Steve sat at one of the study tables in the main reference room of the
Santa Mera Public Library. He was reading a feature article from the
sports page that featured Lynn O'Hare, the woman that he knew as Lynn
Conklin. This one was from her senior year and it described her
relentless, four-year pursuit of the Santa Mera High School girl's
basketball regular-season scoring record...
…O'Hare was on a clear pace to break the school all-time regular season scoring record her junior year when a sprained ankle put her out for a third of the season. In her first game after the injury, she scored an amazing 20 points with four assists and six rebounds. She came back before she was at one hundred percent, though, and missed several more games. In her senior year, the record seemed out of reach, but she came on strong in the beginning, averaging an incredible 23.6 points per game, and by the second half of the season, not only was the school record a real possibility, but there was talk of her having an outside shot at the county record as well.
O'Hare continued to play very well the second half of the season, still averaging over nineteen points per game, but to those who have been watching her for four years now, it was clear that she was tiring. The pressure to perform was wearing her down, and it could be seen in her game and in her attitude. She scored a paltry five points in the first half of the game at Cordova on January 31, and when she came back after halftime, she fouled three of the Lancer's players in the first four minutes of the third quarter. In a controversial move, Coach Jacqueline Murdock finally benched O'Hare when she got involved in a verbal altercation with the head official, saying, "If I didn't stop her, she could well have been suspended for the remainder of the season."
The Lady Warriors suffered an embarrassing loss to Cordova with a final score of 63-39.
Coach Murdock spent the next week in practice preparing her Warriors to face Folsom's Lady Bulldogs. A major priority was helping O'Hare to "get her head back in the game." O'Hare's, co-captain Elana Ramirez is said to have taken her aside for a chat to remind her that her primary responsibility was to the team.
"She was going for the record too hard, taking bad shots and missing them," Ramirez said. "There is such a thing as playing too hard, and when you do that, you start to mess up. I just reminded her of how well she was doing in the first half of the season, when she was playing for the team and not for the record."
Ramirez's little pep talk must have worked, because O'Hare came back the next week leading the Lady Warriors in a resounding 66-42 victory against Folsom scoring an impressive 19 points while giving four assists and managing ten rebounds. She made eight of her nineteen points from the free throw line, scoring one hundred percent.
"I think that was the best game of my career," O'Hare said in an interview the next day. "Statistically, I have done better, but last night, I remembered what it was all about--the team winning. We win or we lose together, and I had forgotten that for a while, but last night, I was part of the team again."
Even then, nobody knew what a strong team player O'Hare would prove to be.
Against Oak Ridge, O'Hare broke the Santa Mera Warriors all-time regular season scoring record when she scored a career high 32 points, accounting for half of the Lady Warriors score in their 64-55 win over the Women Trojans. She also made three assists and twelve rebounds while again shooting one hundred percent from the free throw line.
The county record was just eighteen points away. With one game left against the El Dorado Lady Cougars, it should have been easy.
In the first half of Friday's game, O'Hare scored just seven of Santa Mera's twenty-two points, and they were down by four, but no one was worried. O'Hare had always been a slow starter, and she was already almost halfway to the record. If history held true, she would heat up after halftime and lead the Warriors in trampling yet another less worthy opponent.
History would prove to be a liar.
In the third quarter, O'Hare scored just two points on free throws, after being fouled by El Dorado's Tracy Wood, who had been doing an outstanding job of keeping O'Hare away from the basket all evening. In spite of Wood's efforts, though, O'Hare managed to get six rebounds and four assists by the end of the third quarter, helping her team to a 35-33 lead at the beginning of the fourth. Though tension was mounting, there was still little doubt that the Warriors would go on to section playoffs and O'Hare would be the new county career scoring champion for regular season play. There was simply no way the girls from El Dorado could keep up the brutal pace.
