Date: Fri 06-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Quick Words:

Heather-Gunn-Girls-Hoop

Full Text:

Heather Gunn - Feature Story

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

Before the 1997-98 season began, Newtown High School girls' basketball coach

Gregg Simon was looking squarely into a black hole at the center of his

offense.

With Ali Giannini (9.9 points a game) and Liz Glaser (15.3 points a game)

gone, that left 25.2 points a game unaccounted for in an offense that was

never a particularly high-scoring one.

Coach Simon did not see a way to plug that hole.

But that's where junior Heather Gunn came in. She not only plugged the hole,

she became an important offensive cog in a team that performed well above what

could have been expected last December.

"What Heather did for this team was to fill a huge offensive void," said coach

Simon. "When no one was willing to take the shot, she was there to step

forward."

Heather led the Nighthawks with 276 total points (12.0 points a game), scoring

in double figures 16 times in 23 games and leading the team 14 times. She also

scored a season-high 20 points in the SWC quarter-final win over Masuk after

scoring 18 once and 17 three times during the regular season.

"I'm pretty surprised how it turned out," said Heather, who scored just 37

points in mop up duty as a sophomore. "When my season really started coming

together, I started expecting more from myself and I'd get mad at myself when

we weren't winning, because I felt like I was letting the team down."

Heather was still fighting for a starting position heading into the first two

games of the season and made a statement in the first game she did start -

against Danbury - by scoring a team-high 15 points.

"Mr Simon said it was a neck and neck race between me and Carissa for that

starting position," Heather remembered. "He started Carissa that first game

(St. Joseph's) and then started me the second (Danbury) game. I hated being in

a competitive situation with such a close person, someone who I would be

working with so closely next year.

As it turned out, with Heather earning the position, Rotas, a junior, became a

very valuable sixth-man for the Nighthawks, a player who could spell either

one of the two Newtown guards - Heather or Nikki Streegan - at any time.

But it took some time for Heather to learn her role on the team. She had very

limited varsity experience and was stepping onto a team that belonged, in a

way, to Nikki Streegan and Krista Bell. Coach Simon was looking for Streegan

to be the team leader at the point (which she did extremely well at) and for

Bell to be the outside scoring threat (which she did well at, too).

Heather had to find her niche.

"It was Nikki's position on the team, to be a leader," said Heather. "That was

a hard thing for me, because I was the point guard on the jayvee team last

year and it was hard to come into a second role. But I felt I had to show some

leadership in some way and I told myself I would do that."

While Bell was a nice jump shooter and Streegan had developed her game to the

point where she was so good at ball control and so good at shooting off the

dribble, Heather - who was an outside threat, too, make no mistake - began

attacking the hoop.

"She is fearless," said coach Simon. "She is willing to take the ball to the

basket, take it at people. She has come a long, long way since I first saw her

on a basketball court."

Heather attacked the basket so relentlessly that she spent a good deal of her

time lying on the floor or standing at the foul line. She had 81 field goals,

a team high, but she also shot 146 shots from the foul line, double that of

anyone else on the team.

"I didn't think I was going to be that much of a shooter," Heather admitted.

"I was kind of wary because this was my first year of varsity and I didn't

really know how to come into it, how to play for Mr Simon. I think it's kind

of my goal, to get the shot or, if it doesn't get in, to get the foul."

She spent so much time at the foul line, but did a solid job there, shooting

60.0% (89-of-146). Those 89 points represent 32% of Heather's points for the

1997-98 season.

"For me," said Heather, who has played AAU basketball for three years as well

as summer basketball, "this year has been so much more than I expected. I

couldn't be happier being on another team. We have worked so hard to get where

we are, we have come so far from being a team that hasn't worked together one

minute on the floor to become a team that looks as if it has played together

for a long time."

Juggling Two Lives

The Nighthawks were probably looking for a chief cook and bottle washer for

this year's team and Heather fills that bill, too. Not only does she play

guard, but she can also sing the national anthem before the game.

"It actually gets me more fired up for the game," said Heather. "I like it,

because I am able to do both things that I like."

Heather has been singing she was little, five years of age or so, and she has

been able to develop that talent while growing up in a basketball family -

with a father who refs and a brother who plays.

She has learned to juggle.

"It is so difficult," said Heather. "This season was so difficult with singers

and basketball. To work my schedule out and fulfill both commitments was

tough. It's hard, but I think it will pay off."

Heather, who also plays soccer in the fall, will have to juggle singing and

the performances with a more intense role on the basketball team next year. A

senior then, the highest returning scorer, it will be up to her to repeat - or

even better - her numbers.

"I talked to my dad about that," said Heather, who was named to the SWC

All-Colonial Division team. "It's like I have to live up to something, now.

But I thrive on competition, on pressure. I'm excited - excited for the team,

because I think we can go far."