
Front row, from left, Juliana Staten (mother), Ashlah Staten and Kevin Staten (father): Back row, from left, Jacob Stout (WUHS Girls Coach), Reagan Willingham (Rio Grande Graduate Assistant), Dave Smalley (Rio Grande Women’s Coach) and Ethan Stricklett (WUHS Athletic Director). (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The Adams County pipeline for Rio Grande women’s basketball coach Dave Smalley continued last week as Coach Smalley, a Peebles graduate, was at West Union High School to add another county athlete to his program. I a ceremony held at WUHS on January 9, Lady Dragons’ senior Ashlah Staten signed her letter of intent to continue her athletic and academic career with the Red Storm.
Nearing the midway point of her regular season, Staten is averaging 9.1 points a game and is hoping for a late season surge that will push her over the 1,000 point mark for her career (she stood at 830 at press time). Staten has also bee one of the standouts of the West Union volleyball program, achieving over 1,000 assists and 500 digs in her four-year career.
“I had heard about Rio from other people and I made the decision to make a visit,” Staten explained. “I decided to meet with Coach Smalley and I actually ended up getting my scholarship offer that same day. I’ve always wanted to play basketball at the college level and I know Rio has a great program and when I met with all the coaches, it just felt like home. It really seemed like a ‘team’ and that’s what I really wanted.”
“I think what I will remember the most about my time at West Union will be the beginning of this, my senior season, how we started about 4-0 and playing great basketball. Just the improvement from last year to this year, that’s what sticks out to me the most. I definitely try to be a role model for our younger players, keeping a positive attitude even when things don’t go well.”
For her freshman and sophomore seasons, Staten was coached by Bernie Cropper and her final two seasons have been under the guidance of current Lady Dragons head coach Jacob Stout.
“It’s great to have Ashlah as part of our team,” says Coach Stout. “It’s hard to find a guard who plays as well on both ends of the floor as she does, she fits that role perfectly. She’s going to do wonderful things in life and it’s a thrill for me to see her move her game to the next level. Her leadership abilities are outstanding.”
For Coach Smalley, whose 2024-25 squad is currently nationally ranked in NAIA, it was yet another trip home that ended with him adding another local talent to his roster.
“The recruiting process today compared to 15 years ago has changed drastically,” said Coach Smalley. “You can do so much online now, but Ashlah is the type of young lady that I want to bring in to our program, academically solid and she has goals and direction with what she wants to do in life. I want to have people in our program that have focus and direction.:
“We run a reserve program that is a feeder system for our varsity and we expect Ashlah to begin there. Every year we have reserve players bumping up to varsity and at the reserve level they learn our system. We treat everyone the same and invest in our players and I want them to get better and move up. For every player that comes into our program, it comes down to what they want to get out of it. I love to look at players in Adams County, this is my home. Someone took a chance on me in 1978 and I went to Rio and I just want to give back to my county.”
“Our goal is to find good players and good people and I think Ashlah is going to be able step in, pay her dues and get ready to move up,” Smalley continued.
In her time at Rio Grande, Staten plans to study Nursing.