This article was originally published on December 2, 2025.

With under a minute to play in the 2025 Sweet 16 finals, George Rogers Clark led by three points. Sacred Heart, the three-time defending state champion that had ended GRC’s season each of the last three years, was finally on the ropes.

But the dynastic Valkyries again displayed championship grit. The Cardinals in March were the closest team to unseating the dynastic Valkyries, but close was only good enough for a runner-up trophy and a final minute that GRC head coach Robbie Graham can’t shake.

 “We kept telling them, when you’re playing a well-coached, championship team, you’ve got to kill ’em,” Graham said. “You can’t give them any leeway at all; you’ve gotta just bury ’em. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”

Preseason coaches polls conducted by the Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader tabbed Sacred Heart as the state’s best team once again, ahead of GRC by a narrow margin. Both return ample experience from last year’s squads, but the Valkyries lost an all-time talent in now-LSU freshman ZaKiyah Johnson.

GRC itself will be without the services of Ciara Byars, a four-star recruit who’s now at Michigan, but returns the leaders of a dynamic backcourt, Kennedy Stamper and Teigh Yeast. Graham describes them as having a “dual-alpha mentality.”

Yeast, a three-sport standout entering her senior season, is one of the state’s premier athletes. She’s won several track-and-field state titles and recently led GRC to the 10th Region volleyball finals. Yeast, who averaged 10.1 points and 3.6 rebounds last season, isn’t far off from being a 2,000-point scorer in high school.

She’s committed to Robert Morris University as a hooper. Graham and his staff have encouraged Yeast to be more aggressive in her final go-around with the Cards.

“Sometimes Teigh can take a backseat to Kennedy and other players, and we want Teigh to be right there at the forefront,” Graham said. “We tell her, ‘Don’t be a passenger in the car. Kick the driver out and say, ‘I’m driving today.’”

Stamper’s been great behind the wheel when the lights have shone brightest. A junior who’s started for GRC since she was in seventh grade, Stamper scored 27 points and made seven 3-pointers for the Cardinals in their state-semifinal win over Frederick Douglass — another top-five team entering this season — in March. 

A Cincinnati commit, Stamper averaged a team-high 12 points per game and shot 43.5 percent from behind the 3-point line last season. 

“Her shooting in the preseason has been crazy good, to the point where we’re shocked when she misses,” Graham said. “Her ball handling’s always been really good. We’ve focused a lot on her on-ball defense, that’s kind of the worst thing where she needs to improve. That and just being more vocal, taking the next step in terms of being a leader. She’s a high-IQ point guard, now she just needs to add little things to her game.”

GRC also welcomes back Anaya Chestnut, who tore her ACL in January. She’s been full-go since August and continues rebuilding her conditioning. Graham said she’s had no setbacks and is steadily returning to form.

Sophomore Kyleigh Chestnut, Anaya’s sister, and junior Kyleigh Stakelin have improved as much as any player in Graham’s coaching history, including his stints coaching boys. He says that’ll be evident when they see the floor this winter.

Eliyah Strode, an eighth-grader who averaged four points in 27 games last season, is someone to keep an eye on now and later. “She’s so raw,” Graham said. “Her athleticism’s through the roof and she’s still learning how to play the game of basketball, but she’s going to be a big part of our puzzle this year.”

Seniors Jaylynn Goodwin and Annette Miller, both hard-working leaders who’ve been crucial in the locker room, round out the primary Cardinals available to start the year. Logan Kennedy, a transfer from Franklin County, projects to make a big impact when she’s cleared to return from injury; she tore her ACL last season in the 11th Region tournament. She averaged 10.1 points for the Flyers.

GRC’s schedule features games at Sacred Heart (Feb. 17) and Assumption (Jan. 8), ranked third in the preseason polls. All told, the Cardinals will play XX of the preseason top 25 teams before postseason play tips in February.

They’ll also play in a marquee December tournament in Florida (December) and a Martin Luther King Jr. Day showcase event against some of the top teams from Illinois and Canada. 

“We want challenges all year,” Graham said. He added with a laugh, “the older Coach Graham gets the more he likes to be in those warm-weather climates in December.”

All of it — the returning talent, the internal growth, the national schedule — pushes GRC into the season with expectations that don’t need to be spoken aloud. The way last season ended doesn’t define the program, but it does provide even more motivation for a group that’s been knocking on the door for a while.

“When you’re eating your favorite dessert and take that first bite, you want another bite,” Graham said. “Then, dang, you want another bite. You’ll end up eating the whole thing. We’ve got a taste of it, now we want the whole thing. 

“We want the gold ball. They got the silver ball, but they want the gold ball.”