Basketball history

Basketball. Aaaah. Where to begin with that one. It's time for part III of my sports history collection. If you missed part I and part II, don't despair. You can easily flashback. And that's what I am going to attempt to do without really overdoing it.

1986-87
So, the first time I played basketball was in the fourth grade. I cannot find a picture of that team. I remember that our coach was Rev. Harden, whose wife had been my first grade teacher. I remember he let girls play and that he didn't make cuts. That being said there were like twenty-something kids on the team. John played on that team. He was one of the better players. I barely ever played.

1987-88
After that, I decided basketball was not for me, and I became, yes the rumors are true, a cheerleader. Unfortunately, I did find a picture proving that history to be true.

Not sure if you can find me. I'm the bottom of the pyramid (big surprise there) on the right side. I am holding hands with my friend Holly, whom I reconnected with up north last June. One of my dearest friends, Michelle, is second from the left on the pyramid.

My most vivid member of cheer leading was actually making the team. I ran to the bulletin board, saw my name on the list, and turned around to see my Dad by center court in the gym. He worked at the school remember. Anyways, I told him I made the team and he gave me a big high-five. Looking back as an adult, I am sure my Dad wasn't thrilled at all with me being a cheerleader, but I would never have known it by his actions. What a great Dad!

1988-89

Anyways, one year of cheer leading was enough for me, and the next year I returned to basketball as a sixth grader. This time there were tryouts, and I did make the team. I remember that there was some concern about me being the only girl, and my Dad sat down with me and discussed whether I was okay with that. It didn't phase me at all. I felt cool being the only girl. Here's a picture I snagged from a yearbook of me playing in sixth grade.

I'm standing next to my brother in the back row. You can also see me running down the court in the middle picture, and I think shooting a free-throw in the last picture. I remember that I shot the ball very badly in sixth grade, sort of a two handed hike from behind my head. But I still scored a few baskets every game. My brother was only a fourth grader, but he was one of the better players on the team so they let him play.

1989-90

Next up? Seventh grade basketball. Our school only had two girls basketball teams: varsity and JV. JV was composed of girls from 7th grade through 10th grade. However, you could be moved up to varsity at any point along the way. You can tell from the photo below that I wasn't incredibly taller than the other girls (although I am the only seventh grader on the team.)

That's me with the curly bangs. Number 3. I was about 5'7" at this point.

I don't have a lot of recollections of my seventh grade season. I remember that I played a lot, but I don't remember really standing out on that team. I think I was one of the better players, but I was definitely not a superstar by any stretch of the word. I remember that during one of the last games, I fell and sprained my wrist.

1990-91

Now I am in the eighth grade and something quite amazing has happened. I have grown eight inches. I am 6'3". I kid you not. Between seventh and eighth grade was when I did all my growing. Needless to say, my knees paid the price. I had a heck of a time handling the "growing pains" in my knees. I even had an MRI to rule out another problem. In the end I was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatters Disease which is "a very common cause of knee pain in children and young athletes usually between the ages of 10 and 15. It occurs due to a period of rapid growth, combined with a high level of sporting activity."

In 8th grade (1990-91) I was moved up to the varsity team and began playing for my Dad. I can't find a picture of that team, but I can vividly remember who was on it. It was me, an 8th grader, a ton of juniors, and our "superstar" Kelly Macomber. Kelly was definitely the big-name on the team that year, but I played a good supporting role. I started and averaged 10-12 points a game. I didn't win any awards this year, but I was definitely molding into a basketball player.

As I mentioned previously, this was when things started to turn around for me. Those older girls were so kind to me. They really included me and made me feel welcome. It was a breath of fresh air after some of the meanness that surrounded my middle school years. I really believe it was being included and important to that team that allowed me to begin to develop the self-confidence that I would need as I grew up. Self-confidence to stand tall and be proud that I was tall and gangly and still trying to figure out how my long arms and legs worked. Basketball and volleyball were Godsends for me in that regard.

