Canterbury's Megan King (12) with teammates from last summer's Indiana Jr. All-Stars
Last December, Fort Wayne Canterbury's Megan King broke the Allen County girls basketball scoring record of former Fort Wayne Snider star Tiffany Gooden.
I'm here to talk about what happened afterwards.
By almost any standard, King, who's headed to play for the College of Charleston next year, had a great season. She led her team to a No. 2 ranking in 1A, losing in the regional final by four points to eventual state champion Oregon-Davis. Despite facing constant double-teams and defenses designed specifically to stop her, she was the state's second-leading scorer at 26.2 points per game and was also among the leaders in steals and free throw percentage.
By the end of the season, King had ascended to third on Indiana's all-time
scoring list, behind only Shanna Zolman and Stephanie White, both
former national players of the year (as was Gooden).
That's why it was such a surprise when King found out earlier today that she had not been selected to the Indiana All-Star team -- news that didn't exactly come at the best time.
Yesterday Megan King buried her mother.
You see, while she was breaking records, fighting through double-teams and keeping her cool in the face of taunts from opposing fans (and even coaches), she was also watching her mom slowly succumb to cancer.
It wasn't exactly how she envisioned the final year of her high school career. When other seniors were busy text messaging and editing their MySpace profiles, Megan was preoccupied with things like shaving her mom's head. “It was so hard," she told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel's Blake Sebring last month, "and I tried to stay strong enough because we were both crying. Even as a kid you always remember the smell of your mom’s hair. I miss that.”
King's older sisters played for Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (Rachel, an former All-Star herself, led the Knights to
three state titles in basketball; Michelle won a total of five in
basketball and volleyball), but Megan went to Canterbury because her
parents wanted her to go through the college preparatory school's rigourous academic
program. She certainly wasn't there because of the basketball team, which, prior to her arrival, had never even won a sectional. Four years later, the
Cavaliers have four sectionals trophies and a regional title -- and a basketball tradition -- thanks to Megan King.
So who selects the Indiana All-Star team? The Indianapolis Star's Pat Aikman, and it's not an easy job. Each year he has to deal with disgruntled family and friends of those who didn't make the cut, and I'm sure he could look at all the
top players from around the state this year and find difficult challenges that
each has overcome.
That's why King's personal story, while inspiring, is not a good enough reason for her to be an Indiana All-Star.
No, she already proved that she's an All-Star on the court. If
the broken records weren't enough, ask the opposing coaches whether she was one of the top twelve players in the state this season. I have a pretty good idea of what they would say.
No one really knows the criteria Aikman uses in selecting players, but there were whispers that he once placed a girl on the team in part because she wrote a letter telling him that her dream was to be an Indiana All-Star and begging him for a spot. She had a solid but unspectacular high school career and did not play basketball in college.
For whatever reason, this year Aikman decided that Megan King, who scored more points than all but two players in the history of Indiana high school girls basketball, did not merit selection.
Perhaps she should have sent him a letter. Too bad she was busy with more important things.
Blake Sebring's article on Megan King and her mom's illness is available here.
Recent Comments