GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Fight to the finish

News-Sentinel photo by Steve Linsenmayer Gimme the ball Maria Recker of DeKalb High School, left, battles with Brooksie King of Columbia City for a rebound during a game in January, helping the Barons win the Northeast Hoosier Conference Tournament title over the Eagles.View all of today's photos

Tru grit collides with top talent in DeKalb's Maria Recker.

By JEFF LOCKRIDGE of The News@Sentinel

Hiding something like the flu is no easy task when a few hundred eyes are watching your every move on the basketball court.

Maria Recker somehow managed to pull off that feat Dec. 17 at DeKalb High School. Recker agonized through four quarters, giving all she had until she had nothing left to give.

Though she might have been a step slow at times, her effort was never lacking. The same intensity was reflected in her face. The same heady play was reflected in her decisions.

Despite Recker's heroic resilience, the end result was not a pleasant one for the Barons and their senior leader.

Northeast Hoosier Conference rival Columbia City left town with a dramatic one-point win and handed DeKalb its first loss of the season.

It was then, sometime after the final horn, that DeKalb coach Mark Rohm realized that his star pupil was not in good health.

"I didn't even know about it until after the game," Rohm said. "But she never quit that game, and she was also still struggling with a sprained ankle."

More than half an hour went by before Recker came out of the locker room that night. She was completely exhausted. Her body was tapped out.

"That was the week I had lost a lot of weight with the flu, but you push that into the back of your mind when you're playing. It was hard on my body, but I didn't think about it until after the game," Recker says.

"That's when I felt like curling up on the floor."

Despite the aftermath of that game, Recker has no regrets. She would have played regardless of the circumstances.

She simply doesn't know any other way.

"It's just something you have to do," she says. "I remember my sisters going to school when they were sick on game days so they could play. I'm the same way."

Recker didn't have to worry about many more illnesses. And it was no coincidence that the Barons didn't have to worry about many more losses.

The lanky 5-foot-10 forward led her team to a 20-3 record, a share of the conference title and a conference tournament championship. She averaged 18.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.

She departs DeKalb as the school's second-leading career scorer with 1,510 points, 123 behind former Purdue standout MaChelle Joseph. Recker will attend Michigan State on a basketball scholarship, where she will study to become an emergency room surgeon.

For her unmatched accomplishments and her continuing dedication to basketball, Recker is The News-Sentinel's choice for the 1998-99 PrepSports Girls Basketball Player of the Year award.

That comes as no surprise to Columbia City coach Wayne Krieger, who coached against Recker for four years.

"You had to give her extra-special preparation," Krieger says. "If you put a guard on her, she could post up and score. If you put a big kid on her, she could go past her and score. She was so versatile that you really had to have a lot of help to defend her."

Perhaps that's why Recker never seemed to have a bad night. There just wasn't a single defender out there with the combination of speed, height and smarts to contain her.

Though she was listed as a forward, Recker regularly played all five positions on the floor over the course of her prep career.

If she was ever to be slowed down, it was going to take a total team effort. Sometimes that meant sending two or three players to swarm her. That's when Recker put her passing skills to work and teammates Anna Smith, Michelle Shippy and Bridget Horwitz benefited.

"I knew the defense was going to key on me, so I always knew somebody was going to be open," she says.

At times Recker's play was too unselfish; Rohm eventually called for a midseason discussion.

"He pulled me aside and told me I had to start shooting more with the game on the line," Recker says. "I remember he asked me whose hands I wanted the ball in at the end of the game, and I said, 'Well . . . mine, I guess.' "

After she bagged a scholarship to a Big 10 school last summer, it would have been easy for her to take a back seat, especially with five other seniors to carry the load.

But that's not her style.

Recker actually invested more time in basketball than ever after she accepted the Spartans' offer.

"It was like a ritual for me," she said. "Getting up at 5:30 in the morning (during the summer) for school practice from 6 to 8. Then going to AAU practice from 10:30 to 12:30. Then resting up before going to my second AAU practice from 6 to 9 at night.

"It definitely takes some wear and tear on you. But that's my life. It's worth it."

The results speak for themselves. And Recker's peers speak for her.

"She is a very, very, very good shooter," Carroll senior guard Kate Rolf says.

"She was very hard to guard because if you left her open for a split second, she would make the shot. I know she worked hard over the summer and became a leader for her team. She's not very vocal, but she leads by her actions, and I think that's cool. I respect her a lot."

Respect is something Recker has earned from just about every foe she has faced, and that's one of the things most pleasing to her.

Coming from an athletic family that includes older brother Luke -- now a sophomore standout at Indiana University -- she had to put forth a little more to make her own mark.

She still laughs at the memory of opposing fans and students chanting Luke's name when she touched the ball.

"I felt like I had some expectations to live up to," Recker says, "but every once in a while I would look over at the crowd and wink.

"They really had no response for that at all."

Recker always did have a good answer. Usually it was putting the ball in the basket.


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