Next Level’s Lady Huskies reach championship

CAPTION: The Next Level Sports-Hill Country Lady Huskies celebrate earning medals June 22 by finishing 2-1 at a tournament in Austin. The team includes Charley Powell (left), Paisley Ivy, Rose Edwards, Mila Tubig, Jayden Burrow, coach MaeSyn Gay, Lily Cardeno and Aubrey Chapman. Courtesy photo

The Lady Huskies, a basketball team based in Burnet County, finished 2-1 at a tournament June 21-22 at the Austin Sports Center. 

Their only loss was in the tournament championship by three points. They took the final shot of the game, but it didn’t fall.

The Lady Huskies team is part of Next Level Sports Hill Country and is coached by MaeSyn Gay, a 2024 Burnet High School graduate who is playing basketball for Hardin-Simmons University. It consists of fourth and fifth graders.

Next Level’s executive director is Sonny Wilson, who has coached at Faith Academy of Marble Falls, Marble Falls High School and is currently an assistant girls basketball coach on legendary coach Rhonda Farney’s staff. Farney was recently named the High School National Coach of the Year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association for the 2024-25 season. It’s the second time the association has given her the award.

Gay credits Wilson for helping her develop into the player she has become. She received just about every individual award in high school by opposing district coaches as well as the Burnet High School staff and finished her first year as a Cowgirl as a member of the all-freshman team of the American Southwest Conference.

“I played with Sonny basically my entire life,” she said. “He’s like an uncle.”

At the start of the District 24-4A campaign in January 2023, Gay suffered a season-ending knee injury. While she was rehabbing, Wilson proposed a way for her to stay in the game.

“Why don’t you start helping me coach?” he asked.

She agreed and was coaching the third graders.

“They were my age when I started playing with Sonny,” Gay said. “They’re the best group of girls I’ve ever met. Some are going into the seventh grade. How did y’all grow up so fast? They give me a hard time, but it’s a great dynamic. The last two years, I was the assistant. This year I’m coaching the younger group.”

The team is a mix of Burnet County residents.

“It’s girls wanting to compete every single day,” Gay said.

She pinpointed why Next Level and Wilson have been great at helping children become the players they want to be.

“What Sonny did with us in the second and third grade – he just made it fun,” she said. “He wasn’t serious. He instilled the love of competitiveness and winning and wanting to be good. He’s so passionate about sports and kids. You want to live up to that because he’s so good. Winning is amazing, it’s the best feeling, it’s just about winning. It’s about wanting to be great and wanting to be first in your position every time. He wants us to be the best and be coachable.”

Passion is one of Wilson’s traits that’s obvious to see. He knows what to say and how to get his players ready to battle when they step onto the floor.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Gay said. “He speaks fire into you. He pours everything into you He gets the wild out of you in a good way.”