Recruiting Report: Seairra Hughes, Vista PEAK 2020

The Vista PEAK girls basketball team put together an impressive 21-3 season and reached the second round of the Class 5A state tournament in Colorado. Current senior Seairra Hughes was right in the middle of the Bison’s success. Not only is Hughes back, she thinks this year’s Vista PEAK squad could end up being even better than last year’s and has a chance to advance past the second round. Geared up for what the expected to be an impressive senior season, Hughes is hoping to maximize her own potential, as well as her team’s, and to find a place to play college basketball along the way. “It’s going pretty well,” Hughes said. “I’m getting a few looks. I just know I want to go somewhere it’s hot. I’m really focused right now on making my senior season count because our starting five, I’ve been playing with those girls since the fifth grade. This is the last time we’ll all get to play together as a team so we want to make it a good one. “Our team still has the really good chemistry we had before. We just need to fill in the gaps with the players we lost. I feel like we have the potential to be better than we were last year.” Hughes, who is currently the No. 18-ranked 2020 player in the PGH Colorado rankings but is likely to move up that list once the winter prep season begins, is a strong player with a tough, pit bull mentality. Over the years, Bison head coach Howard Payne said, she has learned how to use her abilities to lift her team up and did a much better job of that over the summer. Academically sound, Hughes also play for the Vista PEAK volleyball team in the fall but still finds time to play fall league hoops with her Bison basketball teammates. “Volleyball is going well,” Hughes said. “It’s really busy in the fall but I like getting the chance to do both.” As a junior in 2018-19, Hughes averaged 9.7 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.3 steals a night. The 5-foot-11 forward has the skill set to play either on the perimeter or in the post, and has the strength and physical nature to hold her own at the next level. “She’s got a few colleges she’s looking at but right now, she’s open and ready for business,” Payne said. “She’s going to do some visits over the fall break but for her, the more she plays, the more they see her, the better the opportunity is going to be. She’s got some D-II’s interested, some premium-level JUCO’s and she has a couple D-I’s. She has one offer on the table so the activity is there. Somebody’s just got to pull the trigger.”