Carly Letendre (12) broke three records in her Dos Pueblos High School varsity girls basketball career this season. After scoring 1,374 career points to break the standing record of 1,135, Letendre broke the 3-point record by making 255. Additionally, Lentendre dominated on defense, earning an overall record of 249 steals.

“My coach called a timeout, and I hadn’t realized I broke the record,” Letendre said. “All of my teammates started screaming and telling me that I broke it.”

According to Letendre, her drive to succeed is fueled by her mindset.

“My teammates [and coaches] have always motivated me to get better … but also just

myself,” Letendre said. “I’ve always had that drive to want to get better and want to improve because I’m kind of a perfectionist. I’m not going to be perfect, but that striving to want to get better has driven me.”

Letendre trains daily to perform well on the court and said that training has helped her achieve success throughout the season. Her current practice focuses on strength training outside of school, as well as shooting drills.

“I do a lot of weight training and plyometric training,” Letendre said. “I do a lot of one-on-one, group training — ball handling, shooting, and finishing.”

Additionally, Letendre acknowledges the importance of consistency in training and currently tries to work with a personal trainer once a week. However, she practices on her own as well.

“I try to just get shots up every day, even if it’s just in my backyard, like 100 or 200 shots up every day,” Letendre said.

Being a point guard requires strength, not only physically, but mentally as well. Over the course of her high school career, Letendre said that she had faced many challenges, including her own mindset.

“I have this perfectionist mentality: It’s a really high expectation that’s obviously not going to happen,” Letendre said. “That has held me back some of the time, because I would get mad at myself for not performing enough, but this year specifically, I’ve learned to try to get over that mindset.”

To overcome the challenges she faced, Letendre has had help from her basketball coach, Andy Casanueva.

“Honestly, just having a coach that believes in me has really helped my abilities and helped me succeed,” Letendre said. “[In] previous years, I haven’t really had that, and so having that this year helped me build confidence.”

In addition, Letendre said her mindset played a vital role during games.

“A lot of things go through my head during games because my position (point guard) requires me to do a lot of thinking,” Letendre said. “Most of the time, I’m thinking about the play we’re running, where everyone needs to be, and everything I need to be doing on defense.”

Letendre added that she is grateful to her teammates for pushing and supporting her.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get those records without my teammates,” Letendre said. “[They’ve] been some of my closest friends, and they’re just incredible people, and without them believing in me and them supporting me, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve these records at all.”

Letendre will be continuing her basketball career in college at the University of Puget Sound next year.