Out on top: Glacier’s Williams is soccer standout turned all-around hoopster

Kenzie Williams can find the open teammate from 50 yards or five feet, depending on the sport, and she ended her soccer career at Glacier High on the highest note: A State AA title.

Now it’s basketball season, where the 5-foot-8 senior has combined with teammate Ellie Keller to a) give Glacier a potent 1-2 scoring punch and b) make it really hard on other teams’ perimeter players.

The Wolfpack, 3-2, plays host to Helena High (2-1) tonight. How the Western AA game ends might just tie in with Glacier’s straight-A student and off-guard.

“A gift, for sure,” said Wolfpack coach Amanda Cram. “Kenzie, outside of athletics, is an amazing human being. She’s kind of humble and has this fierce intelligence, which obviously shows on the court.

“If you want a player to will your team to extremes, you’d better have a Kenzie Williams.”

It wasn’t always this way: As a sophomore Williams swung between junior varsity and the varsity, and sort of floundered.

“I think it definitely had to do with my confidence,” said Williams. “I wasn’t very confident offensively. Defensively I thought I was fine but offensively I didn’t. It was definitely a frustrating season.

“I was glad I got to prove my junior and senior year. It feels good to have a comeback season.”

Or two, or four. It’s notable that her sophomore soccer season was similarly disappointing, when a promising team’s fortunes dipped all the way to a two-win campaign.

“We lost a lot of good seniors, good leaders on and off the field,” Williams noted (one was her sister Cadie). “That role wasn’t stepped into. Our team chemistry just wasn’t there. We had all the skills we needed but we just didn’t play well as a team. That’s what you need in soccer.”

In the fall of 2019 Glacier rebounded to make the State AA soccer semifinals. Then last winter the girls’ basketball team advanced to state, winning 11 games. Aubrey Rademacher was a force for the basketball Pack, but Williams hit a team-high 22 3-pointers while averaging 7.4 points.

“I think my favorite thing is her resilience,” Cram said. “Despite the success she has had, it has not always been that way. Her sophomore season was very challenging, and she just stayed on the floor and kept her nose to the grindstone.”

“Coach Cram instilled in me that I had the skills to play,” Williams said. “She allowed me to shoot the ball and just really gave me the confidence, and my teammates as well.”

There was no such crisis in soccer, where Williams followed in her sister’s footsteps: Each capped their senior season by being named Western AA player of the year as well as making the United Soccer Coaches’ all-region team.

“I think soccer’s always been my favorite,” she said. “I’ve been playing it since — I don’t even remember how small. Just growing up with my teammates through the sport has been a blessing in my life.”

That senior class — like Madison Becker, Taylor Brisendine, Keller, Reese Leichtfuss, Ady Powell and team co-captain Emily Cleveland — made history last fall. It was Brisendine who capped the season, one-timing a free kick from Williams for the lone goal in a 1-0 win over, yes, Helena High.

“I believe it was Madison Becker that got fouled about midfield,” Williams said. “I’d been taking free kicks all year and it was time to step up. I sent it long to the far post and the Helena defender misplayed it.

“Just a nice, easy finish. Pretty cool to finish on that.”

That last statement means what you think it means. “I’m ready to retire from soccer,” Williams confirms.

She might like to throw javelin in college, but academics will matter more.

“She’s an amazing competitor,” her soccer coach, Brenden Byrd, said. “But academically she’s spectacular. She would like to throw javelin at a higher level, maybe, but academics are her focus, and she’s going to succeed at anything she does.

“Good way to retire and hang up your boots, though.”

Unbeaten Missoula Hellgate has had no tougher time this basketball season than on Jan. 16, when the Knights needed to rally from 12 points down to beat Glacier 50-49. The loss possibly served the Wolfpack well.

“The way we played against Hellgate is how we’re taught to play,” Williams said. “It just really gave us the confidence to beat any team. Obviously we didn’t beat them, but we were right there.”

Williams, Keller and post player Emma Anderson make up a talented “big three” for the basketball team. Keller (13 points a game) and Williams (11) rank second and fourth in scoring in the Western AA. They also combine for six steals a game.

It’s another step up for Williams.

“I don’t think Kenzie did anything magical in the offseason to improve, besides work hard,” Cram said. “But I saw her confidence grow weekly last season, and the way she ended last season is how she started this season.

“A boring answer, maybe, but she’s grown in confidence. She believes in herself and her teammates.”