REPEAT PERFORMANCE: Redbank Valley’s Mylee Harmon Earns Second Straight KSAC MVP Honor

NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT/D9) — It was one of the most frustrating times of Mylee Harmon’s young life.

The junior guard on the Redbank Valley girls basketball team was in an unsettling skid and was at a loss to steer herself out of it.

Five points against Hazelton. Four points against Moniteau. Just two points against Keystone. Career lows.

She also fouled out in games against Moniteau and Keystone.

It was an unusual scoring drought for a dynamic player who had been remarkably consistent.

Adversity and Harmon were virtual strangers. Now they had become far too chummy.

(Pictured above, Mylee Harmon)

“I just had to keep my head straight,” said Harmon, who admittedly struggled in that department, too, for a time. “I had to keep my eyes on the prize, I guess you could say. We were working hard as a team and I had to put the team first and not just think about myself.”

Once Harmon did that, the rest took care of itself.

Mylee Harmon once again played like, well, Mylee Harmon.

She was rewarded for her resilience on Monday when she was named the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference Girls Basketball MVP. It was the second year in a row Harmon snagged that honor.

This one meant a lot more than the first.

“This year has been definitely more difficult,” Harmon said. “We’ve had a lot more adversity than last year. Last year was kind of a breeze, to be honest.”

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Not so much this year.

Part of that was a much stauncher schedule with an inordinate amount of road games against tough non-conference opponents.

Still, Redbank Valley is sitting at 16-5 with a regular-season finale against Johnsonburg on tap today and then the KSAC tournament, which starts Thursday.

Harmon’s numbers are still there.

She’s averaging 18.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 7.4 steals and six assists per game for Redbank Valley — all improvements on the statistics she put up during her MVP season as a sophomore.

Harmon is more pleased, though, about having three of her teammates on the all-KSAC teams.

Sophomore guard Addy Bond was also a first-team selection. Senior Izzy Bond and junior Kira Bonanno made the third team.

“Usually just one of two (from the same team) get spots, but we had four of our five starters make it. That means a lot,” Harmon said. “It shows how spread out we are and how dynamic we are as a team.”

Harmon had resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t repeat as KSAC MVP, especially during that mini mid-season swoon.

When she found out she had repeated, she admitted she was shocked.

“Especially because there’s a few seniors like Lily Homan (from North Clarion) and Catherine Kelly (from Moniteau) who have played really, really well this season,” Harmon said. “I thought for sure one of them would get it.”

The pressure was certainly on Harmon this season to live up to the hype she had built for herself during her first two years.

She also had the looming milestone of 1,000 career points to deal with.

Harmon reached that quickly and is rocketing up the all-time scoring list at Redbank Valley.

Now, Harmon’s focus is on helping the Bulldogs to another KSAC and District 9 title. She said that tough schedule — and all that adversity — will help in the long run.

“It taught us that there are better teams than us out there,” Harmon said. “It also taught me that things aren’t always going to go smoothly and you can’t be on your high horse all the time. You’re going to have adversity in your life and these things help you deal with that. It makes you a better person. You’re always going to have upsets in your life, in relationships, in school, work and in sports. It definitely taught me a lot.

“We have big plans,” she added. “We want to win the KSAC, the district and win some games in the state playoffs. We’ve been looking forward to that since the summer.”

KSAC GIRLS ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS

MVP: Mylee Harmon (Redbank Valley)

FIRST TEAM
Taylor Alston (Clarion)
Addy Bond (Redbank Valley)
Mylee Harmon (Redbank Valley)
Lily Homan (North Clarion)
Catherine Kelly (Moniteau)

SECOND TEAM
Ashlee Albright (Keystone)
Sophie Babington (Clarion)
Kendall Sankey (Moniteau)
Brooklynn Taylor (Karns City)
Naomi Venesky (Karns City)

THIRD TEAM
Izzy Bond (Redbank Valley)
Kira Bonanno (Redbank Valley)
Jenna Dunn (Clarion-Limestone)
Ainsley Hartle (North Clarion)
Brooke Steinman (North Clarion)

Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.