Jaelyn Hagee is closing in on a number this week and that number is 1,000 as in 1,000 Career Varsity Points scored. This number is a bench mark in the game of basketball 🏀 at both the High School and College level.
Amazing 👏 fact about this particular group of Lady Cavaliers 👩, if/when the points that put her over the top would be the third such moment for the team this SEASON. There are some schools that don’t have three combined 1,000 point scorers between the Men’s and Women’s program in school history, let alone three cross the threshold inside of a six week period.
Flashing back to over four decades ago to when a tragic accident ended my own High School Basketball playing days I set out to try and find a way to stay connected to the game that I loved. This led me to the creation of my very first effort to shine a light on others. Sports and More was the creation of a 16 year old that needed something to fill a void.
First in Missouri and later in South Carolina I created a small network that allowed me to track local high school players scoring totals. When a player crossed the 950 point line I would make it a Point, Humor intended, to travel to their games in hope of capturing the shot or free throw that actually puts him or her over the mark. I was able to actually get this done seven times as a teenager and it was a lead in to my outlook on life. Get the picture 📷 blown up and present it and a plaque to the Parents was the goal. Sometimes it would happen on shot number one and I think that seven field goal attempts was the high end.
The easiest way to capture a clean shot is if the final point comes on a Free Throw. Less dramatic but more picture friendly.
To answer the obvious question about not having this done for Alyssa Ervin or Kalee Easter in the weeks past ? Being the King 🤴 of Equality and all- I wasn’t in the know of Miss Ervin’s pursuit and on the day that Miss Easter broke the mark I was in Tunstall covering the Boys final game.
So for the next few days I will be on a mission to capture the Moment, if and when it happens. It could be tonight or it could be Friday afternoon but with this group of teammates I feel pretty comfortable it will happen. My efforts will be done as quietly as possible for two reasons. First, the team is in the middle of something pretty special and there’s no desire to be a distraction.
Secondly, on a team full of young Ladies that play with a scary level of intensity on the court I believe that Miss Hagee is the most intense of the team of intensity. Now, that’s as close as I will come to admitting being afraid of a High School Girl 👧.
Obviously, that just my attempt to applaud 👏 just how focused this group is when they play the game of Basketball 🏀.
I only need one thing for sure, that the number is an even 980 going in. Because if I have that number wrong it kinda defeats the purpose.
Only 12 hours and 42 minutes until Tip !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 