1999/2000 News Last Updated: March 28, 2000

All Northwest Team Selected

Heart of the attack

Courage, competitive drive enable Lundquist to thrive

By Steve Beaudry Leader-Telegram staff

Ka-thump. Ka-thump. Ka-thump.

For Bekka Lundquist, the beat goes on. Left ventricle, right ventricle, the aorta and the pulmonary vein -- still making beautiful music together.

The Eau Claire Memorial senior is a testament to mankind’s genius, the medical profession’s skill and her own courage and inner strength.

You think life is grand? Who is Lundquist to argue? Being known as a walking miracle can have its drawbacks, but it beats the alternative.

Five years ago this month, Lundquist was wheeled into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., with no guarantees she’d be wheeled out alive. A congenital condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome left Lundquist needing risky surgery to correct her accelerated heart rate.

"It was a scary time," Lundquist said. "Before (the surgeons) went in, they told my parents that even if the surgery was successful, there was a chance I’d have to give up playing contact sports."

Basketball constituted a contact sport.

Fortunately for the ever-active Lundquist, the surgery was an unmitigated success. She didn’t have to give up her favorite sport.

"Whenever I have a bad game or we lose," Lundquist said, "I stop and think, ‘Hey, I’m lucky to be having fun and playing a game I love.’

"I look at a lot of things differently than I used to. I don’t let little problems get me all wound up."

The 5-foot-7 Lundquist didn’t spend much time reflecting on her heart condition this past season because she didn’t have any poor games. And, thanks largely to her praiseworthy wire-to-wire performance, the Old Abes (18-4) didn’t lose many games either.

As the heart and soul of the area’s most surprisingly successful girls basketball team this season, Lundquist is the Leader-Telegram’s 1999-2000 All-Northwest Player of the Year.

Joining Lundquist on the First Team of this season’s All-Northwest girls squad are four players who also blossomed into their teams’ irrefutable leaders: senior Allison Burchill of Hudson, senior Jessica Nohl of Colfax, junior Angie Ott of Chippewa Falls and senior Brooke Wozniak of Stanley-Boyd.

Nohl and Wozniak were Second Team honorees in 1998-99. Lundquist and Burchill made leaps from last season’s Fourth Team and Fifth Team, respectively, and Ott was a ’98-99 High Honorable Mention selection.

"You watch Bekka play, and it’s easy to forget the ordeal she went through with her heart condition," said UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone, who recruited Lundquist to play for the Blugolds. "She goes all out all the time at both ends of the floor. As a player and a person, she’s truly an amazing young lady."

Had Lundquist decided to continue her basketball pursuits in college, she said she would have chosen to attend UW-Eau Claire. She instead elected to accept a prestigious academic scholarship from the University of Minnesota and work toward becoming a pharmacist.

"It was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make," said Lundquist, who carries a 4.0 grade-point average. "I was in agony for three weeks. But I looked at it, like, my athletic career has to end some time. Some people take athletics too far; I didn’t want to be one of them.

"I owe a lot to basketball. It’s taught me a lot about life -- about working toward goals and ups and downs and how to deal with things.

"I guess you could say I had a sense of urgency this year, knowing it could be my last year playing. I figured since God gave me the ability to play, I should make the most of it."

In doing so, Lundquist took on a new role with the Old Abes. After playing the No. 2 guard slot in her three prior varsity seasons, she accepted a switch to point guard.

"She had no qualms about it whatsoever," said Memorial coach Steve Smith, whose team was picked to finish fifth in the eight-team BRC standings in the Leader-Telegram’s preseason coaches poll. "Your point guard has to be a leader, and I figured Bekka would be a perfect fit."

Lundquist fit well enough to lead the Big Rivers Conference in assists. She tallied 99 assists overall (at an average of 4.5 per game), which is the fifth-highest single-season total in Memorial girls basketball’s 25-year history.

She also led the Old Abes with a per-game scoring average of 10.8 points and converted 59 of 77 free throws for a 76.6-percent clip.

But judging Lundquist by her offensive numbers is missing the point, according to Chippewa Falls coach Jeff Olson.