In the final quarter, O'Hare started fast. Wood had been pulled out for a rest, and O'Hare took full advantage of the respite, scoring three baskets in the first two minutes, and, along with a three-pointer from Loretta Green and a lay-up by Shana Carroll, opened the Warriors lead to 46-33 over the Cougars.
Then Wood was brought back into the game. For the next five minutes and fifty-three seconds, O'Hare barely got a hand on the ball.
"Tracy was all over me," O'Hare said, clearly respectful of her talented opponent. "I think I might have made two passes, she just wouldn't let me get open. She was awesome."
In the final seven seconds, with the Warriors down, 57-56, and O'Hare just one three-pointer away from the county record, Wood slipped up, and let O'Hare get open. Snatching a high pass from Elana Ramirez out of the air, O'Hare got the ball at the edge of the three-point circle. As one, the crowd came to its feet, fan and foe alike calling for the three, wanting to see the county record broken by this remarkable athlete.
"When I landed, Tracy was right there in my face," O'Hare recalls. "I knew the score, I knew the time, and I knew we had to win to get to sectionals. I tried to break free, but Tracy stayed right with me. I don't think either of us ever played so well. Then I saw Shana. She was open, she was in position, and she has the most beautiful lay-up I have ever seen. We only needed two to win, so I passed it to her."
Shana Carroll made the game-winning basket at the buzzer Friday night, but Lynn O'Hare was the hero…
Steve sat back and sighed, proud of the young woman Lynn had been. The picture accompanying the article showed Lynn and Shana Carroll being hoisted on the shoulders of their teammates, giving each other a high-five. Lynn appeared jubilant, not concerned in the least that she had just missed setting the new county scoring record.
Steve felt himself choke up, and his eyes started to burn as he considered what the article said about Lynn. She hadn't been so unselfish when he'd known her, and he knew, with sickening certainty, that the assault had taken that selfless aspect out of her nature. The Lynn he had known was pleasant and kind, but she was definitely looking out for number one. Knowing what she'd been through, he didn't blame her, but he wondered what it would have been like to know a different Lynn. He wished he'd had the opportunity to know the Lynn who would sacrifice her very last chance at the county record to take her team to the sectionals.
Looking up at Maggie, Steve said, "I think I need to talk to someone who knew her."
…O'Hare was on a clear pace to break the school all-time regular season scoring record her junior year when a sprained ankle put her out for a third of the season. In her first game after the injury, she scored an amazing 20 points with four assists and six rebounds. She came back before she was at one hundred percent, though, and missed several more games. In her senior year, the record seemed out of reach, but she came on strong in the beginning, averaging an incredible 23.6 points per game, and by the second half of the season, not only was the school record a real possibility, but there was talk of her having an outside shot at the county record as well.
O'Hare continued to play very well the second half of the season, still averaging over nineteen points per game, but to those who have been watching her for four years now, it was clear that she was tiring. The pressure to perform was wearing her down, and it could be seen in her game and in her attitude. She scored a paltry five points in the first half of the game at Cordova on January 31, and when she came back after halftime, she fouled three of the Lancer's players in the first four minutes of the third quarter. In a controversial move, Coach Jacqueline Murdock finally benched O'Hare when she got involved in a verbal altercation with the head official, saying, "If I didn't stop her, she could well have been suspended for the remainder of the season."
The Lady Warriors suffered an embarrassing loss to Cordova with a final score of 63-39.
Coach Murdock spent the next week in practice preparing her Warriors to face Folsom's Lady Bulldogs. A major priority was helping O'Hare to "get her head back in the game." O'Hare's, co-captain Elana Ramirez is said to have taken her aside for a chat to remind her that her primary responsibility was to the team.
"She was going for the record too hard, taking bad shots and missing them," Ramirez said. "There is such a thing as playing too hard, and when you do that, you start to mess up. I just reminded her of how well she was doing in the first half of the season, when she was playing for the team and not for the record."
Ramirez's little pep talk must have worked, because O'Hare came back the next week leading the Lady Warriors in a resounding 66-42 victory against Folsom scoring an impressive 19 points while giving four assists and managing ten rebounds. She made eight of her nineteen points from the free throw line, scoring one hundred percent.