Our team was good, but not as good as Westminster Academy across town. They were our big rivals. And they beat us in the District Championship.

1991-92

All right. So Kelly Macomber graduates, and now I am a freshman. I found a picture of that team. You'll have to excuse all the paint fragments on the photo. (My father painted the ceiling in our mobile home one year and this picture was not covered along with some other items that I think created a little bit of an argument between my Dad and Mom!)

That's me with the headband in the second row. This team is all seniors except for Rachel R. who is in the front row far right. She was a sophomore. She had transferred in from another school and was a fantastic athlete.

By this point, I had begun to come into my own as a basketball player. I now averaged about 25 points a game during my freshman season. I would earn All Tournament awards in our own Lady Crusader Invitational Tournament and the Cardinal Gibbons Tournament. At the end of the year I would be name the MVP of the conference and both newspapers would name me the small school MVP of the entire county. I was all named to the 2nd team All-State.

Summer 1992

That summer, I also began playing AAU basketball. I had played some during my 7th and 8th grade seasons but we didn't do much travelling. Just a lot of practicing and getting to know the other girls in the area. So, I would play high school volleyball, then move into high school basketball in the fall. When that finished sometime in February, I would transition to club volleyball. AAU Basketball would then begin in the summer. AAU Basketball and club volleyball did overlap a bit, and I remember that overlap often resulted in two practices a night. It was definitely the hardest time of the year for me.

Here is my ninth grade AAU Basketball team. Each summer, our team would play in various tournaments in an attempt to qualify for the national tournament. We would have to win the state tournament to represent our state at the national tournament. From my recollection, we did this every year.

That's me. Number 13 in the back row. One of my best friends on the team was Camille C. She is number 15 in the front row.

I found this picture of me and Camille from one of the years we played. I know we are wearing FLCS uniforms but that was because they were no longer being used by our school and our AAU team "inherited" them.

I have recently had the extreme privilege to reconnect with Camille via Facebook. She is married now with four beautiful children. I think one of the reasons that she and I were so close was that I was one of the only Christian school kids on the team. Camille was Mormon. We therefore shared a very similar value system that allowed me to know there was always someone who would be there with me if I felt pushed to do things I didn't want to do.

I remember what impressed me most about Camille was her work ethic. She wasn't the best player on the team. But she was, by far, the hardest worker. I remember thinking that if Camille's work ethic could be warped into one of our best players, we would win the National Tournament. Now don't get me wrong. Camille was a great player. If she would have been on my high school team, she would have been a superstar. But mixed in with our AAU girls, she wasn't our best player. She did go on to play smaller school college basketball.

And I understood how Camille must have felt when I started playing at WKU. I was a hard worker at WKU. I wasn't a drinker. I was going to bed on time and taking care of myself. I would come in each year after working all summer and my dedication in the off-season showed. And yet despite my work ethic and improvement, I just wasn't as good of a player as other girls. I just naturally didn't have the skill set they had. That's a frustrating feeling. But I think I learned a lot in how to carry myself from watching Camille in AAU. She was a fantastic person and basketball player.

1992-1993

So tenth grade basketball in high school. I couldn't locate a picture of that. But all of our seniors were gone. I believe it was the year that despite being the best team in the county, we were upset in the District Championship. My Dad may have to correct me on that one. Either way, I brought in the same honors. I was again the MVP for the conference and both newspapers in the County. I was also second team all-state again. I was consistently leading the county in blocks, points, and rebounds.

Summer 1993

Again I played AAU that summer. There's me #20 in the back row. My Dad had started helping to coach the team at this point. And there is Camille in the front row. Mr. L. was a local gentleman whose heart was devoted to girls' basketball in the community. If I have regret about AAU basketball it was not being kinder to Mr. L. He didn't quite know how to coach me as a post, and as a result, I let my frustration get the best of me. I realized that I hurt him with my bad attitude. I never did that with another coach or teacher again.

