Emma Broadbent’s coach describes her as a once-in-a-generation talent.

Over the course of her high school career, the 18-year-old South Summit High School senior not only helped lead her team to the state championship tournament this season, but she also shattered Utah’s career rebounds record for the first time in 29 years.

“We started tracking this [record] near the end of last season, and she got her 1,000th rebound in our last game of last year,” said Matt Mapstone, the high school girls basketball coach. “She needed 400-something to break it, and she had done that last year during last year’s season, so we knew it was attainable.”

Broadbent collected her 1,465th rebound in a game against Carbon High School in early February, surpassing the record set by Beaver High School’s Makenzie Gillins in 1996. She had 1,518 career rebounds as of Monday afternoon.

“It was actually crazy because my parents, every time I looked up at them, they held up fingers for how many more rebounds I needed,” Broadbent said about the Carbon High game. “It was a lot of pressure because I think I needed 13 rebounds that game. By the end of the second quarter, I had nine or 10, so I was like ‘OK, I can do this. I can get four more rebounds in the next two quarters.’”

And she was right — another player fouled in the third quarter, giving Broadbent a chance to line up and grab her fated rebound during a free throw attempt.

“The announcer went over the microphone and announced I had just beat the record, and I just started tearing up,” Broadbent said. “It was just a moment where you’re like, ‘Wow, I really did that.’”

Mapstone, who started coaching Broadbent her sophomore year, said she’s always been a dominant player, top scorer and had an “over-the-top basketball IQ.” In fact, she’d already crushed one state record by the end of her junior year by collecting the highest number of rebounds in a single season.

It hasn’t always been an easy journey, though.

South Summit has largely been rebuilding for the past few years, and Broadbent recalled one season with only three total wins. But the team’s perseverance has paid off, and the girls team is participating in the state championship tournament this week for the first time as a 3A school.

“It’s been tough for us because, literally, we have 500-something students, and every other school in our region is over 1,100, 1,200 students,” Mapstone said. “It’s always been tough on us to compete, but we finally broke through this year. Emma’s a big reason.”

Broadbent shines as a basketball player, but she’s a three-sport athlete. She also plays softball and volleyball, and she’s committed to play volleyball for Southern Virginia University next year.

“It’s just been the norm for me for my entire life, going from one sport to the next. I don’t really know what coming home after school is like,” she said, laughing. “Every single free minute I have at school, I dedicate to doing homework just so I don’t have to do it late at night, and then I’ll go to sports practices.”

Southern Virginia originally reached out to Broadbent to recruit her for basketball, but she ended up messaging the volleyball coach on Instagram during her school visit. The coach wanted to meet her, and Broadbent fell in love with the team. She chose to pursue the net over a hoop because of the pressure to perform well.

“It’s good to have pressure, but it took a toll on my mental health. I fell out of love with [basketball] for a hot second, so I didn’t really go through the recruiting process with a bunch of schools. I had a bunch of D1 schools looking at me when I was a freshman and sophomore, but I didn’t feel like it was right,” Broadbent said. “Volleyball has always been the sport where I can just have fun and I don’t have to be good, but I feel like that almost allowed me to be good because I was just having fun with it, so that was the route that I picked.”

Broadbent said she’s thinking about becoming a teacher and majoring in education. She’s looking forward to college and playing with her new volleyball team, but there are aspects of high school she’ll miss, namely her teammates who have grown up alongside her as friends and athletes.

“We’ve been playing basketball together since we were little, especially because we go to a small school,” Broadbent said. “My best friend, Mariah, plays basketball, volleyball and softball with me, so we bond a lot and we have a lot of time spent together. It helps us to almost perform better on the court because we know each other’s tendencies. … The sport doesn’t change, but the people you’re around and your friends, they’re all going different places, so it’s going to be hard, especially the first couple months, but I’m excited to make new friends and to have new experiences.”

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The Park City High School girls basketball team faced off against Grantsville Thursday evening, Feb. 9, 2017, but not before honoring the team’s seven seniors and their families mid-court with gift bags, flowers and team-signed basketballs. The Miners fell to the Cowboys 83-42. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School Miners celebrated a 49-47 win over the Tooele High School Buffaloes Friday evening, Jan. 13, 2017. The student section and cheerleaders dressed in rainbow to support LGBTQ+ suicide awareness. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School boys basketball team faced off against Union High School Tuesday evening, Jan. 10, 2017. The Miners fell to the Cougars 56-61. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School girls basketball team facd off against East High School Tuesday evening, Jan. 3, 2017. The Miners fell to the Leopards 46-70. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School basketball team went up against the South Summit High School and North Summit High School teams on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively, in their third annual Park City Classic matchup. The Miners fell in both matches. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School boys basketball team faced off against Highland Tuesday evening, Nov. 29, 2016. The Miners fell to the Rams 37-48. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School boys basketball team faced off against American Leadership Academy Tuesday evening, Nov. 22, 2016. The Miners beat the Eagles 64-41. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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The Park City High School girls basketball team faced off against Cyprus High School Tuesday evening, Nov. 22, 2016. The Miners beat the Pirates 47-39. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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