Sipe looks forward to playing basketball at Indiana Tech

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Mylie Sipe put in the hard work to make sure that the Lewis Cass girls basketball team would continue their success her senior season.

That hard work has also led to her getting the opportunity to play at the next level, as she has signed to play at NAIA Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne.

"I just feel blessed," Sipe said. "I still am shocked that I've seen my hard work and dedication to playing basketball pay off, and it's just an amazing opportunity for me. I'm just kind of speechless. Just my dream of signing came true and it's just awesome to see that happen."

Sipe, a 5-foot-9 center, averaged 9.0 ppg and 4.3 rpg for the Lady Kings as a senior. She led the team in made 3-pointers (46) and 3-point percentage (33%).

The Lady Kings went 19-7, won the Cass County Tournament and repeated as sectional champions.

Sipe and the Lady Kings were prominent at the Pharos-Tribune's second annual Sports Awards on Tuesday at McHale Auditorium. Sipe was nominated as the Girls Basketball Athlete of the Year and Girls Scholar Athlete of the Year. The Lady Kings won the girls Team of the Year.

Sipe talked about her senior season.

"It was awesome. I was a little nervous to be honest because we did lose some really good key players and I knew coming in that I would have to step up pretty tremendously if I wanted the success like we did last season," she said. "And so I was like, I'm not going to let this team down. I'm going to go back-to-back in sectionals. And we ended up doing that. It's just the girls are so amazing, they're so fun to be around. I didn't want basketball to end because I just love the group. And so it was just that I couldn't ask for a better season."

Indiana Tech is coming off a 27-6 season which included going 19-1 in the WHAC. The Warriors made it to the Round of 16 in the NAIA National Tournament for a second straight year.

They are coached by Jessie Biggs, who has coached 13 seasons at the school.

"I'm excited to join their program. They've had a lot of success the last few years," Sipe said. "And when I just talked to the coach, she was like, the team loves each other, it's drama free. It just sounded like a great place to be and they really value you as a person, as a student and not just an athlete. And that was really nice because just knowing they value academic success is really reassuring."

Sipe will be college teammates with former Logansport Berry Gabby Richie.

"Indiana Tech's graduating five seniors. And so I think Gabby will see the floor quite a bit and I'm hoping to make my way to the varsity spot and see what happens from there," Sipe said.

Sipe added she plans to study biomedical engineering.

"I'll go for four years and get my bachelor's. I haven't looked into the master's yet, but my end goal is to help special needs and build equipment for them that can help them in life as much as possible. And then help with prosthetics as well. But I really want to try and gear it towards special needs athletes."

Sipe also did well in track and field this spring. She swept titles in the shot put and discus at the Cass County Meet. She placed fourth in the discus at the Kokomo Sectional with a career best throw of 106 feet, 7 inches.

"I wasn't sure how track season would go because I focused on basketball lot," she said. "So I wasn't sure where I would line up, but track was really great. And so I think some of my training has kind of correlated to track with getting in better shape for myself. And so it's just kind of nice that I ended up having a successful athletic senior year."