Moses Lake’s Madisyn Clark headed to Western Oregon next season

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake senior Madisyn Clark checked one goal off her list this week signing with Western Oregon University to play basketball next season. Clark and the Chiefs will face off against Decatur on Saturday after being crowned District 6 champions last Friday night.

Clark said she felt that Monmouth, Oregon, home of the Wolves, was a small community a lot like Moses Lake.

“It just resembled home,” Clark said. “I think just having all their fans come out to the games will be more exciting. Just, all the girls on the team are really connected, and it seemed like a really good fit for me.”

In joining the Wolves of Western Oregon, Clark is heading into a program where she said they like to play everyone.

“Even as an incoming freshman, it’s going to be good for me getting that playing time,” Clark said.

Clark said she’s had dreams of playing at the next level ever since she started playing the game. Moses Lake alumnae and former teammates Jamie Loera and Abby Rathbun, who both currently play Division I basketball, are players Clark said she wanted to follow.

The senior point guard for the Chiefs said she decided to have her signing this week, so she could take the weight off her shoulders and put all of her focus into her final postseason run.

Clark is one of five seniors on the Moses Lake roster this season, and has been playing with these girls since she was in elementary school.

Moses Lake head coach Matt Strophy talked about the benefits of having a group together for so long.

“That’s always a benefit if you maintain the same personnel and people aren’t switching in and out,” Strophy said. “You can develop that trust, and so when you have them playing together for so long that does make a difference.”

Strophy talked about how proud he was of his senior guard’s progression since she came into the program as a freshman.

“She has really done a wonderful job growing as a person, growing as a basketball player, and I think she has the ability to go and play at the next level as a result of that,” Strophy said.

Clark said the main thing she’ll miss once she heads on to the next stage of her playing career will be her friends and the people she’s grown up beside.

“Especially the basketball team, that’s my main friend group,” Clark said. “It’s moments like this that I’ll remember with them, so it just makes it that much more memorable.”

Clark begins her last run for a state championship on Saturday afternoon at Big Bend Community College as the ninth-seeded Moses Lake takes on 16th-seeded Decatur.