STATE CENTER — Bella Borgos is following a family procession in basketball that now has her blazing her own trail.

Borgos, a two-time all-state pick, averaged 19.2 points, 4.5 assists and 4.7 steals per game for West Marshall girls basketball this winter, helping lead the Trojans back to the state tournament for the second time in three years. She is the 2024-25 Times-Republican’s Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

“She had a tremendous four years for us,” West Marshall head coach Cody Hackett said. “The time she puts into the game of basketball, the love she has for it and how she works with her teammates, she grew so much from her junior to senior year. … The other girls look up to her.”

Basketball was an early influence on Bella’s life through her family connections.

Bella’s father, Rich, played on a DMACC National Final Four team in 2002 as well as a six-year stint in Puerto Rico’s professional basketball league. Her older brother, Isaiah, was a Marshalltown grad that went on to play at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.

“I started when I was really, really young,” Bella said. “And following in my older brother’s path, and seeing how in love he was with basketball, the passion behind it, really led the way for me. I was that cool little girl training with the older girls a lot of the time. And my own love and passion has only grown.”

Borgos and Lily Zahnd were four-year starters for a Trojan squad that went 78-19 in those four years, including a 45-5 stint in the 2021-22 and 22-23 seasons, the final two seasons for Hall of Fame coach Fred Zeller led by two-time T-R Player of the Year Katy Reyerson.

After the Trojans finished up as state quarterfinalists in 2023, a young West Marshall team went 14-8 in 2023-24 in Hackett’s first year at the helm, bounced by Williamsburg in a one-point regional opening loss.

Borgos averaged 20.8 points that season, emerging as the new statistical standout for the Trojans, a target that only grew larger in her senior season.

“There’s a lot of physical work that goes into basketball, a lot of practice, but for me, the past four years has been about the mental side, too,” Borgos said. “Playing tough teams, the ways I’m getting guarded, sometimes it’s a lot, it can take a toll.

“You’ll hear things about you like, ‘She shoots the ball too much, maybe she’s not as good as she seems,’ but having a good coach and coaching staff at my side, and my dad, everything like that, it’s definitely helped me a lot.”

She also credited her teammates for building a strong team chemistry, particularly over the last two years.

“The big thing people don’t see is that team bonding that goes into our chemistry,” Borgos said. “You need to all understand each other, when one is down, the others need to be willing to help. And you work through adversity as a team, and that’s a big part of it all coming together.”

Hackett added: “I think she grew a lot in trusting her teammates and what they could do. She did shoot a lot for us, and when you look at the amount of time she puts in the gym, she gets the opportunity to shoot the ball for us. But as a coach I was fortunate to have her and the other senior girls that saw what Fred had accomplished here and didn’t want to go backwards.”

All of that team building and growth molded a season-defining victory earlier this year as West Marshall knocked off fourth-ranked Forest City in the regional final, 51-48, to return to the state tournament.

On paper, Hackett admits it seemed impossible after committing 25 total turnovers and not getting any points from Borgos in the first half.

“Our team stuck together,” Hackett added. “The positive attitude our seniors brought to the rest of the team, you could tell we were going to be OK, Bella would get going in the second half, and in the meantime other girls stepped up in that game. … When you’ve got the senior girls that we have, we knew we had the girls to do it and the seniors really led the way with that work to get that state tournament berth.”

The Trojans’ next game was not as thrilling, a 75-19 thrashing from eventual 3A champions Mount Vernon in a quarterfinal in Des Moines and a bitter pill for West Marshall’s seniors.

“That was a hard situation,” Borgos said. “But like I said after the game, it’s nice to have a good community, good team, good coaches surrounding you. The coaches wanted to make sure we knew that this one game didn’t determine our careers, who we are as players. And we really played amazing this whole season, and got where we needed to be.”

Borgos hopes she’s played a part with this year’s senior class in leaving a blueprint for future waves of Trojans like the Reyerson-led groups did for her.

“Us four seniors were very dedicated,” Borgos said. “We wanted to get better, wanted to push each other and were never scared of the limits we’ve never reached. And our coaches pushed us also, so I think with these next few years and the girls coming up, the program is going to pick up where we left off, and I’m excited for them.”

She now turns to the next level, announcing her commitment earlier this year to the Lincoln University of Missouri where she’ll join the Blue Tiger women’s basketball team.

“I’m super excited,” Borgos said. “It’s going to be weird not wearing black and yellow and showing up to this gym every day, but a new chapter is a blessing. “I’ve got a lot of things to work on and I’m excited to play with a new team and learn different ways because the college game is so different. It’s all about new opportunities for me and I know Coach [Addae] Houston and [Leonard] Erickson are excited for me to come down there.”

She’s looking at education paths in either criminal justice and/or psychology, with dreams of becoming an investigative psychologist.

“I like taking care of problems, and being able to go to a crime scene or help with a family case or anything like that is something I’d like to do,” Borgos said. “I always knew since I was younger that I wanted to help make the world a little better.”

2024-2025 Times-Republican All-Area Girls Basketball Teams

Player of the Year — Bella Borgos, sr., West Marshall

Coach of the Year — Amber Gerringer, Gladbrook-Reinbeck

FIRST TEAM

Kennedy Brant, jr., F, Gladbrook-Reinbeck

Grace Farnsworth, jr., F, BCLUW

Frankie Long, so., C, Marshalltown

Karlee Lynch, jr., G, Grundy Center

Elly Sieh, jr., G, Gladbrook-Reinbeck

Lily Zahnd, sr., F, West Marshall

SECOND TEAM

Dorothy Bear, so., G/F, Meskwaki

Klayre Gallentine, sr., G, BCLUW

Millie Heitmann, jr., G/F, Marshalltown

Halle Jones, jr., F, West Marshall

Savannah Moeller, sr., C, BCLUW

Ava Mundt, so., F, Grundy Center

THIRD TEAM

Kali Aldrich, jr., G, Grundy Center

Ava Breakenridge, sr., G, North Tama

Kruiz Ewoldt, jr., F, North Tama

Ellie Hughes, sr., F, Marshalltown

Skyler Murty, fr., F, GMG

Brinn Schneider, jr., G, Gladbrook-Reinbeck

Former All-Area Players of the Year

2023-24 — Morgan Neuroth, sr., East Marshall

2022-23 — Katy Reyerson, sr., West Marshall

2021-22 — Katy Reyerson, jr., West Marshall

2020-21 — Allison Engle, jr., BCLUW

2019-20 — Olivia Terrones, sr., East Marshall

2018-19 — Jessica Musgrave, sr., South Tama County

2017-18 — Isabelle Gradwell, sr., West Marshall & Hailey Wallis, jr., Grundy Center

2016-17 — Isabelle Gradwell, jr., West Marshall

2015-16 — Katie Lindeman, sr., Grundy Center & Gabby Reyerson, sr., West Marshall

2014-15 — Shayla Dean, sr., Colo-NESCO

2013-14 — Caitlyn Riese, sr., Colo-NESCO

2012-13 — Dia Keahna, sr., Meskwaki Settlement

2011-12 — Madison Baier, sr., South Tama County

2010-11 — Madison Baier, jr., South Tama County

2009-10 — Tara Gray, jr., GMG

2008-09 — Jessica McDowell, sr., AGWSR

2007-08 — Jessica McDowell, jr., AGWSR

2006-07 — Allison Volkens, sr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2005-06 — Allison Volkens, jr., Gladbrook-Reinbeck

2004-05 — Chelsie Luhring, sr., Grundy Center