"I think that was the best game of my career," O'Hare said in an interview the next day. "Statistically, I have done better, but last night, I remembered what it was all about--the team winning. We win or we lose together, and I had forgotten that for a while, but last night, I was part of the team again."
Even then, nobody knew what a strong team player O'Hare would prove to be.
Against Oak Ridge, O'Hare broke the Santa Mera Warriors all-time regular season scoring record when she scored a career high 32 points, accounting for half of the Lady Warriors score in their 64-55 win over the Women Trojans. She also made three assists and twelve rebounds while again shooting one hundred percent from the free throw line.
The county record was just eighteen points away. With one game left against the El Dorado Lady Cougars, it should have been easy.
In the first half of Friday's game, O'Hare scored just seven of Santa Mera's twenty-two points, and they were down by four, but no one was worried. O'Hare had always been a slow starter, and she was already almost halfway to the record. If history held true, she would heat up after halftime and lead the Warriors in trampling yet another less worthy opponent.
History would prove to be a liar.
In the third quarter, O'Hare scored just two points on free throws, after being fouled by El Dorado's Tracy Wood, who had been doing an outstanding job of keeping O'Hare away from the basket all evening. In spite of Wood's efforts, though, O'Hare managed to get six rebounds and four assists by the end of the third quarter, helping her team to a 35-33 lead at the beginning of the fourth. Though tension was mounting, there was still little doubt that the Warriors would go on to section playoffs and O'Hare would be the new county career scoring champion for regular season play. There was simply no way the girls from El Dorado could keep up the brutal pace.
In the final quarter, O'Hare started fast. Wood had been pulled out for a rest, and O'Hare took full advantage of the respite, scoring three baskets in the first two minutes, and, along with a three-pointer from Loretta Green and a lay-up by Shana Carroll, opened the Warriors lead to 46-33 over the Cougars.
Then Wood was brought back into the game. For the next five minutes and fifty-three seconds, O'Hare barely got a hand on the ball.
"Tracy was all over me," O'Hare said, clearly respectful of her talented opponent. "I think I might have made two passes, she just wouldn't let me get open. She was awesome."
In the final seven seconds, with the Warriors down, 57-56, and O'Hare just one three-pointer away from the county record, Wood slipped up, and let O'Hare get open. Snatching a high pass from Elana Ramirez out of the air, O'Hare got the ball at the edge of the three-point circle. As one, the crowd came to its feet, fan and foe alike calling for the three, wanting to see the county record broken by this remarkable athlete.
"When I landed, Tracy was right there in my face," O'Hare recalls. "I knew the score, I knew the time, and I knew we had to win to get to sectionals. I tried to break free, but Tracy stayed right with me. I don't think either of us ever played so well. Then I saw Shana. She was open, she was in position, and she has the most beautiful lay-up I have ever seen. We only needed two to win, so I passed it to her."
Shana Carroll made the game-winning basket at the buzzer Friday night, but Lynn O'Hare was the hero…
Steve sat back and sighed, proud of the young woman Lynn had been. The picture accompanying the article showed Lynn and Shana Carroll being hoisted on the shoulders of their teammates, giving each other a high-five. Lynn appeared jubilant, not concerned in the least that she had just missed setting the new county scoring record.
Steve felt himself choke up, and his eyes started to burn as he considered what the article said about Lynn. She hadn't been so unselfish when he'd known her, and he knew, with sickening certainty, that the assault had taken that selfless aspect out of her nature. The Lynn he had known was pleasant and kind, but she was definitely looking out for number one. Knowing what she'd been through, he didn't blame her, but he wondered what it would have been like to know a different Lynn. He wished he'd had the opportunity to know the Lynn who would sacrifice her very last chance at the county record to take her team to the sectionals.
Looking up at Maggie, Steve said, "I think I need to talk to someone who knew her."