Burleson to Snyder: The Journey Continues for these Lady Elks
Lady Elks First-Team All-District seniors Kendall Carlock and E'Marie Lewis are continuing their story as a dynamic duo on the court for Western Texas College
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In the 2023-24 season, forward Kendall Carlock and guard E’Marie Lewis led the Lady Elks varsity basketball team to its first playoff berth since 2015. That’s a piece of the legacy the two First-Team All-District graduating seniors leave behind as their chapters at Burleson High School come to a close. The rest of their story together is still being written.
The girls will continue being teammates at the next level as they’re both committed to playing college basketball for Western Texas College.
“I don’t think they’re ready for us,” Lewis told me when I asked how she thinks her and Carlock’s chemistry will translate to the college level.
Lewis isn’t the only one with high expectations for the duo.
Rachael Eubank, Western Texas College Lady Westerners head basketball coach said the chemistry between Carlock and Lewis is “crystal clear,” and they’ll be “special” playing college basketball together.
The girls, playing together since their sophomore year in 2021, built their chemistry over time and became “really close” this year when they started spending more time together outside of school, Carlock said.
Lewis said the girls have a sisterly relationship after spending so much time together practicing and working out as well as taking many classes together and talking every chance they get.
All that time together has developed “a very good connection” between the girls, Carlock said.
“We always know each other’s next move,” Carlock said of her and Lewis’s chemistry. “We’re always feeding off each other.”
Carlock and Lewis were both excited when they realized they’d have a chance to take their chemistry to the next level after separate visits to Western Texas.
“I never had someone as close like that on the court, so having her is great,” Lewis said of continuing to have Carlock as a teammate.
That chemistry is huge for Western Texas because the program will be “basically brand new” next year as eight of the nine players on the roster are graduating, Eubank said.
Eubank, coming off her first season as Western Texas’s head coach, believes Carlock and Lewis can have an immediate impact on the team she led to 13 wins in 2023-24 after winning five games in 2022-23.
Lady Elks head coach Brenda Gomez, who said she can’t wait to watch the girls play together again, expects them to be successful in college because of the way they worked hard through adversity during their time together at Burleson.
“I think their potential will get them farther because they do put in extra work,” Gomez said. “They’re reliable.”
Eubank believes the girls’ work ethic is part of what makes Western Texas the right program for them. She said they’ve shown her “hard work doesn’t scare them off.”
Eubank’s philosophy on hard work and coaching in general, which Gomez believes is similar to her own, is a big part of what made the girls choose Western Texas.
Eubank described herself as a defensive-minded coach, which Carlock appreciates because she loves playing defense and believes it wins championships.
“When the other team is so confident that they’re about to score, and you stop that with steals, I think that is so great,” Carlock said.
Carlock said she could tell Eubank was “an amazing person from the beginning.” Lewis was particularly fond of Eubank for not caring about her height. With Lewis standing at 5 feet, 2 inches tall, Eubank referred to her as “tiny and mighty.”
“[Eubank] didn’t care that I was short,” Lewis said. “She wanted that fight, that dog.”
For the girls to be successful in college, they’ll have to overcome the challenges that come with the “job” of being a student-athlete, including a “rigorous” schedule, Eubank said.
Lewis said her and Carlock having each other will help them get through those challenges.
“We’ll have each other to lean on and say ‘We’ve got to get through this. We’ve been through so much. We can’t give up now,’” Lewis said
One thing the girls will have to adjust to in college is no longer being the seniors and de facto leaders on the team. Carlock expects them to continue leading though, particularly by example.
“I know it’s a scary thing, but we can still lead even though we won’t be the oldest, and help our team win next year,” Carlock said.
The girls developed the ability to lead during their time at Burleson. They’ve matured and become very communicative during their time there, Gomez said.
“They’re doing more to help solve problems than to make problems,” Gomez said of how the girls have grown. “They’re helping to think about how they can overcome things, how they can make their team so much better.”
On top of growing as leaders, the girls also grew in their confidence on the court, which has led to them enjoying the game more, they said.
As the girls grew, they came to believe they could make the playoffs, which the Lady Elks hadn’t done since 2015.
“Just seeing our growth and seeing that we could make it, it just made us so determined,” Lewis said. “It made it seem like anything is possible.”
The Lady Elks won fourth-place in District 8-5A after going 9-7 in district and 17-13 overall and faced the District 7-5A champion Denton Ryan Lady Raiders in the Lady Elks’ first playoff game in nine years.
Carlock scored a team-leading 16 points, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds and added a game-high three steals in the Lady Elks’ loss to Denton-Ryan in the Bi-District Championship game. Lewis led the Lady Elks with four assists in the loss.
Carlock said it was amazing to make the playoffs, and she’s happy to have impacted the Lady Elks basketball program in that way.
Lewis added that making the playoffs in District 8-5A wasn’t easy, but it showed her what to expect at the next level.
“There’s more girls that want this spot and are willing to do everything for it,” Lewis said of what she learned in making and playing in the playoffs.
Carlock and Lewis will continue to face those girls that want it just as much as they do when they play for Western Texas, which plays in what Eubank called the toughest conference in junior college.
Western Texas will have something their opponents don’t though, which is two All-District teammates and friends who couldn’t be more excited to continue playing together.
“[College basketball] is a part of your life, a chapter that not everybody gets,” Gomez said. “The fact that [Carlock and Lewis] get to do that together, they’re going to cherish that forever.”