Pueblo West's Gabby Louther sets sights on state title before heading to Division I school

Gabby Louther of Pueblo West High School is set to attend the University of California San Diego next year to play basketball. But for now, Louther is focused on winning.

She hopes to win a state title this year with the Cyclones.

“I just want us to go in the playoffs and make a statement,” Louther said.

The senior leads her team in points per game at 15.9, which is the best in the 5A/4A South Central League. Her 4.9 assists per game also lead the team.

Louther’s ability to lead, not only in scoring but in facilitating, is a big reason the Cyclones were able to get to the 5A state playoffs last year, but the team came up short of its goals.

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“We kind of fell a little short in the first round,” Louther said. “But I just want to go out and make our name known.”

Louther’s tenure at Pueblo West has been stellar. She has helped the Cyclones continue a stretch of five straight S-CL titles and currently has the team in the running for a sixth.

Louther also knows this is her last year playing high school basketball and wants to bring home a title for the program.

Louther said there are a lot of seniors on the team and that many of them “do not have much playing time left" so the team has a win-now mentality.

They will have a tough stretch ahead of them to win the S-CL with over half of their remaining games on the road.

But being on the road is a chance for the team to bond — something Louther said has a big impact.

She spoke about what it was like growing up with some of her fellow players, as well as some of her competition.

“I just love playing with them,” Louther said. “We've been playing together since the third grade and we even played against Chloe (Keck of Pueblo South High School), we played with her since third grade too, it's just fun to play against my friends.”

Louther didn’t start out playing basketball, she competed in dance and soccer at first. It wasn’t until her mother told her father to start a basketball team for Louther that her love of the sport developed.

“My mom told my dad that you have to start a basketball team for Gabby,” Louther said. “Then we just brought my whole soccer team over to play basketball and that’s when we started a team.”

It was a small adjustment for Louther to move from soccer to basketball. The shorts were a bit different, as was using her hands to pass instead of her feet, but she and the team slowly got better over the first year. By their second and third year together, the group started to win.

“We got really good in fourth or fifth grade,” Louther said. “We started like demolishing people, that’s when it was really fun and we had a great time and that’s when I really started loving the game.”

Very quickly, Louther gave up the other sports and started to focus on basketball. The transition was an easy one for her. She used to attend her brother's basketball practices where she would pick up things that she eventually used in her own game.

One of the things that appeal to Louther about the game is the physicality.

“I really like that I could hit someone and they could hit me back," Louther said. "And diving on the floor. That was really fun for me."

Louther was the only freshman that made the varsity team when she first enrolled at Pueblo West, which presented a challenge.

“It was difficult for me,” Louther said. “Just to be the only freshman and have all the upperclassman like ‘Oh she’s a freshman.'”

The team didn’t fully trust her right away, but Louther worked hard and earned her way into the starting lineup. It wasn't long before others started to notice her play.

“I got myself into the starting lineup and people then started to really respect who I was,” Louther said. “I was contributing as a freshman so that was really good for me.”

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As she finishes her senior year, Louther is keeping her focus on the goal at hand while also preparing for the next step in her athletics career. Attending a Division I school is a big deal for Louther.

"I had a lot of D2 offers out here in Colorado and I had an offer from the Air Force Academy which I was really going to commit there,” Louther said. “Until like my last club tournament was in Pennsylvania and then coach Heidi VanDerveer the coach at UCSD called me and was like, 'We want you.' And then right then and there I was like, I want to go there. It's in San Diego, its La Jolla it's the prettiest spot ever.”

Louther made the decision sight unseen. She hadn’t even visited the campus before committing. However, she has ties to Southern California. Her father is from San Diego and she has visited the area plenty of times before, so it was only natural for her to want to play there.

"I felt like it was a good fit for me," Louther said.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on twitter @chowebacca

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo's Gabby Louther wants a title for West before leaving for UCSD