Logan-Bound Kirsch
Hoping For Trip To Champaign
by Don Hill
(Reprinted McLeansboro Times-Leader February 5, 1987)
GETTING THE LOOSE ONE - Senior Lori Kirsch has been one of the big reasons for the Lady Foxes success this season. Kirsch and her teammates won the Eldorado Invitational Tournament for the first time this season as they downed the Marion Wildcats 45-40. Kirsch recently signed a letter to attend John A. Logan Junior College next year to play basketball. |
Coming into the 1986 girls basketball season, the McLeansboro Lady Foxes had many positive things going for them. The Lady Foxes had a solid inside game with Kerri Grubb and Tina Thomas. They had a good shooting forward in Sharon Bowman and they had Denise Bowers at the point with some able assistance from Holly Sloan.
But the Lady Foxes also had one thing that few, if any, teams around Southern Illinois had. They had one of the best, if not the best, shooting guards in the state in Senior Lori Kirsch.
Kirsch has been a part or Hamilton County basketball since she was in the fifth grade, growing up with her brothers, one of who is Kevin Kirsch, a member of the starting group for the Foxes that went to Champaign In 1983.
Kirsch has developed into a topknotch shooter who is leading her club in scoring this season with more than 16 pointd per game. Kirsch’s efforts have not only brought benefits to her team and temamates, but many happy moments for her coach, Willie Grubb.
Grubb has been the coach of the Lady Foxes all through the tenure of Kirsch and has seen her develop into one of the finest players in Southern Illinois.
"She does it through hard work and with her ability,” Grubb said of his senior spark plug. “She’s probably got as good a technique as anyone we’ve got. She really understands the game and anticipates well."
Grubb was quick to point out an example of his senior’s effort, “I’ll give you an example, Grubb said. “Against her the other night, she was working her man and working her man and she jumped in front of her and took the charge. She anticipated extremely well.
"Its hard to teach things like that", Grubb continued. "And she’s not selfish. She gets her 15 points a game, but is just as willing to help someone else get theirs."
Kirsch's efforts on the hardwood were rewarded this week when she accepted a scholarship to play basketball at John A. Logan Junior College. Kirsch officially signed last Friday as her decision proved to be a relatively easy one.
"They are building a fine program," Kirsch said. "They were third in the nation last year and that’s the kind of team you want to be a part of. This year, they have only lost two games." But that is not Kirsch's only reason for choosing Logan.
"The schools up north don’t know too much about us, Kirsch continued. "All the girls that they (Logan) need are down here in Southern Illinois."
Kirsch also said that going to Logan would help here continue her basketball playing down the road.
"I'm hoping that by going there. I may get to go to a bigger school sometime down the road," Kirsch said. "But I’m not thinking that far ahead right now. We still have some things to do here and that’s two years away."
Kirsch was referring to the fact that the Lady Foxes are shooting for their second straight regional crown and she believes that the sky is the limit for this squad.
"It always in the back of my mind," Kirsch said of a possible trip for the Lady Foxes to Champaign and the Class A state tournament. "Right now, we’re looking at Eldorado in the regional. The first two times we played them, we won by 20. The last time, we won by 10.
"If we can get past them again, we think we can get to state."
A trip to Champaign has been a long road for the senior as she began her basketball career in the backyard playing against her brothers, who according to Kirsch, were not too sympathetic to her cause.
They used to block my shots a lot.," Kirsch said. "It not only helped me develop my dribbling skills, but It helped me to learn to shoot over them."
Beginning Monday, Kirsch and her teammates will get a chance to put those skills to the ultimate test as they begin their quest for a trip to state by hosting the Class A regional tournament.
Reprinted by permission from McLeansboro Times-Leader - June 17, 1999 by Ryan Nelson
| 
