Interview by Jeff Mayfield

Lady Railers Celebrate Another Sensational Season

[FEB. 24, 2000]  It didn’t end the way the girls wanted it to. In fact, they deserved a better fate. But, no matter how you slice it, the Lady Railers of Lincoln Community High School just completed another fantastic year! Coach Ed Moore and his assistants were a marked team from opening day, and they still managed to win the Thanksgiving tournament, recapture the Central State Eight title, and take yet another Regional Championship.

Q: Coach Moore, first of all, congratulations on a great year.

A: Thank you. It was a fun year. It ended on kind of a sour note, but when you look back and see that the girls won the conference, won the regional, and went 24-3, there weren’t too many sad moments.

Q: Going into the year, many including yourself felt you would be pretty good, but did you feel that you would be this good and just a few bounces away from maybe playing for another sectional title?

A: Yes, I did, but I thought the big key was how we’d get out of the gate. That’s basically the Thanksgiving tournament. I knew that Limestone, Notre Dame and Manual would all be good. As a matter of fact; Limestone is playing for their sectional championship on Thursday. I felt that how we played early on with the loss of last year’s two great seniors would be big. We came out of that tournament undefeated, when I thought we could have lost a couple there. Then after that, it just spring-boarded us into the main part of the season where we played just unbelievably well. Looking back now, we may have peaked way too early. The next four or five weeks after that tourney we just played extremely well.

Q: Your team was so balanced this year. Talk a little about that.

A: That was a key for this year’s team. Actually, we had a lot of girls who got time last year as well. That helped us in our run. We had a good part coming back, with three starters and key reserves. We needed Angie (Bossingham) to step up and Kelsey (Bruce), too—all the girls for that matter. By the end of the year, we were playing eight kids quality minutes and as many as nine or 10 at times. Sometimes you just can’t play more than that. We had a quality group of girls that knew how to win, evidenced by what they’ve done the last four years. We certainly were a little more balanced than we were the year before. You’d always like to have a kid averaging 25 points per game, but balance takes the pressure off one kid having to step up every night. That was the case with Angie…She didn’t have to lead us in scoring every night. Kelsey led us a couple of times. Brittany (Robbins) led us a time or two. It was evident that we had balance, because I think we had nine kids who scored in double figures sometime during the year.

Q: I felt you gave teams scouting nightmares because you were so deep and balanced.

A: I think in order to be successful "Boss" had to score for us. I think as we got deeper into the tournament, teams felt like if they could stop her, they had a good chance of beating us. So they geared their defenses toward her a little bit and maybe that was our downfall that last game (a disappointing Monday night loss to Centenniel).

I look back and think that there are three or four moves I should have made. Plus, we didn’t play one of our better games and they played one of their best games. I just can’t get that sour taste out of my mouth. We did have a great year, though. And a great career for a lot of seniors.

Q: Talk a little about your seniors.

A: I’m looking numerically--Brittany got off to a great start. The game in Jacksonville, I believe she had 23 points. I think if she looked back on her career she probably wishes she had worked on her ball handling a little bit more. She’s a battler, a competitor and a very smart kid. You love to have those types of kids on your team. If there’s one girl that I look back and wish I would have given more minutes to it would be Jenny Story. She didn’t say a word and may have gotten nixed on some minutes. She’s a good kid and a pretty good ball player. I wish we had her back. If we could red-shirt somebody that would be great. Sarah McLaughlin stepped up big at the end of the year. She scored six pretty important points early in the game versus Centenniel. Sarah had a good year.

Kelsey Bruce probably stepped it up more than anybody did this year. She’s been a four-year starter, but I was pleased with her production all season long. She has been steady throughout the year. She would get 10 to 11 points, five or six rebounds, a couple steals. She knows how to play the game. She wanted the ball, where maybe earlier in her career she didn’t.

Emily Mahler was very supportive of her teammates, and you need those kinds of encouragers. I was with Emily for girls' golf--what a great person she is. Autumn Feldman just hung in there and played all four years. I think she enjoyed it, and she, too, was a very supportive player. Heidi Graff was a player I felt a little sorry for. She really came on at the end of last season, but this year she never felt like she could get into sync with things. She was a player that came to practice to play hard and get after it.

Angie Bossingham--what a great career. Almost 600 assists; school records in all the 3-point categories. She’s been on four regional champion teams as a starter--two conference titles, fourth place state tournament team, semi-finals last year in the three-point shoot-out, still alive this year, and I could go on. A nice career for Angie. If she was just a little bit quicker and a little bit taller--but, she’ll have a nice college career as well.

Michelle Young is a free-spirited, happy-go-lucky kid. Good size and a good shooter for her size. One thing I will remember about her was in that last game when we weren’t playing well, she went after that ball with such will, desire…She just wouldn’t give up. She hated to lose, and I’ll remember that moment for a long time. I felt bad that Steph Urton missed out on last year. She may have felt it wasn’t worth it to dress and practice with so many that did get a year up on her in experience. She is a very studious kid, but she helped out. She was at practice, came to every game and did our stats for us. Those 10 seniors are good kids, worked hard and got the most out of their ability. I think all ten will be pretty successful people, as they grow older.

Q: What does the future hold for the Lady Railers?

