Lady Warriors are now hanging 'Bigger Banners'

Mar. 13—LEXINGTON — Oh, what a fantastic journey the Lady Warriors basketball team took us on this year!

This year's version of the Lady Warriors not only claimed their third regional crown in four years, but they advanced all the way to the KHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament Final Four. The Lady Warriors played on the final day of the KHSAA basketball season for only the second time in program history.

And while this year's Southwestern High School girls basketball team's post-season run will be long remembered by Warriors fans, this year also served as another stepping stone in the program's rich history and lengthy struggle to the top of the pile in the 12th Region.

At a school established less than 30 years ago, winning a region title was just a far-fetched pipe dream in the early days of the girls basketball program. Now, regional titles are the norm and a state title is looking more and more like a near future reality than a pipe dream.

"When my oldest daughter (Destiny) just started playing basketball in the program, Southwestern was hanging district runner-up banners, and they were in a four-team district," Southwestern High School girls basketball coach Junior Molden stated.

And like the great Lady Warriors basketball players of the past, Makayla Noritis, Kaylee Young, Ayden Smiddy, Kinsley Molden and Payton Acey will long be talked about as some of the greatest females to ever don the 'blue and orange' basketball uniform. You can now add their names to the list of past great Lady Warriors like Devin Fothergill, Danay Fothergill, Destiny Molden, Samantha Fitzgerald, Adison Corder, Regi Cundiff, Kallie Sheron, Kennedy Harris and Alexa Smiddy — just to name a few.

Starting back in the infancy of the Lady Warriors' struggle to be the best team in the 12th Region was the late Tim Rice, who brought a whole new level of excitement to the program. Rice started to get the program noticed on the regional and state levels, but there was teams like former state champion Rockcastle County always standing in their way.

Stephen Butcher took the program to the next level with unmatched success in 48th District play, with an undefeated district record over a span of six years. Butcher also got the Lady Warriors recognized at the regional and state levels, but teams like the two-time state champion Mercer County Lady Titans always seemed to stand in the way.

But Butcher and the Lady Warriors finally broke the dam in 2019 with the program's first 12th Region championship and a state tournament runner-up finish. On the last day of his coaching career, which ended in the state championship game at Rupp Arena, Butcher stepped down to pursue his education administrative career.

Following Butcher's departure, the rumor mill was abuzz as to who Southwestern might hire as their next girls basketball coach. However, the next Lady Warriors' basketball coach would have no varsity head coaching experience and had only been on a varsity coaching staff for a couple of years.

From an outsider looking in, the unexperienced Junior Molden probably didn't seem like the right choice to lead a former state runner-up basketball program. For the Southwestern High School girls basketball program, Junior Molden was the absolute best choice.

At some level of their young careers, Molden had coached and instructed almost every girl to ever come through the Lady Warriors' basketball program over the past 10 years. And during that time, Molden was teaching all these little girls the basic fundamentals of the game and then sending them off to become successful Lady Warriors varsity basketball players.

But beyond the X's and O's of the game, Molden's coaching style was based more on his own family life experience than trying to win games. He only got into coaching, at the youth level, when his own daughters started to play basketball. But it didn't take long to see that not only was Junior Molden a father to his own daughters, but he was like a father to every little girl that played on one of his team.

So when Junior Molden was named as the Lady Warriors newest head basketball coach in 2019, every varsity player on the team was ecstatic.

Taken over the legacy left behind by Tim Rice and Stephen Butcher, Junior Molden has now shown everyone that even greater things now lie ahead for this already successful girls basketball program.

Ten years ago, hanging district runner-up banners might have been the norm for the Lady Warriors basketball program. Don't be too surprised if hanging state title banners might become the new norm in the not too distant future of the program.

With Junior Molden at the helm, Kaylee Young, Ayden Smiddy, Kinsley Molden and Payton Acey will now lead the future generation of Lady Warriors to the program's next level of success.

STEVE CORNELIUS is the CJ Sports Editor and can be reached at sports@somerset-kentucky.com. Follow him on Twitter at @CJSportseditor.