Free State senior Chantay Caron tries to keep the ball away from Olathe South senior Kelsey Balcom. Caron scored 23 points in the Firebirds’ 58-41 loss on Senior Night Friday at Free State High.

Entering her senior season, there wasn’t a whole lot Free State girls basketball standout Chantay Caron had left to accomplish.

Already, she’d established herself as one of the state’s more high-profile players. She’d scored 36 points in a game as a junior, led the Firebirds to back-to-back winning records and earned a scholarship to play at Kansas State next season.

The one thing that had managed to elude her during an otherwise decorated prep career, however, was a trip to the Class 6A state tournament.

“It was just like we’d come so close, and we’d just get matched up with a team that we’d played before, and it was just impossible,” said Caron.

Until this year.

Thanks in no small part to Caron, this year’s Journal-World girls basketball player of the year, Free State turned in its best season in three years, topping Shawnee Mission West, 50-45, in the sub-state finals and earning a trip to the state tournament in Emporia for the first time since 2006-07.

There wasn’t much the 5-foot-11 Caron didn’t do this winter. In addition to finishing with season averages of 14.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, her offensive and defensive versatility might have proved most beneficial to the Firebirds.

Free State coach Bryan Duncan felt comfortable playing Caron at just about any position on the court, while citing her ability to guard anyone from a point guard to a center as a large part of the Firebirds’ success this season.

“She’s an impossible matchup for opponents,” Duncan said. “If a post guards her, she’ll take her to the hole. If a guard guards her, she’ll post up. She played point guard for us all (last) season out of necessity, and this year, played anything from point guard to the five position.”

She also showed an ability to take over games when Free State needed it the most, most notably in the team’s sub-state championship victory over SM West.

Against a team that had beaten the Firebirds earlier in the year, Caron finished with a team-high 20 points and 12 rebounds in the victory, though the numbers don’t do justice to the impact she had down the stretch.

Following the game, coaches said the victory meant more to the senior than probably any other of her career.

“When we were walking down the stairs to go to the locker room (after the game), I was walking with Chantay,” said Free State assistant coach Matt Frost. “And you could just tell she was really, really excited.”

While her on-the-court exploits won’t soon be forgotten, meanwhile, it was Caron’s behind-the-scenes efforts that will likely define her senior season. As a team captain, Duncan said, Caron was viewed as a “big sister” for the team’s younger players, helping shape a number of underclassmen who’ll attempt to replicate the success Caron enjoyed throughout a celebrated career.

And that, said the coach, will be the player’s lasting impact.

“It would be easy for a kid who’s committed to K-State for three years to have an ego and be self-centered,” Duncan said. “But she was the ultimate team player. She was never concerned with scoring or rebounding totals, just (being) humble and a team player.”