Three’s Company: With rare trio of 1,000-point scorers, West Greene continues to make history
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
West Greene High School girls’ basketball coach Jordan Watson reached 100 wins earlier this season. The Pioneers started the season 18-1.
Kaitlyn Rizor — West Greene
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Kaitlyn Rizor is averaging 13.89 points per game this season. She eclipsed 1,000 points for her career a little over one week ago.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Holly Tonini/ Observer-Reporter
West Greene’s Madison Lampe is averaging 13.53 points per game this season. Lampe, who eclipsed 1,000 points last season, has 1,342 for her career.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Four-year starter McKenna Lampe is averaging 13.32 points this season. She was the first of the Pioneers’ senior class to eclipse the 1,000-point milestone. She currently has scored 1,517 points in her career.
Sitting down with assistant coach Justin Allen before their first season together at West Greene High School in 2011, Pioneers girls’ basketball coach Jordan Watson wanted to lay out short- and long-term goals.
It started with making the playoffs.
Talks advanced to hoping a section title would eventually come along.
And both were hoping to have a player score more than 1,000 points, a landmark many basketball players strive to reach.
Now, making the playoffs has almost turned into a given.
Section championships have turned into the expectation.
And when Watson and Allen enter the gymnasium of the small, sprawling Class A school that spans across the southwest corner of Greene County, one 1,000-point scorer walks into practice. Then another. Then another.
And thanks to a dominant senior class across the board in multiple sports, including those 1,000-point scorers Madison and McKenna Lampe and most recently Kaitlyn Rizor, the Pioneers have their eyes turned towards more history.
“None of them set out to be 1,000-point scorers,” Watson said. “The main goal every night is to win the game. But this girls’ class of 2019 can go down as the best class of any gender for Greene County because of what they’ve achieved. Five gold medals and two silver medals across multiple sports. And they still have the end of this basketball season and softball. It almost sounds made up.”
With every dominating win – the Pioneers’ seniors have won 75 games and 31 consecutive section victories – it becomes less and less of a fictional tale.
The latest achievement was having three players in the same class eclipse 1,000 points, a feat achieved by very few schools across the state. The last team to have three in the same class was Blackhawk High School girls’ basketball. Chassidy Omogrosso, Courtney Vannoy and Bridgette Shaffer each eclipsed the milestone in 2015.
McKenna Lampe scored her 1,000th point in December of her junior season. Madison Lampe joined her twin sister on the final day of January 2018. Rizor completed the trifecta a little more than one week ago.
“We thought growing up that we could be decent,” Rizor said. “We pushed one another extremely hard. We knew we had the talent but it takes much more than that. It takes hard work and dedication. None of us were focused on ourselves.”
Last year, the Pioneers became the first Greene County school to play for a WPIAL basketball championship. They are trying to win the Class A title this season, along with a state playoff game, which would be another first for the county.
The moment Watson saw the possibilities of success West Greene could have at basketball with this senior class came during a summer league at the Brownson House. The Pioneers only won one game playing against varsity competition.
They had just finished the seventh grade.
“You could really see how competitive they were,” Watson remembers. “It was about just keeping the core together. Special athletes don’t come around like this at Single-A schools often.”
That has led to, with the inclusion of other important seniors such as Savannah Pettit and Brianna Goodwin, three consecutive appearances in the PIAA Class A Softball Championship and domination – outside of lifting the elusive WPIAL championship trophy – on the hardwood.
“I have wanted to always have an impact on West Greene, and I think our teammates want the same exact thing,” McKenna Lampe said. “It’s about putting in the time and work.”
Entering Saturday’s non-section heavyweight fight against Class AA favorite Bishop Canevin, the Pioneers are 18-1 and winning by an average of 38 points. Rizor is scoring 13.89 points per game, Madison Lampe 13.53 and McKenna Lampe 13.32.
Opening tip against the Crusaders is scheduled for noon in Carnegie.
“We aren’t worried about our record,” Watson said. “We care about the process. We don’t think about our successes as much now because we are trying to max out as much as we can. We made it to the (Petersen Events Center) last year. And no team has a state win from Greene County. I think we are one of those teams that has a chance.”
Either way, these Pioneers will walk out of West Greene as some of the most decorated athletes in WPIAL history.
“We have always clicked and had that special connection,” Madison Lampe said. “One thing is, we all hate to lose.”