Valor Christian adds 2 standouts from Washington

Two of the top-rated high school girls basketball players from the state of Washington — Haley and Macey Huard — moved to Colorado this summer.

That’s good news for the Valor Christian basketball program.

“I’m excited because we have five amazing to-be seniors, so they’re going to come into a great team core,” said Valor coach Jessika Caldwell, who confirmed the Huard sisters have enrolled at the school for the 2020-21 academic year. “I know that group will do an incredible job of welcoming both Haley and Macey into the fold to make that transition a lot easier.”

Incoming senior Haley Huard said she has received Division I scholarship interest. She helped lead Eastlake (Sammamish) to a Class 4A Washington state championship in 2019.

Her younger sister, Macey, is an incoming sophomore who earned first-team all-league honors last season for Class 1A Bear Creek (Redmond) and broke multiple school records. Both players are 6-foot-1 shooting guards.

Haley was the No. 4 rated college prospect from Washington for the 2021 recruiting cycle, according to prepgirlshoops.com. Macey checked in at No. 5 for the class of 2023.

“It’s a little bit of mixed emotions,” Haley Huard said of moving to Colorado. “It’s going to be hard to leave friends, a basketball team I played on for three years and won a state championship. But I’m excited about the opportunity to grow my faith and to play my senior year with my little sister. We’ve never played on the same team before.”

If the Huard name sounds familiar to sports fans, it’s because the girls’ father is ESPN broadcast analyst Brock Huard, a former NFL and University of Washington quarterback. Their mother, Molly, also played college basketball at UW. It made for epic family hoops games in the driveway growing up with the girls.

“They get really heated and competitive,” Haley Huard said. “It’s always fun.”

The family’s move to Colorado, Haley said, was created when Brock recently took on a larger role with Compassion International; a Colorado-based nonprofit working to fight global child poverty through Christian ministry programs.

At Valor, it means an already strong girls basketball program adds even more talent. The Eagles won consecutive Class 4A state championships (2015-16) and reached the Final Four last season in Class 5A as the state tournament’s top overall seed before play was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Valor began outdoor team conditioning work this week at the school.

“It was great to see them out on the field getting used to the altitude in Colorado,” Caldwell said.