Hi-Line Athlete Profile: Ryley Kehr, Northern women's basketball

As the younger sister of one of the best players for the Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team in recent years, Ryley Kehr knows she has big shoes to fill. Her older sister, Peyton Kehr, is seventh in the program's history with 1,423 career points. Now that Ryley takes over as a leader for the Skylights, Ryley looks to lead the team with her play just like her sister did.

"She was a leader through example and I would say I'm similar. We're not super vocal people," Ryley said. "I just want to be a leader with people just watching my actions instead of me being a vocal leader."

Ryley comes from a basketball family from Columbia Falls. Ryley and her sister played other sports as well growing up, but basketball just united the entire family in a way that no other sport did.

"It was a sport that my whole family could do," Ryley said. "When we'd go to the gym on a Sunday, we'd choose basketball and we'd just play it. The love for basketball started to grow more than the other sports just because we could do it as a family."

After she finished up high school, Ryley came to Northern to get the opportunity to play with her older sister. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peyton got another year of eligibility which allowed the sisters to play together for a total of three seasons.

"It was definitely special and it was super fun," Ryley said about playing collegiate basketball with her sister. "She's my best friend so it makes it fun to do something that you both love every day."

Now that Peyton has left the program, Ryley now has to step up as a senior on the team. So far this season, Ryley is averaging 12.2 points a game on 48.8 percent shooting from the field and 82.6 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

The Skylights are off to a 4-5 start this season and are 0-2 to start Frontier Conference play. While the Skylights have faced some adversity early this season, Ryley believes they are still learning and have the competitiveness to improve over the course of the season.

"For the first few games, you're definitely getting to know what people do in certain situations," Ryley said. "We're still making a few too many mistakes that are costing us some games but I'm definitely proud of how we've been playing and how we always show up for every game."

The Skylights will look to improve their play when they play in the Phoenix Frontier Challenge starting Tuesday. Before the Skylights head down to Arizona, the Havre Daily News got the chance to ask Ryley five questions.

HDN: Over the years, what have you loved the most about the game of basketball?

Kehr: "I like how competitive the sport is and how fast you can change the game. If you make a mistake, you can turn around and do something good on defense or offense to make it better."

HDN: What do you look forward to about your final season in the program?

Kehr: "This team is so much more different than any that I have played with. There's quite a few new people, there's people coming up and I just think we're a different type of group. It's super fun to play with everyone and every game we come in and compete. We enjoy every game and we get along super well just playing together. I'm just excited to play every game with them for the remainder of the season."

HDN: What's the most important thing that you learned from your time at Northern?

Kehr: "I would say just leaning on those that are around you during tough times and just playing through whatever is thrown at you because you can never predict what's going to happen."

HDN: What are your plans after college?

Kehr: "I want to move back to the Flathead Valley and I want to teach PE. I'm not sure what school yet but elementary school is my ideal age group. Also, my mom is a PE teacher and my dad and my sister are fifth-grade teachers so I'm hoping I can get in at the schools and it could just be a big family affair."

HDN: What do you like to do in your free time?

Kehr: "I'm super active. We do a lot of hiking, camping and fishing back home in the summers but during August through May, we're pretty set on basketball because those are the prime things."