Everyone Has The Green Light
In his eight years as Harrisburg girls' basketball head coach, Jake Stewart has had five 1,000th point scorers.
In the 39 years before Stewart, Harrisburg had seven 1,000th point scorers.
Well, Stewart has his sixth now and it happened towards the end of the calendar when senior Karsyn Davis reached the milestone at the Benton Christmas Tournament.
The run for Stewart and company started with Ashley Ferrell and since then has included such names as Kelsey Hobbs, Alexa Burtis and last year's duo of Lotte Miller and Matty Hawkins had their name added to the banner on the gym wall.
Davis, who signed a softball scholarship to play at Southeast Missouri State starting in the fall, has balanced both basketball and bat, which Stewart said makes him the proudest.
"You can do both, I think Karsyn has proven that," Stewart said. "It's a testament to all two-sport athletes - Karsyn doing what she did and being a softball player - goes to show you that if you manage your time the right way, you can work on more than one sport. If you want to be good, you have to find a way to figure it out. With basketball, you have to find time to get in the gym and Karsyn did that."
Prior to Ferrell, Harrisburg went eight years without a 1,000 point scorer with Laura Thompson being that person and Thompson also leads all girls with 2,067 points.
Stewart, who was a 1,000th point scorer himself, gives any and all credit to the players for their accomplishment, despite what role he might have played in the development.
"I think what we have done here, honestly, is stressed to the girls to get in the gym and just work on shooting, work on form and work on ball handling. They have done that. The girls are already talented and good players, we just help them hone their craft. As for the team, offensively, I just let them go. Everybody has the green light and we have fun on offense."
Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.