1993-94
I'm a junior now. This year our team makes it to the State Championship game. Unfortunately, we were blown away by Paxton High School in the final. Latonya Washington was their superstar and she was amazing! Either way, we did make it to the championship game which was a major achievement. I win the same awards this year but am moved up to the first team All-State. Here is a photo of our team at the State Championship game.

That's Kelly (from Steg family blog) on my right in the back row. She and I were fantastic friends from the day we were born, lost touch a bit in college, and reconnected through her and then my infertility journey. Lisa (#20) is also a pretty loyal blog reader and still lives in South Florida. Rachel #15 was the second best player on our team. She was a fantastic point guard. She now works as a nurse in South Florida.

Here is our page in the State Championship media guide.

Summer 1994

Junior year AAU team. Here we are:

That's me center in the back. Kym Hope to my left and Gina Graziani to my right but in the front row would go on to play for the University of Miami. Camille is there in the front row to my left again. The gal on the far right of the picture is Jackie. She and I recently reconnected via Facebook. She was actually working as a stock broker in New York City. Celeste (front row far left) played for a school across town but transferred to Fort Lauderdale Christian before my senior year. This was the key to our team returning to the State Championship as our point guard, Rachel R., had just graduated.

Another picture of that team at the National Tournament.

Our junior year of AAU had a lot of drama. To make a long story short, there was a falling out with a few girls on the team. They, in turn, decided to start their own team across town, and recruited a bunch of big names in the county. The thing was, only one of our teams could go to the National Tournament. We had to play each other to go. There team had already bought uniforms and purchased their airline tickets for the National Tournament. However, we ended up beating them handily to go to the tournament. My Dad will tell you that that was one of the most "tense" games in his life. And I remember being extremely nervous as well. We ended up picking up a few of their players to head to the National Tournament.

1994-95

Senior year. Celeste had transferred in which was the difference in us being an "okay" team and a "great" team. She was a fantastic point guard. Megan (front row left) was also becoming a very big force on our team. We ended up losing in the state semi-final game. Celeste had fouled out at the end of the game and so I was left to take a three to tie the game. I missed, and we lost.

Our media guide page from my senior year.

After that, I was named, again, MVP of conference, county, and both newspapers. I believe I was the first athlete to ever win the newspaper MVPs all four years of high school. I began to be recruited during fall of my senior year and committed to go to Western Kentucky University.

Recruiting is quite an adventure. I was probably recruited by about 75 schools all over the country. I narrowed it down to schools in the southeast and went from there. I took home visits from Florida State University (FSU), WKU, Appalachian State, Georgia, and NC State I believe. I took visits to FSU, WKU, and Appalachian State. FSU had been recruiting me since the eighth grade so turning them down was one of the hardest things my Dad and I ever had to do.

I can remember that when recruiting began, it began via phone. I would take approximately 1-3 calls each evening. They would last approximately one hour. We would go through a ton of questions and after that, we would let that school know whether we wanted to field a second phone call. From there, we'd keep talking until we ruled them out. After that, we'd decide who could come and visit our house. And after that, we would decide who we would visit in person. This was Division I basketball so every single school that called was offering a full scholarship.

Here's a few other pictures from the State Championship game.

That's JB on the left. That's his brother Ray on the right. And that's our friend DJ in the center. I can't for the life of me remember if this was junior or senior year.

My senior year team

Summer 1995

I almost did not play my senior year of AAU basketball. It cost a lot of money to travel, and we just didn't know if it was worth it. But in the end, the coaches talked me in to staying and helped me with fundraising so I could go. I was so glad I did.

I played in the Broward County All-Star game. I have very little recollection of this game.

I was a part of a few other teams. There was a state of Florida all-star team that travelled that I played for as well. I have no idea when that was fit in.

So there you have it. My years of basketball. I hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. I tried to keep it short and sweet!

From here, I would leave that summer for Kentucky and begin a new stage of my life. Onto that in another post.