LAKESIDE — El Capitan High School freshman Alauna Powell gave her basketball teammates and coaches “Most Likely To” T-shirts earlier this season. Assistant coach Mackenzie Curtis, El Cap’s all-time leading scorer, received a shirt reading “Most Likely To Set Records.”
Senior Keira Heinricy, a four-year starter, was given a T-shirt saying, “Most Likely To Break Records.”
A dead-eye shooter from deep, Heinricy came into the season with 201 3-pointers, four shy of the school record.
With 51 treys this season, Heinricy’s career total sits at 252, obliterating the school mark of 205.
The person who held the record? Mackenzie Curtis, El Cap’s assistant coach and the sister of head coach Dylan Curtis.
“Keira is setting the record so far out there, I don’t know if it’s ever going to be broken,” said Mackenzie Curtis, who played collegiately at New Mexico and Idaho. “You’re talking about a girl who whenever the gym is open, she’s there. And when it isn’t open, she’s asking you to let her in.”
El Capitan, blessed with a rich girls basketball history, is 14-5 and ranked 12th in the San Diego Section by MaxPreps.com.
Heinricy is the primary reason for the Vaqueros’ success. She’s averaging 19.5 points, eighth in the section, 6.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.9 steals per game.
What can’t be measured is her basketball passion.
Said Dylan Curtis: “She loves the game more than any kid I’ve ever coached.”
Heinricy, who has accepted a scholarship offer from NCAA Division II Hawaii Pacific, is young as seniors go. She won’t turn 18 until April. She’s one of three children, bookended by older brother Kaden and younger brother Cooper.
Their father, Matt Heinricy, is a pastor and basketball junkie. Since the family moved to Santee in 2016, a basketball hoop has been a fixture in the driveway or on the street.
“We were always playing basketball,” Matt Heinricy said.
“From the time we got home from school ’til the sun went down,” said Kaden.
The siblings and father often played 2-on-2. Kaden and Keira, though, seldom were teammates.
“If you put them on the same team, they’d argue and fight,” said their father. “That never went well.”
El Capitan High School senior Keira Heinricy is one of the best 3-point shooters in CIF San Diego Section girls basketball history. (El Capitan High School)
Kaden Heinricy played varsity basketball for three seasons, one at Santana and two at Steele Canyon, where he averaged double figures as a junior and senior. When Kaden and Keira played the shooting games P-I-G or H-O-R-S-E or 1-on-1, Kaden didn’t take it easy on his little sister.
One of Keira’s happiest memories came when she was 14 and rejected one of Kaden’s shots at the rim when they were playing 1-on-1. Their father caught the moment on video and Keira beamed in disbelief after the swatting.
“I was so happy just because he was talking so much (smack),” Keira Heinricy said. “I kind of shut him up.”
Keira averaged 13 points as a freshman, 14.5 as a sophomore and 13.6 as a junior. Her scoring has jumped to 19.6 this season. Her 51 3-pointers rank tied for first in the section and 45% shooting from deep ranks second, according to MaxPreps.com.
Her best shooting percentage on 3-pointers before this season was 34 as a freshman. Dylan Curtis, who began coaching Heinricy on a club team in fifth grade, said her shooting percentage from deep has significantly improved in part because her game is more well-rounded now, particularly her ability to put the floor and attack the basket.
At 5-foot-8 and 140 pounds, Keira is the first to admit she’s not blessed with insane athletic ability.
“I think I knew that at a very young age,” she said.
She compensates for that with keen court awareness and her ability to hit from deep.
“I don’t think you have to be athletic to shoot or be a good leader,” she said.
Said Dylan Curtis: “Starting in high school, I don’t know that she has ever missed a day of working out.”
Be it shooting, practicing, lifting weights, training, working on her dribbling or going for a run, Keira said Curtis is probably correct.
“I don’t like sitting and being still,” she said.
Of the thousands of shots she has hoisted across her lifetime, she said, “Shooting a basketball kind of fulfills my soul.”
Dylan Curtis said that as good of a basketball player as Keira is, “She’s probably a better person than basketball player.”
Heinricy admits she feels some pressure being a pastor’s daughter.
“But I like the pressure, in basketball and in life,” she said. “I think it holds me accountable to be a good person.”
She has paid it forward in basketball, coaching youths in the Lakeside Stampede recreation program.
Heinricy plans to major in education at Hawaii Pacific. She wants to become an elementary school teacher.
“I want to give kids a safe space to learn and grow as people,” she said.
No. 1 from 3
The San Diego Section’s girls career Top 10 made 3-point field goals list. At her current pace of 2.7 made 3-pointers per game, El Capitan’s Keira Heinricy is on pace to finish with 279 made 3s.
Ranking,Name, Number, Years
1. Jessica Grant, Mission Hills, 486, 2019-22
2. Alessandra Aguire, Bishop’s, 436, 2014-17
3. Katie Kuklok, Poway, 336, 2008-11
4. Elise Paty, San Diego, 323, 2003-06
5. Kelly Simers, Santana, 321, 1993-96
6. Destiny Littleton, Bishop’s, 317, 2014-17
7. Citalli Gurrola, Mount Miguel, 271, 2017-19
8. Shyla Laton, Bonita Vista, 267, 2014-18
9. Keira Heinricy, El Capitan, 252, 2023-present
10. Jamie Legaspi, Westview, 241, 2009-12
10. Katie Girtin, Westview, 241, 2004-07
Source: CIF Record Book