that I took to, that we noticed.”
Being a spot-up shooter, though, implies that there’s someone who can put you in those situations. Without Spickler, that central fulcrum was removed from Canyon View’s offense. This entire operation — the one Carranza has so carefully orchestrated for the past four years — could have folded on its face.
Instead, Reibel stepped up to the challenge. For the first game or two, Carranza says, Reibel was hesitant. Canyon View didn’t know when Spickler — the team’s most experienced player since its inception — would return. With the potential for a quick recovery, Reibel didn’t want to immediately assume the leadership role required to run the point, a position she was thrust into without Spickler.
Soon, though, the dominant wins started rolling in. 55-19 over Glendale Kellis. 60-31 over Goodyear Desert Edge. 67-19 over Glendale Ironwood.
With those wins came confidence — and ensuant leadership ability — for Reibel.
“I think it's a big challenge (running the point),” Carranza said. “It's really challenging being young. … When you have one of your only seniors, who you're used to having on the floor with you your whole freshman year and then coming in as a sophomore and just having to take that over and take it on yourself, it's been challenging but she's really stepped up to that challenge.”
Without Spickler, Reibel has averaged 17.5 points and 4.3 assists per game, while turning the ball over just 2.3 times per game. In the process, she’s preserved Canyon View’s undefeated record on the precipice of conference play.