"Bekka would be an all-conference-type player even if she didn’t score a point," Olson said. "She does so many things to help a team, especially with her level-headedness and her defense."

Ah, defense. Lundquist admits to having a fanatical devotion to defense.

"My dad coached me in third grade, and he drilled into my head: ‘If you take care of the ball and play sound defense, coaches will find a place for you,’ " Lundquist said. "I sort of rode that everywhere."

Aside from leading Memorial in steals with 41 this season, Lundquist reveled in crawling into the skin of opposing teams’ top scoring threats and turning it inside out.

Among her most notable conquests:

- On Nov. 26 she was matched against Blaine guard Tracy Melham, the Twin Cities Suburban Conference’s leading scorer for two seasons and an eventual All-Metro selection by the Star Tribune. Lundquist held the 5-foot-10 senior to 38.1-percent shooting -- her worst showing of the season -- in the Abes’ 67-49 victory.

Melham ended up leading Blaine to a berth in the state tournament in Minnesota’s largest-school division.

- Five weeks later Lundquist went one-on-one against inventive point guard Jackie Dummer, Menomonie’s leading scorer in ’98-99 and for the majority of this season. Lundquist held Dummer to 1-for-11 shooting and three points -- her lowest output in two years -- in the Abes’ 47-33 victory.

"Dummer’s a great player," said Lundquist, who scored a career-high 23 points in the Abes’ second meeting with Menomonie, a 72-61 overtime victory for Memorial on Feb. 4.

- In the Abes’ biggest regular-season game, against Hudson on Feb. 18, Lundquist zeroed in on the Raiders’ Allison Burchill. "Zero" is the operative word. Burchill, Hudson’s top scorer this season, shot 0-for-8 from the floor.

"That was the only game, scoring-wise, I got shut down this year," said Burchill, an All-State second-team pick this season.

Hudson still managed to win that game 49-43 and in doing so kept Memorial from gaining a share of the Big Rivers championship.

"Looking back, I had more fun this year than any other year," Lundquist said. "We did better than a lot of people thought we would. We had a neat team -- a good mix of ages and good chemistry. I wouldn’t trade it for anything."

Allison Burchill

If basketball were horticulture, the Hudson girls team was a well-groomed lawn this season. No weeds, no moss, all even, all the time.

Burchill was the Raiders’ chief landscaper.

The 5-foot-11 senior swing player helped Hudson (24-3) win its sixth straight Big Rivers Conference title and advance to the WIAA Division 1 state tournament for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

Look up the word "leader" in Webster’s next edition, and don’t be shocked if a photograph of Burchill accompanies the definition.

Statistically, she led Hudson this season with averages of 15.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.4 steals and 4.1 assists per game.

As important were Burchill’s qualities that didn’t show up in boxscores. When a crisis in confidence struck with any of her teammates, Burchill quickly quashed it. When the Raiders seemed the least bit shaky, Burchill scowled, demanded the ball, tucked it under her arm and told her teammates in no uncertain terms what to do.

"I never lost," Burchill said, referring to the BRC title in her three-year varsity career, "and there’s no way I was going to lose this year. Before the year, (Hudson senior forward) Katie (Garms) and I had a talk with Coach (Dave Johnson) and decided we were going to win the conference and win state and no one was going to stop us."

Burchill was at her explosive finest during the postseason. She scored a career-high 26 points in Hudson’s regional-final win over Menomonie. She tallied 17 points and 11 rebounds in helping the Raiders upend Franklin in a state quarterfinal. And she upstaged The Associated Press’ Player of the Year, Mistie Bass, with a game-high 24 points in Hudson’s 57-56 loss to No. 1-ranked Janesville Parker in the Division 1 state final.

"We won that game," Burchill said, making a veiled reference to an official’s questionable call in the fourth quarter’s waning seconds.

Burchill plans to play college basketball, though she is unsure where. She’s been encouraged to walk on at the University of Wisconsin, and she’s pondering an NCAA Division I scholarship offer from Northern Arizona. At the NCAA Division II level, Northern Kentucky, UW-Parkside, Bemidji (Minn.) State and South Dakota State have shown interest.

