In what has been an exciting and very pleasing season of Girls basketball at Falls Church HS, four Lady Jaguars were honored by the Conference 13 coaches as deserving special recognition as the cream of the crop for the 2015-2016. No previous Falls Church team in memory had this many players selected.These four players graced the ranks of All-Conference first team, second team, rookie team, and defensive team (with three players making two of these teams). The following profiles highlight this quartet, focusing on their season accomplishments:

First Team: Amber Ecelbarger

?Falls Church's thousand-point girl needed a very productive season to reach that lofty bar and the senior point guard cleared it with an outstanding campaign, averaging nearly 12 points per game and a stunning 5 assists per game which demonstrated that she had a hand in over 50% of the teams baskets this season. Identified by the Washington Post in December as one of the top four players in the conference, Amber lived up to the early-season hype by reigning as the conference's runaway assist queen--in fact, she finished the regular season ranking in the Top 5 players for assists in the entire DC Metro area. Amber also had the most "3s" and third-most points of any first-team conference candidate. Ecelbarger was a shoo-in bid for first-team honors by the Conference 13 coaches.

Second Team: Sierra Kennard

The Fabulous Freshman wowed the conference with a dazzling number of points this year (303 and counting), ranking third in points overall. She also enjoyed success with thirty "3s" (third in the conference) and ranks high in the entire DC metro area as a clutch free-throw shooter with an 80% success rate from the penalty stripe. The shooting guard was the top vote getter for second team honors by Conference 13 coaches.

Second Team: Leann Loch

The senior center enjoyed an excellent campaign as one of the highest point-producing forwards in the conference, tallying her third straight season of over 170 points. Her versatility did not go unnoticed as she is one of the few front-court players who can comfortably line up and shoot from the perimeter and distribute passes from congested traffic under the net to open players both inside and outside (no other forward in the conference came close to matching Leann's 35 assists). She also was a reliable free-throw shooter with nearly 60% success rate in her attempts. It's especially pleasing that the Conference 13 voters recognized Loch's offensive talents and awarded her appropriately for them.

Second Team: Leah Shaw

The tall guard has moved up from all-rookie team honors last year to enjoy an outstanding sophomore season, easily taking the Conference three-point championship with 40 baskets this year from beyond the arc, and becoming only the fourth Lady Jaguar in the last nine years to clear 200 points in a season. More than that, Shaw was an excellent all-around player: a reliable free-throw shooter, a good set-up guard with 40 assists, and an outstanding defensive guard with 116 rebounds and over 30 blocked shots this season.  Conference 13 coaches usually realized far too late how dangerous and damaging Leah was to them.

All-Defensive Team: Amber Ecelbarger

The senior point guard received the third highest number of votes on this eight-player team and well deserved it. A disruptive force atop the 2-3 zone, Amber's quick hands and feet wreaked havoc in the back-court of the opposition. She had over 60 steals this season, second in the conference. She also was a shut-down defender in man coverage. Amber had her most successful season in rebounds with 65 boards and also recorded nine blocked shots.

All-Defensive Team: Leann Loch

The senior forward entered the season with a strong reputation as a top defender in the conference and she lived up to that billing once again, ranking among the DC metro-area elite with 148 rebounds and 30+ blocked shots. Opposing teams were forced to game plan to counter this threat from underneath but no plan could stop her from her natural talent. A well-deserved honor.

Rookie of the Year/All Rookie Team:  Sierra Kennard

?The freshman shooting guard made opposing teams pay early and often for not knowing who she was and what she could do. From driving baskets on opening tip-offs to clutch free-throw shooting, no first year varsity player in Conference 13 came close to Kennard's production. By recent historical comparison, she had nearly 100 more points than had Jada Graves--the current and three-time conference MVP--after the same number of games during the Edison Eagle's freshman year. With 17 games of 10 or more points, including four games of 20 or more, Sierra's 300+ points are the highest in the early history of Conference 13 for freshman, and for Falls Church, Kennard's outstanding shooting has not been matched by any player in the past nine years, and not by any Jaguar freshman in nearly a quarter of a century. This top honor means that she is easily among the top freshman of the entire DC metro area.