A: Pretty good. We’ve got Allison Humbert back. She’s started the last couple of years, and at 6 feet she’s still getting taller. If she develops an offensive game where she can hit the 10-12 foot jumper and dribble drive to the basket, I think the sky’s the limit for her. She really hustles well. Danielle is a tough little hard-nosed player that needs to work on her right hand a little bit. Beckee Oller just needs to get a little more consistent. She had 21 points in the regional championship game, but there were a few games where we didn’t hear much from her. She is a very good defensive player that’s been with the varsity since her freshman year. Those three will be the catalysts. Kristina Cook, who is a sophomore--I feel bad that I didn’t play her the last two games. It’s hard when you have so many good players. I probably should have played her more varsity. I see her being a vital cog of the varsity team next season. There’s four solid players. Then you’ve got Summer Johnson and Christy Peters, who didn’t get much time, but gained a lot of experience. So hopefully they can contribute next year.

The sophomores had a great year going 19-3. I wanted to bring up Brittany Ingram at the end of the year, but my roster was pretty much set. I think she has all the skills. I might have her work on her right hand some, and work on getting her shot off a little quicker, and maybe work on her overall foot speed a little. She has the savvy for the game. Tia Bunch could be a girl that could help us next year as guard. I want her to dribble (as I want all the guards to) with her head up and to be able to use both hands, but she’s got some quickness.

Lindsay Froschauer had some really nice games on the JV level. Wesley Schaub played well. Amber Wright did too. There’s a slew of them that will have the opportunity to play. There could even be some incoming freshmen that might be able to help us. I’ve never been one to rule that out. Look at Angie, look at Kelsey, look at Kim McCuan, and look at Steph Reichle over the last few years. We’ve had some kids play ever since their freshmen year. There may be a kid out there that I’m not aware of. Dominique Dawson is a freshman who, if she works on her skills, could get in the mix. So our future looks good. We’ve got quality kids. Superstar? We'll have to wait and see.

Q: How satisfying was it for you to win another regional and to win the Central State Eight again?

A: It was great. Even though our conference may have been a little down, I’m not taking anything away from our championship. You’re still battling a well-coached Springfield team, Taylorville’s got a great tradition, Chatham’s program is on the uprise, and to go home and away and finish the conference 13-1 is a credit to the girls.

We had a target on our backs all season. Everybody wanted us. Everybody tried to play their best game against us. Obviously, winning the Limestone tournament was a big accomplishment, and winning the regional was kind of expected since we had the number one seed, but they’re never easy. We had to play Urbana for the fourth year in a row. I wish I could go back into time to Sunday prior to our game on Monday, but you can’t do that--you have to go on.

Q: Tell us about your assistant coaches, other helpers and the Lincoln fans.

A: Start with Michelle Hobbs, who has been with me now for about eight years. She has done a great job on the JV level and relates to the girls well. They’ve been real productive the last four or five years; they’ve won the Olympia tournament the last three years. I think she just does a wonderful job with the girls, not only teaching the game, but just relating to the girls. She’s the only female on the staff and with her skills, it’s just important to have that. We’ve also got Joe Vasquez, who’s been our freshmen coach the last three years. Joe’s been in a tough position because I get the better of the JV players and Hobbs gets the better freshmen players, so he’s left with maybe not all the best freshmen. He then has to tackle a 20-some game schedule on that level, but he enjoys working with them. His girls have still been right around .500, which is a tribute to him and his girls. Joe did a special thing for us, setting up the Web page (www.ladyrailers.org) that we have. He set up the entire site and all the information that we have. I think that was a wonderful thing. We’ve received over 6,000 hits! I give him all the credit for that! He just did a great job on it. We have others who have helped us.

Dr. Dan Freesmeier puts in a lot of time helping girls out that might have some physical problems. Our trainer, Becky Stevenson, has done a wonderful job. As far as the Lincoln fans, I think that they have been real supportive of us the last two or three years. We’ve gone from having one set of bleachers down for parents and a few students, to now where we have both sets down and have them both pretty well filled. We have good student body support and a good fan base from the community. Hopefully that can continue. When you’re winning, everything’s going pretty good. I just hope it continues to do that.

Q: You’re a football and baseball coach by trade. Did you ever think in your wildest dreams that you would be coaching girls basketball and enjoying this much success?

A: Did I ever think I would be coaching girls’ sports, period? Ten years ago the answer would‘ve been, absolutely not! Jerry Overby asked me if I was interested back then, and I said, you’ve got to be kidding. I don’t think the girls and I would relate real well as far as coaching them. And even when I did finally take it, we struggled through those first few years at times, and I wondered if I did the right thing. As I look back at how it has gone, it’s been a nice ride. It’s made me a little bit better of a person, relating to kids, and it’s kind of mellowed me a little bit, and I think for the better. I also feel that I’ve brought some attributes to the girls to make them a little bit more competitive. I tried to give them that competitive desire. I think they’ve learned some things by having a male coach and I know I’ve learned a lot being able to coach females. Actually, the last couple of years have been as good of runs and enjoyment as I’ve had in coaching as I did formerly with the boys teams. So, if you asked me would I be doing it? Absolutely not! Am I glad I did it? Most certainly!

Q: When I come to the games, I see a lot of little girls looking up to your players. What advice do you have for them?

A: I think we do have some interest in a lot of the younger girls. I think Jan Bowers needs to be commended on the program she runs for the younger girls at the YMCA. She knows how I feel about the great things that she has done. She’s a Lady Railer icon from the past, and I think everybody knows that and respects her for it. For young girls, I think they should watch Jason Williams of the Sacramento Kings. It’s said that he learned to handle the basketball by going to the gym for two hours a day without shooting. He just worked on his dribbling and passing--throwing the ball against the wall. I think if girls will just get out and work on their ball handling and put a lot of practice time in, they’ll be successful. They just need to play a lot.

[Jeff Mayfield]