Jessica Nohl

Looking for Nohl? If school’s not in session, try the nearest gym.

Since the fifth grade, the 6-foot-1 Colfax senior forward has spent the lion’s share of her free time honing her basketball skills. Wisconsin AAU president Keith Noll says Nohl’s year-round dedication to basketball is unmatched among all athletes he’s seen in the past 15 years.

Nohl’s love for the game translated into team-leading averages of 17.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game this season. She also converted 91 of 121 free throws for a 76.9-percent clip in helping Colfax (17-4) claim its ninth straight Dunn-St. Croix Conference title.

Nohl transferred to Colfax from Washburn prior to the 1998-99 season and as a junior averaged 14.5 points per game. Though no longer an unknown force this season, she improved statistically.

Her improvement was particularly noteworthy considering she was Colfax’s lone proven scoring option through this season’s first six games, when ’98-99 All-Northwest second-team teammate Tess Fanning was nursing an injury. Nohl averaged 15.5 points per game in Fanning’s absence.

Nohl has secured an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship with Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.

Angie Ott

Ott is a player opponents love to hate. Even more, though, they’d love to have her on their teams.

A certifiable pest, the 6-foot Chippewa Falls junior forward creates mountains of misery for those unfortunate enough to be matched against her -- on offense and defense.

Offensively, Ott was the Big Rivers Conference’s leading scorer this season and in overall games averaged 15.2 points and 2.0 assists per game. She converted 66 of 80 free throws for an 82.5-percent clip and averaged 6.9 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game.

Defensively, Chippewa Falls coach Jeff Olson always commissioned Ott to mute the opposing team’s chief offensive weapon -- regardless of that player’s position. Ott succeeded more often than not.

Perhaps most impressive in Ott’s 1999-2000 season was her ability to elevate her game when teammate and friend Becca Spaeth was felled by a torn knee ligament in the Cardinals’ 13th game. Spaeth, who’d averaged 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, missed the season’s final nine games. In that span, Ott averaged 17.4 points per game despite regularly sparring with double- and triple-team defenses.

The Cardinals finished with a 14-8 record -- a 13-win improvement from their 1997-98 season, when Ott was a freshman starter.

Brooke Wozniak

Stanley-Boyd’s opponents often tried slowing Wozniak with double-team defenses. Some went with triple-team defenses. Others chose box-and-ones, triangle-and-twos and other geometric configurations.

When those failed, some teams tried speeding up the tempo of games in hopes of tiring the 6-foot Wozniak.

The senior forward never lost her composure.

Wozniak strung together a streak of 37 consecutive games scoring in double figures, dating to the 1998-99 season’s sixth game, en route to averaging 18.6 points per game this season.

Though she was held to nine, eight and six points through a three-game February stretch, Wozniak helped the Orioles (16-6) win two of those three games in other ways.

"Dominating. Just dominating," Stanley-Boyd coach Mark Hagen said of Wozniak, a three-year starter, who averaged 13.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game this season. "She plays 32 minutes, and she never slows down."

As Stanley-Boyd’s sole consistent scorer this season, Wozniak converted 140 of 323 field goals (43.3 percent) and finished her career with a team-record 1,219 points and 938 rebounds.

"Brooke’s the type of person who deserves good things to happen for her," Hagen said. "She’s intelligent, unselfish, determined, considerate, responsible … I could go on, but I’m sure there’s a limit on how long your story can be."

Wozniak, a three-sport standout, will take her boundless attributes to UW-Eau Claire later this year, where she plans to play basketball.

Second Team

Tanya Goettl

Any highlight video showcasing Tanya Goettl would have to include clips of the Bloomer senior on the floor as part of a scrum or after taking a charge.

With the Blackhawks lacking a natural under-the-basket player this season, Bloomer coach Lon Wilson shifted the 5-foot-10 Goettl from guard to forward. Despite having had her left knee surgically repaired, she didn’t cower to the challenge.

