Just about everything Lowell senior Bre Kidd has been seeking is coming to fruition.
The Red Devils have the potential to put together a memorable season, and the 5-foot-8 guard is one of the keys.
“She’s having an amazing senior year,” Lowell coach Kelly Chavez said. “She’s just off to a really good start. Her confidence is there.”
Kidd was averaging 11.3 points, a team-high 2.7 steals, 2.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists before the Red Devils (7-1) lost to Crown Point on Tuesday. Having moved down to Class 3A this season, Lowell figures to be a contender for its first sectional title since 2000. The team hasn’t even won a sectional game since 2014.
“This team is one of our strongest teams we’ve had in a while,” Kidd said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how this season goes because I think we can go far.
“We haven’t had a year where we’ve been this strong together. We trust one another, and we know how we all play. That’s a big thing that’s helping us do good throughout the year.”
Things were different for Kidd at the end of last season, her first on the varsity level. She went scoreless in four of Lowell’s last five games, including its loss to Crown Point in a Class 4A sectional opener.
“Our sectional game last year, she didn’t get a ton of playing time,” Chavez said. “Our end-of-the-year meetings, she took it personally, and we had a discussion about it. Instead of getting mad and upset about it, she took it to her AAU team and she put herself in the gym. She worked on her game over the summer. She came to every open gym, every weights I had, just really pushed herself. We worked one on one on a few things she could get better on the court.
“She was good already. This was just to improve. It just shows a lot of her character. Instead of going one way with it, she took that personally and put the work in to prove that she deserved to be on the court.”
The results have been obvious. Kidd averaged 5.0 points last season, when she made a team-high 23 3-pointers on 27.4% shooting. This season, she has nearly eclipsed that total with a team-high 21 3-pointers on 42.9% shooting.
“We’ve been working a lot on my shot,” Kidd said. “I haven’t been confident, and now I finally have become confident. And I wasn’t confident driving to the baseline either, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not afraid of contact. A lot of hard work over the summer has pushed me to that.
“I’ve been very confident now shooting 3-pointers because I have a coach who, even if I miss three, she’ll tell me to keep shooting. That’s really bumped up my confidence to where if I miss a couple, it’s OK.”
Kidd’s development reached a peak when she scored a career-high 23 points while making a career-best 7 of 16 3-point shots during Lowell’s win against East Chicago Central on Nov. 16.
“Their coach asked me after the game, ‘How many shots does she typically get up?’ and I was like, ‘I’m going to tell you right now, she has the green light,’” Chavez said. “She has a green light until I tell her she doesn’t.
“We’re better when she’s getting the ball out of her hand, when she’s letting it release from the 3-point line, make or miss. Make or miss, she’s established that she’s a threat out there, so she has to be guarded. It helps we have a little bit of height down low that draws people into the paint and gives her a little bit of open looks.”
Indeed, 6-2 senior center Elysia Laub is leading the Red Devils in scoring and rebounding, and 6-1 sophomore center Gatlin Hanrath is third in scoring and second in rebounding.
“I’ve also been doing good passing to the post,” Kidd said. “I love feeding the post because I like seeing them succeed. We have great post players.”
Kidd and Laub have played on the same teams since elementary school.
“She’s put a lot of hard work in over her whole life,” Laub said. “She’s definitely worked hard to formulate her game. It’s her shooting and her work ethic. She’s been very underrated, and she’s really broken through. She’s definitely gotten that shot to go in.”
Kidd hopes that shooting can propel Lowell this season. She also could have opportunities to play in college. She plans to study elementary education, saying she has known since she was 6 years old that she wanted to be a teacher.
Kidd already spends the second half of her school days working with preschoolers at a day care center in Cedar Lake.
“She’s a good leader,” Chavez said. “She’s bought into our system. She’s been playing with me since she’s been in sixth grade. She just knows what she’s doing on the floor.
“She’s not afraid to take leadership. She’s not afraid to put the ball in her hands in those tough scenarios. She’s not afraid to have tough conversations with me or her team. She’s just a really great teammate.”
