All-Area MVP: Fremont’s Timea Gardiner consistently did it all for the Silverwolves
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- Fremont High senior Timea Gardiner poses for a photo outside the school on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Gardiner is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Basketball Most Valuable Player.
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- Fremont High senior Timea Gardiner poses for a photo outside the school on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Gardiner is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Basketball Most Valuable Player.
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- Fremont’s Timea Gardiner shoots a free throw against Davis on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, at Fremont High School in Plain City.
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- Fremont’s Timea Gardiner drives to the basket during the 6A girls basketball state quarterfinals against Bingham on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at the University of Utah.
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- Fremont’s Timea Gardiner celebrates an and-1 basket during the 6A girls basketball state semifinals against Westlake on Thursday, March 3, 2022, at the University of Utah.
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- Fremont High senior Timea Gardiner practices with the girls basketball team Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021, at Fremont High School in Plain City.
PLAIN CITY — Timea Gardiner hasn’t yet sat down and deeply thought about her four years in a Fremont High girls basketball uniform.
There’s a lot to think about, admittedly, from starting as a highly rated freshman on a defending state-champion team to becoming the main focus of some opposing teams’ game plans in the ensuing years.
One word that came to mind was “bittersweet.”
“To play in the championship game, it was really fun. I mean, we didn’t win, but this year for sure, the team, the camaraderie, the connection that all of us had together, it was such a fun year. … It’s kind of a bittersweet moment. I’m excited for what’s next but I’m sad that I have to leave behind my best friends,” Gardiner said.
Gardiner averaged 15.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game, shooting 48% from the field and 79% on 3-pointers this season as Fremont went 24-3, won Region 1 for the fourth year in a row and finished as 6A state runner-up.
The Oregon State-bound senior, who stayed true to herself throughout her college recruiting process, consistently did it all for the Silverwolves this season on offense and defense while playing a couple of different positions along the way.
Gardiner is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Basketball Most Valuable Player.
“I thought I did pretty good considering the fact that I was on crutches a year ago. I’ve kind of come full circle,” Gardiner said, referencing her knee injury that kept her out of the second half of the 2020-21 season.
She eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career this season, finishing with 1,183, and was also a career 80.7% free throw shooter.
In her four years at FHS, the Silverwolves won Region 1 with an unbeaten record all four times, went to the state title game three times, played in the Nike Tournament of Champions twice and the Geico Nationals Tournament once.
Gardiner is proud of the legacy she’s helped leave at Fremont and says it’s helped put Utah girls basketball on the map. She herself is a top-10 national recruit and a McDonald’s All-American, recognition not often seen in the Beehive State.
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Yes, she and Fremont accomplished a lot in the past four years and she’s happy about all of that, but she also never got to celebrate the 2021 state title on the floor with her teammates due to her season-ending injury.
There was also this year’s title-game heartbreak, a 67-65 double-overtime loss to Lone Peak where Gardiner dropped to the floor at the final buzzer and covered her eyes.
They were both tough to handle in the moment, but she has a forward-looking view of things now.
“I wouldn’t say necessarily a regret, but everything happens for a reason. Good things will happen later down the road,” she said.
Gardiner also voiced some frustration regarding gender stereotypes in Utah carrying over into high school basketball.
“Some people carry that same stereotype over into female basketball or into sports, so girls have to be ladylike or be respectful on the court where certain people aren’t used to seeing girls flex, or say and-1, or be super fierce on the court,” she said.
Many times over the years, Gardiner found herself frustrated in games when she wasn’t able to physically go all-out for positioning in the paint against a defender, lest the defender flop or Gardiner get called for a foul for going too hard.
“It’s kind of unfortunate because Utah has this stigma of being like a soft state for women’s basketball, for basketball in general. When people don’t allow girls specifically to play physical like boys, it’s a disadvantage to us because we can’t show our talent or show our full talents or our full potential,” Gardiner said.
In club basketball tournaments across the country, the refs let the post players essentially duke it out underneath for position.
The same thing happened when Fremont went to Phoenix in December and played in the Nike Tournament of Champions, where the Silverwolves went 2-2, but played well because Gardiner and teammate Maggie Mendelson could use their size to their full advantage.
In the state semifinals, Gardiner and Mendelson could let loose a little bit against a Westlake team that also started two tall college-bound post players.
Such frustration about perceived unfairness would’ve driven Gardiner outwardly crazy her freshman year. It’s one of the areas she thinks she grew a lot her senior year.
“This year I feel like I got stronger emotionally and physically. I feel like every year my emotions have been something that I’ve had to work on consistently. My freshman year to this year, it’s like night and day,” Gardiner said.
For now, Gardiner is getting ready for another high school all-star game.
Last month, she was in Chicago for a whirlwind five days for the Adidas-sponsored McDonald’s All-American Game, one of 24 girls basketball players nationwide who participated.
Next week, she plays in the Jordan Brand Classic, also in Chicago, as one of 26 girls high school players participating. Then it’s off to Oregon State this summer for college basketball and the next step toward Gardiner’s dream of eventually playing professional basketball.