As the nerve center of Bloomer’s offense and defense, Goettl’s competitive drive knew no limits. She averaged team highs of 14.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in helping the Blackhawks (22-5) defend their Heart O’ North Conference title and notch a runner-up finish at the WIAA Division 3 state tournament.

Unselfish almost to a fault, Goettl shot 141-for-274 from the floor (51.5 percent) and 81-for-112 from the free-throw line (72.3 percent). She is hoping to play basketball and volleyball in college, with UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire topping her list of desired destinations.

Amber Graf

Amber Graf’s goal is to someday be a pilot. If she doesn’t succeed in that venture, the St. Croix Central senior can rest assured. She already has helped her basketball team soar to a sky-high plane of improvement.

The 6-foot-1 guard was a freshman starter on a team that staggered to an 8-14 record in 1996-97. The Panthers improved to 13-8 and 19-4 over the next two seasons and went 19-5 this year -- winning their first regional title since 1982 in the process.

Adept at dominating in the paint and on the perimeter, Graf averaged 18.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this season and converted 53 of 77 free throws (68.8 percent).

Some of Graf’s most show-stopping performances came during the Panthers’ four-game postseason run, when she averaged 24.0 points per game and converted 32 of 38 free throws. In a WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal, Graf scored 29 points in the Panthers’ 61-43 win over Colfax that kept the Vikings out of the sectional playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.

Graf has committed to play NCAA Division I basketball next season at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Larissa Parr

Larissa Parr

Whenever any of her Eau Claire North teammates made a crucial play late in a game, the ever-friendly Parr waited for the next stoppage and then showed her approval by hugging that teammate. One of Parr’s python-like hugs nearly suffocated North guard Emilee Planert on Feb. 1.

Once the ball was put in play, though, Parr was all business. The 5-foot-11 junior forward averaged 13.0 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds for the Huskies (17-5), who advanced to WIAA Division 1 sectional play for the second straight season.

Parr scored a game-high 19 points on Feb. 1 in helping North hand Hudson its lone Big Rivers loss, and she tiptoed around foul trouble to lead the Huskies with 14 points in their regional-final win over Eau Claire Memorial.

Nicki Robinson

Nicki Robinson

For example, on game nights, the Eau Claire North senior point guard adroitly distributed the ball to her teammates. When interviewed about her exploits afterward, she always distributed the credit for the Huskies’ success to her teammates.

A leading candidate for any all-humble team, the 5-foot-8 Robinson was encouraged this season to shoot more than she had in the past by first-year North coach Dan Sippel. She responded by averaging a team-high 13.2 points per game.

A list of Robinson’s injuries from her three-year career as a varsity starter would come in chapters. Still, she never shied away from sacrificing her body for the good of her team. Robinson had few peers when it came to collecting welts and floor burns.

That’s not to suggest Robinson played out of control. In her 20 games this season, she was whistled for 29 fouls.

Robinson plans to continue her athletic career in college, playing either softball and basketball or softball and volleyball. The schools topping her list are Viterbo, Wartburg (Iowa) and Daniel Webster (N.H.). UW-Stout, UW-La Crosse and Northern Colorado remain possibilities.

Alyssa Verdegan

But, moments after the Falcons’ victory over Hilbert in the state-championship game two weeks ago, the junior point guard was the last player to join Flambeau’s group hug at the Kohl Center’s center court.

"I just always wanted to remember seeing everyone celebrating," Verdegan explained to Zach Goldberg of the Wisconsin State Journal. "I wanted to know how it was when we won a state championship."

The Falcons have done plenty of winning with Verdegan aboard, notching a 75-3 record and three state-tournament berths since she cracked the lineup as a freshman.

"I’d like to be able to tell you Alyssa became a leader for us this year, but she didn’t," Flambeau coach Ted Alberson said. "She’s been a leader from the moment she stepped on the floor as a freshman."

Verdegan led the 27-0 Falcons this season with averages of 17.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 4.8 steals per game. She converted 196 of 379 field goals for a 51.7-percent clip. She had 22 points and 12 rebounds in each of Flambeau’s two games at the state tournament.

Beaudry can be reached evenings at 833-9212 or (800) 236-7077 or at steve.beaudry@ecpc.com.