Valerie Kunzler '21 Recruiting Profile

    Winning the district championship for our Jr high school when I was in 7th grade and being the leading scorer as well as winning the most valuable offensive player award set the tone for my Jr high and high school basketball experience and set a burning desire that helped me want to become better.  But I felt like I grew even more my 8th grade year because we failed to make it to the district championship game.  That experience helped me grow as a person and as a player and helped me realize how much I love this sport and how to be a better leader both on and off the court.  My freshman year of high school I led the team in scoring even though I did not start.  I also helped the team in critical times of the game which helped me earn a region honorable mention award.  Our boundaries changed and I was assigned to a brand new high school and was able to play with new players and a new coach.  We were able to make it to the second round of the state playoffs and took second place in our region as a new school and team.  I was the only starting sophomore on our team.  After my sophomore season I was awarded 1st team all region, 2nd team all area, and 3rd team all state in Utah.

    I learned the value of hard work at a very young age which helped shape my basketball career.  As a 12 year old I was the IMX swimmer of the year for the indoor and outdoor season for the sate of Utah.  I won multiple state titles in backstroke, freestyle, and butterfly as well as breaking multiple state records in many team events.  The highlights of swim team for me was when I had the opportunity to go to Maui, Hawaii for the Western Zone Championships where I took 5th place in the 200 free as well as doing well in many other events.  One reason why I was so successful in swimming is because I practiced my stroke every single day.  I had technique lessons that helped me make sure my stroke was perfect every week.  Swimming was an intense sport that required practice 6 days a week and sometimes two a day practices before big meets.  Eventually the practice schedule of swimming and playing competitive basketball made it impossible to do both at a high level and I had to make a choice.  Although, I loved swimming and the choice between the two sports was difficult, my passion was in basketball but the work ethic and dedication that I learned from swimming has helped make me into the basketball player that I am today.  I believe I have the talent, work ethic, and leadership skills to compete at the college level.  I have competed against people that are older than me and have out played or out swam them in competitions.  Those players have gone on to compete at the college level and I believe that I can do the same.  I know these skills I have will make an immediate impact on your program and I will continue to get better every year.  

This year we went undefeated in region, went 19 and 2, and were ranked 2nd in state.  We are also the number 1 defending team in Utah.  I lead my team in steals, I was second in assists and was also one of the top rebounders playing 2 guard.  My defense has improved tremendously this season.  Also my scoring average has come up as well, I lead the team in scoring again this year.  I am also one of four people that are being considered right now for state mvp according to Deseret News in Utah.  Because we were ranked 2nd in state we had a bye our first game.  Unfortunately I started to get sick a couple days before the game with pneumonia and wasn't able to play.  We ended up losing, but I feel that if I had been able to play we could've won a state championship.  I was also max preps player of the game for about half our games.