By Max Goodwin
The Barstow girls basketball program will get a fresh start this season. They have a new coach with the experience to guide the program and a young team focused on improving.
There was no Barstow girl’s basketball team last season. Barstow didn’t have enough players or a coach, so they went a year without playing. Rodney Gilyard has been a presence around Barstow basketball for a decade now.
He wanted to help Barstow girls basketball recover from the year’s absence.
“Over time, we’ve had conversations about coaching there, but never really the right time or place,” Gilyard said. “In 2022, they didn’t have a team at Barstow for girls. It became an opportunity for me to try to rebuild there.”
Gilyard is an experienced AAU basketball coach who has already developed college talent, and his son, Jacob, is now in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies. Jacob graduated from Barstow in 2017.
Gilyard has coached Brylee and Jaelyn Glenn, twins who graduated from Barstow in 2021 and are juniors at Kansas State. Serena Sundell, from Maryville, Mo., is another junior guard at Kansas State who played for Gilyard in his KC Run GMC basketball team during the summers.
Brylee and Jaelyn played for KC Run GMC with Gilyard starting in third grade. They played for the team through high school. They say Gilyard is a perfect fit at Barstow because of “his patience and how he understands the game and is able to teach it,” said Jaelyn. “He coached us when we were super young and just getting into the game. We weren’t very talented.”
“He has a really good coaching style that will fit well with the group of girls that will go out for the team,” Brylee added. “He’s definitely my favorite coach just because I had him for so long.”
Last week, Brylee and Jaelyn started for Kansas State as they took down the No. 2-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes and one of women’s college basketball’s biggest stars, Caitlyn Clark.
They’re happy to see Barstow recover its girls basketball program after a year without one and even happier to see their coach take over the head role. Barstow students also appear to be happy.
“They’re definitely excited about the opportunity to represent their school and be able to play the game that they love,” Gilyard said.
It’s going to be a learning year at Barstow. Chanelle Anderson is the only senior on the team. More than any other player on the team, Anderson missed not having a team.
“She was pretty bummed that they didn’t have a team last year,” said Assistant Coach Sarah Lamp. “They graduated five seniors before her junior year and had a couple of girls transfer. It was totally a rebuilding year that didn’t happen.”
Anderson will play point guard for Barstow, providing a steady veteran presence for a young and inexperienced group. There will be freshmen playing a lot of minutes. Coaches expect Anderson to be a good leader for a young team and the offense will run through her hands. Taylor Easterwood is the only junior on the roster.
In the early part of the season, they’ve been working on the basics, getting better at defense, communicating on the court, and being in the right position at the right time.
“We’re young and small,” Gilyard said with a laugh. “But I like the group. They’re committed to being in the gym every day and working to get better.”
Barstow finished 11-10 in their last season. In 2021, when Brylee and Jaylyn were seniors, Barstow finished 17-4.
Barstow is also transitioning from Class 3 to Class 2 in girls basketball. It’s a small school that transitions from class to class being strong at different sports. With Gilyard leading the progress, expect big things to come in the future for this small school.
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