If any questions remained about the type of impact Payton Starwalt will make as a freshman on Crescent Valley's girls basketball team this year, she answered them this month.
The 5-foot-6 guard offered a glimpse of her elite shooting against high school competition in the End of the Trail Tournament in Oregon City. In eight games for her Valley Tropics club team, she averaged 22.6 points, making 41 of 72 shots from three-point range (56.9 percent) and 13 of 14 free throws. She also averaged 4.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks.
She is likely to become a driving force for the Raiders, the 5A runners-up last season.
“I'm super excited,” Starwalt said. “I have a great opportunity there. I love the girls there, and the coach is great. I just have to play the best I can, and make my teammates better, and try to win as many games as possible.”
Colleges already are taking notice. She has received interest from a Southeastern Conference school as well as several Pac-12 and mid-major programs, according to her father, former Crescent Valley baseball coach Ryan Starwalt.
Payton has played shooting guard for much of her youth but will transition to point guard for Crescent Valley. She played point guard for the Raiders in summer league and led the team in scoring.
“She got used to their offense,” said Ryan Starwalt, who is joining Crescent Valley's staff as an assistant to coach Eric Gower this year. “They lost their point guard and shooting guard, so she was able to help replace that all as one.”
Payton is embracing the switch to point guard, a position she is likely to play beyond high school.
“I really like point,” said Payton, who had 13 assists in one game. “I like to pass, so it's fun.”
Ryan said that Payton – named after former Oregon State great Gary Payton -- has the mentality and court vision to excel as a point guard.
“So many kids force shots, and she doesn't do that,” he said. “If she gets doubled, she always finds an open person. She's very much a team player.”
Still, Payton's deep shooting range is her elite skill. Most of her three-pointers come from well behind the arc, sometimes from nearly 30 feet away. Her quick trigger allows her to get off shots with little space.
It usually takes out-of-state teams a few minutes before they realize they can't allow Payton any room to shoot. But she already has a reputation in the state.
“Usually they put their best athlete on her and face-guard her,” Ryan said. “But she can play point, so she can come off ball screens and do other things to get shots.”
Payton is getting used to the attention from defenses.
“You have to learn to move a lot and set up your teammates more, and not worry about yourself,” she said. “You just have to make everyone around you better while you're doing your best to get your own shots, too.”
Payton benefits from training in a gym with a 68-foot court at the family's home in Philomath. The two-year-old facility was built by Ryan, the owner of Northwest Sports Turf Solutions, a business he started in 2017.
She shoots for about two hours each day. According to Payton, she shoots about 70 percent from three-point range unguarded, and has made 33 in a row. She shoots 90-plus percent on free throws, once making 85 in a row.
Payton, who has had game highs of 38 points and nine three-pointers, said her shooting form has come a long way in the last few years.
“It wasn't very pretty,” she said. “I'd just kind of chuck it up there and it would go in somehow. But fifth or sixth grade, I totally redid my shot. I fixed it. It definitely started going in a lot more.”
Payton attended first grade in Philomath, went to school in the Corvallis district from grades 2-5 and returned to Philomath the last three years. She will attend Crescent Valley in part because of Ryan's history as a coach and teacher there.
Ryan, a member of Philomath's third-place team at state in 1996, knows that Payton will go through an adjustment period in high school ball.
“Her physicality is what can become a problem because she can get pushed around a little bit,” Ryan said. “And that's what teams try to do to her. She's going to get targeted, but I've told her that it's actually good for her because you want their best shot.”
Against middle-school club teams last winter, Payton played for a Philomath team that won a state title in the large-school division, compiling a 50-4 record. She showed that she can be effective despite often facing double-teams.
“Playing against other eighth-grade club teams ended up being a really good challenge,” Ryan said. “She went up against some kids that are athletic, 5-9, 5-10 soccer player kids that are really tough on defense. She hasn't played too many easy games in the last 15, 16 months.”
jerryu@osaa.org
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