Prep Athlete of the Week: Lauren Olsen

DOUGLAS, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - This week marked the first time that Lauren Olsen earned Wyoming News Now Prep Athlete of the Week honors, but it probably won’t be the last time for the Douglas freshman.

Olsen is worth the price of admission to watch her play for the Lady Bearcats because she can flat out score the basketball. She earned the Athlete of the Week distinction after her performance in two Douglas victories last weekend.

At Burns on Friday, the freshman dropped 38 points. For an encore performance on Saturday, she finished with 23 points back in her home gym against Torrington.

She closed out the game against the Blazers with 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Douglas Girls Basketball Head Coach Cody Helenbolt said the team has a “ton of confidence” in Olsen to make plays in those kinds of situations and attributed it to her work ethic.

“She puts a ton of time in the gym, and we see it in practice every single day,” said Helenbolt. “When she gets an open shot in practice, we’re honestly shocked if it doesn’t go in. Seeing that every day makes it easy on the weekend in the game. Her teammates want to get her the ball because they know that she’s going to make something good happen.”

Olsen’s scoring prowess has gotten people around the state talking about her, but she was pretty humble when talking about her ability to score the rock.

“I’m really just proud that as a team like they don’t think of it as just me getting all these points,” said Olsen in an interview over the weekend. “We think of it as a defensive effort. We get down the court and we all score, and it’s just nice to think of it as more of a team effort.”

Helenbolt said Olsen’s scoring ability is the most impressive part of her game.

“We’ve had a lot of good kids, a lot of really actually great players in our program, and there’s not too many of them that have the knack for scoring like she has,” said Helenbolt. “It’s just really kind of rare and impressive.”

So far this season, Olsen has been racking up the baskets. She’s had three games with more than 30 points and 302 total on the year, but it’s not the offensive end where she finds the most excitement on the court.

“I think steals are just like an adrenaline rush,” said Olsen. She also likes taking charges because as she said with a smile “it gets the whole team pumped up.”

“Even though she’s really young, she’s put in a lot of time, and she understands kind of the work ethic that it takes to be a successful varsity basketball player,” said Helenbolt. “A lot of times kids don’t understand that until they get a little bit older and more mature, and so to see her really accept that as a freshman is really exciting for her and for our program.”

Congratulations to Lauren Olsen, Wyoming News Now Prep Athlete of the Week.

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