Former J.H.S. player wins the Big One !!!
-
THE CHOPS
- Official BleacherCoach
- Posts: 1900
- Joined: October 24th, 2003, 10:42 am
- Location: SCOTTDALE, PA.
Former J.H.S. player wins the Big One !!!
Greater Johnstown High School graduate Becky Siembak was the NCAA Division II women's basketball national Player of the Year as a junior at California (Pa.) University.
But that prestigious individual achievement in 2003 wasn't the big prize that Siembak wanted.
The Vulcans' power forward and her teammates claimed that honor together during her senior year.
Cal defeated Drury 75-72 on March 27 at the St. Joseph (Mo.) Civic Center on the campus of Missouri Western State College. That victory, played before a live television audience on ESPN2, secured California the national championship and made Siembak a part of the fourth-biggest local sports story of the year as voted by The Tribune-Democrat Sports Department.
"It didn't really sink in until we arrived here," Siembak said of the team's March 28 homecoming to California, Washington County, during a telephone interview at the time. "Fire trucks and police cars escorted our bus. Everyone was coming out of their houses and waving at us.
"At the campus, we got off the bus and rode on the fire truck. There were hundreds of people out.
"They were cheering and jumping up and down. That's when it hit me that we really did win the national championship."
Cal came close during Siembak's junior season, reaching the Final Four before falling. Siembak was Division II Player of the Year that season after averaging 17.7 points and 9.9 rebounds while making 62 percent of her field goals.
Siembak's personal statistics slightly decreased during her senior season as Cal used a potent, multiple-pronged attack.
In the title game against Drury, Siembak scored five points and had a team-best eight rebounds.
With a 20-point effort in the semifinals, Siembak became only the seventh player in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference history to score 2,000 career points in a victory over Merrimack.
She had 2,019 points playing two years at Cal and two at Slippery Rock.
"The (championship game) was emotional, especially for me as a senior," Siembak, who tallied 1,733 points and 1,325 rebounds at Greater Johnstown High, said in March. "It's the last game of my career. But we held on and we're the national champions."
"THER CHOPS".
But that prestigious individual achievement in 2003 wasn't the big prize that Siembak wanted.
The Vulcans' power forward and her teammates claimed that honor together during her senior year.
Cal defeated Drury 75-72 on March 27 at the St. Joseph (Mo.) Civic Center on the campus of Missouri Western State College. That victory, played before a live television audience on ESPN2, secured California the national championship and made Siembak a part of the fourth-biggest local sports story of the year as voted by The Tribune-Democrat Sports Department.
"It didn't really sink in until we arrived here," Siembak said of the team's March 28 homecoming to California, Washington County, during a telephone interview at the time. "Fire trucks and police cars escorted our bus. Everyone was coming out of their houses and waving at us.
"At the campus, we got off the bus and rode on the fire truck. There were hundreds of people out.
"They were cheering and jumping up and down. That's when it hit me that we really did win the national championship."
Cal came close during Siembak's junior season, reaching the Final Four before falling. Siembak was Division II Player of the Year that season after averaging 17.7 points and 9.9 rebounds while making 62 percent of her field goals.
Siembak's personal statistics slightly decreased during her senior season as Cal used a potent, multiple-pronged attack.
In the title game against Drury, Siembak scored five points and had a team-best eight rebounds.
With a 20-point effort in the semifinals, Siembak became only the seventh player in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference history to score 2,000 career points in a victory over Merrimack.
She had 2,019 points playing two years at Cal and two at Slippery Rock.
"The (championship game) was emotional, especially for me as a senior," Siembak, who tallied 1,733 points and 1,325 rebounds at Greater Johnstown High, said in March. "It's the last game of my career. But we held on and we're the national champions."
"THER CHOPS".