Hermiston's Shoni Schimmel shoots the ball over the top of Pasco's Brittany Ortiz last December in Hermiston.

After a summer of speculation by girls’ basketball fans around the state, Hermiston’s star player from the past two seasons officially has transferred to Pendleton High School.

Last year’s Class 5A Player of the Year Shoni Schimmel, along with younger sister Jude Schimmel and lifelong friend Sammantha McCloud, announced the move to Pendleton girls’ basketball coach Ryan Sams at the beginning of the first week of school and have been training with the cross country team this week.

Both Schimmel girls were in the Pendleton school district up through 2006 and McCloud attended Pendleton High through 2007.

Last season Shoni Schimmel and McCloud were starters on the Hermiston varsity team which finished second at the Class 5A girls’ basketball tournament at the University of Portland Chiles Center after going undefeated in Intermountain Conference play. Both were firsts for the Hermiston program.

First year girls’ basketball head coach Steve Hoffert, who has been an assistant for more than a decade, said he had his assumptions during the summer that the girls wouldn’t be back for the 2008-09 season.

“We didn’t get contact throughout the summer so I was figuring they weren’t coming back,” he said. “All three are girls I enjoyed coaching, and I wish I had the chance to keep coaching them, but now we’re looking forward to competing against them.”

Hoffert said there are no hard feelings about the situation and the Hermiston team has been preparing through the offseason expecting to be without them.

The transfer, added with the graduation of seven seniors, means the Bulldogs bring back just three players with varsity experience in Hannah Whitsett, Marie Pedro and Samantha Webb. Hoffert said despite losing many key contributors, he’s excited about the squad’s chance at competing for a 14th consecutive trip to the state playoffs.

With the three girls added to Pendleton’s lineup the Buckaroos become the favorites to win the Intermountain Conference, especially with Bend’s start point guard Brittane Niebergall transferring to Wilsonville.