Stiles verbally commits to U of M

Last Tuesday, Malta M-ette senior Sophia Stiles announced that she had intent to play for the University of Montana Lady Grizzlies during her collegiate freshman year. The commitment right now is in the verbal stage, but Stiles plans on signing with the team in November.

Stiles has been a valuable piece of the Malta M-ettes basketball team since her freshman season in which the team has since finished as state runner-up in 2014, and the State B Champions in both the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

While Stiles had been leading Malta to a current 52 game win streak, the U of M has been sticking close to Stiles.

"I've kind of talked to them since my freshman year and I've been to their camp every summer since then," Stiles told the PCN.

Though the school had shown interest in Stiles, she wasn't sure where she would commit.

"I didn't know where I wanted to go," Stiles said. "I had a couple of other schools I was looking at and I just chose them a week ago."

With her resume, including multiple individual track and field titles and placing in cross country, Stiles garnered interest from other schools.

"I thought about Bozeman (Montana State University) for a long time," Stiles said. "I decided last Sunday and that's when I called Shannon (Schweyen) and I definitely decided that day between Bozeman and Missoula."

Though Stiles had verbally committed, it wasn't news around the state until Tuesday, September 12, when Stiles made it known through her Twitter account.

Stiles visited the U of M campus on Labor Day and was happy with what she saw.

"I really liked it," she said. "The campus itself is pretty and I really like the gym. It will be fun to play there."

For those wondering, Stiles had also garnered interest outside of the state, but those offers didn't seem to intrigue her.

"I talked to some schools from out of state but I definitely wanted to stay in Montana," Stiles said. "I'm too much of a homebody to leave."

Stiles' commitment to the Lady Griz would also mean that she would reunite with former M-ette and current Lady Griz forward Hailey Nicholson who was also a valuable part of the State B title winning teams in 2015 and 2016.

"I talked to her on Sunday after I had made my commitment and so I guess we are going to be teammates again," Stiles said. "She seems pretty excited and I'm really excited to play with her again."

Stiles had seen Nicholson at her college visit over Labor Day; however she hadn't talked to Nicholson much during the recruiting process.

The Lady Griz have recently seen change in the team's coaching staff with the retirement of longtime Lady Griz Head Coach Robin Selvig last season. The team will be led by Coach Shannon Schweyen, who had played under Selvig and has been his assistant coach for years.

Stiles is unsure what offense she has to learn under Coach Schweyen her freshman year.

"I don't know what she's going to run for sure," Stiles said. "I think everyone's just kind of expecting that she will kind of run a similar offense and defense as Robin Selvig."