Kendall Mairs displayed maturity and professionalism in breaking the news to her basketball coaches and teammates that she will not be playing that sport her senior year

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

Kendall Mairs has always felt at home in a dome.

In the fall with her volleyball team.

In the winter with her basketball team.

That is all she has ever known with the Camas High School volleyball and basketball teams. 

Freshman, sophomore, and junior years, she and her teammates competed in the Yakima Valley SunDome at the Class 4A state volleyball tournament.

And freshman, sophomore, and junior years, she and her teammates competed in the Tacoma Dome at the Class 4A state basketball tournament. 

In fact, this past winter, Mairs and the Papermakers won it all in basketball.

A talented, multi-skilled, multi-sport athlete, Mairs has loved every minute of representing her school and her community in such high-profile team sports.

For her senior year, though, she has made the difficult decision to say goodbye to one of her sports. 

Volleyball is her priority. She will be playing college volleyball. She said she owed it to herself, and her college career, to become the absolute best she can be on the volleyball court. 

In the past, she coordinated her schedule in order to play high school basketball for Camas while playing club volleyball, as well. That meant many weekends when she had to choose between the two.

“These last three years of high school basketball, I’ve kind of sacrificed my club volleyball seasons for basketball,” Mairs said. “I want to focus on volleyball more, with my last year of club, to compete at the highest level.”

While she can change her mind, as of now in mid-September, Kendall Mairs is not going to be playing basketball for the Papermakers her senior year.

“Honestly, it was a really hard decision,” Mairs said. “All of my best friends are on the basketball team. Scott (Thompson) has been my coach since the fourth grade. It was a hard thing to do.”

Mairs had been weighing the pros and cons of this decision for years.

The club volleyball schedule does not align with an athlete who also wants to play basketball. There are volleyball practices two or three times a week, then a travel day, and weekend tournaments. And of course, in high school basketball, there are two, sometimes three games a week in the regular season, and the weekends are full of matchups for the best teams in the postseason.

“There were definitely some tears. It was a hard thing to do. But I had to do what was best for me,” Mairs said.

One of her biggest supporters in this decision was basketball coach Scott Thompson. Mairs said she was reassured of her decision due, in part, to Thompson’s understanding.

“This is a girl who has had to sacrifice to play basketball. Volleyball is her sport,” Thompson said. “She was willing to sacrifice some of that to give us three years. We prospered as a basketball team and so much of that was because of her. I obviously wanted one more (year), but I’m unbelievably appreciative of the three years she gave us.”

Michelle Ford, the volleyball coach at Camas, has known Kendall since she was a baby. Ford said it has been incredible to watch Kendall grow, not only as an athlete, but as a person. Ford is not surprised that Kendall was responsible during the process. Ford said Mairs tackled the decision and kept all the important figures in the loop during the process. 

There were no surprises.

“She’s really learned how to be professional,” Ford said.

Thompson agreed.

“That was the key for me,” Thompson said. “She didn’t let rumors get out there. She reached out to me, told me to my face. I was just really impressed with how she handled it.”

By giving notice in the summer, she allowed Thompson to plan for the 2024-25 basketball season without Mairs in the lineup.

“My message to her: Thank you for telling me in August. Thank you for being the one to deliver the message. It was hard for me to hear as a basketball coach, but she 100 percent did it the right way.” 

Mairs grew up playing volleyball, basketball, softball and soccer. By middle school, she was zeroing in on volleyball and basketball. It was the pandemic that led to volleyball being No. 1. During lockdowns, it was harder for club basketball to continue, but volleyball did not have as many restrictions. Teams are separated by the net, and the sport does not have body-to-body contact.

So Mairs started playing club volleyball and never again played club basketball. 

“That’s when I kind of fell in love with volleyball,” she said.

Mairs just got better and better at volleyball, and by her freshman year, she was good enough to be a setter and a hitter for the Camas varsity squad. Good enough, in fact, to be voted first team, all league. That is when she set her goal to earn a volleyball scholarship.

This year, she is the setter for Camas. In her recruiting process, she was told by many college coaches she could be a setter or a hitter.

“They told me I’m a utility player. I can play wherever,” said Mairs, who is 5-11 and can jump out of the gym. “That was definitely a big compliment.”

Mairs has stated her intention to sign with San Jose State. Signing day is Nov. 13.

For this fall, Camas has a young volleyball squad. The Papermakers graduated seven players who helped Camas earn the sixth-place trophy at state last year in Yakima. Mairs is the senior leader.

“We might be underdogs in some games,” she said.

Still, the goal is to make it back to Yakima.

Mairs said volleyball is her perfect fit.

“After every single point, everyone is coming in and talking to each other. I like that interaction,” Mairs said. “With volleyball, I am more naturally gifted than in basketball. In basketball, I always got nervous before games. With volleyball, I can just go out there, play, and enjoy it.”

That does not mean she did not enjoy basketball. She loved her teammates. She loved their intensity. And, of course, she loved having a key role on a state championship team.

“I feel without basketball I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I am and where I’m going for volleyball,” Mairs said. “It definitely shaped me into the person and athlete I am today.”

She will always have great memories of being a multi-sport athlete at Camas. Last year, the school won the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Scholastic Cup. A school is awarded points based on each sport’s finish in a state tournament. Mairs was on the sixth-place volleyball team and the first-place basketball team.

“We have a small community but we have so much talent coming out of all teams. I feel it was an honor (to be on those teams),” Mairs said. “It’s so cool to represent our community like that.”

Now, her athletic focus is volleyball. 

Kendall Mairs is secure in her decision. She will miss basketball, but she will always be a state champion in that sport.

And the way she went about choosing volleyball over basketball for her senior season, Kendall Mairs showed championship character — to her coaches, to her teammates, and to her school.