Wichita sixth-grade girls basketball team dominates, wins youth national championship

A Wichita sixth-grade girls basketball team recently won a youth national championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Kansas Elite Heat 2028, a team featuring mostly Wichita natives, defeated teams from all across the country to capture the NTBA national championship for the sixth-grade girls gold division on June 26.

It was a dominant showing from Kansas Elite Heat, which had a 30-point average margin of victory and held opponents to an average of 14.6 points per game. The team defeated Wood Elite, 40-14, in the finals to win the championship rings.

The team consists of Wichita natives Kamaria Marcy, Damaria Chiles, Queen Chalmers, Alex Dinsmore, Jenna Akin and Amiya Kates, Eudora native Avah Dye, Lawrence native Jayla Colter and Tulsa native Janiya Jones. The team is coached by Dee Garland, a former Southeast standout who also coached a local fourth-grade boys basketball team to a world championship last summer.

“They were really excited, but it was kind of weird because they almost acted like they had been here before,” Garland said. “They were taking turns doing Tik Toks and taking pictures with the rings, but in a way it was like they had the expectation to meet the goal, they did their jobs, so now what’s next? I couldn’t be upset about that as a coach.”

Kansas Elite Heat is a first-year organization that assembled the sixth-grade girls team last September. While some of the girls had played together for other teams in the past, this was the first year this group had played together — and also the first time Garland had coached girls.

Garland said there was an adjustment period in those first few weeks, but once the group built chemistry and found its rhythm, the team has been playing for nothing but championships this summer. Garland said the team has compiled a 59-8 record since September.

“These girls always had the potential (to be champions),” Garland said. “Coaching girls is definitely different than my boys teams, but I think these girls have molded me into a better coach. They were just dialed in once we got to Myrtle Beach. They listened to me and followed the script and trusted everything I said and we achieved our goal together.”

“I think the girls won because they had the focus, the drive, determination and effort and we know defense always wins,” said Brittany Burrough, the mother of Queen Chalmers, whose father is former Kansas Jayhawks star Mario Chalmers. “They went to Myrtle Beach on a mission and they completed that mission and captured every goal along the way.”

Dye, a standout from Eudora, was once again superb for the team in Myrtle Beach, while Marcy and Chiles, both from Wichita, also rose to the occasion on the national stage, according to Garland.

And when the team needed a timely play, Chalmers stepped up for her team.

“I think she plays with the same chip on her shoulder kind of like her dad did,” Garland said of Chalmers. “Big-time players make big-time plays and Queen made a lot of big-time plays for us and was one of our most consistent players.”