Living the dream
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| Bureau Valley senior Melanie Thompson was named as the Three Rivers Conference Player of the year and received all-state recognition. |
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After helping lead Bureau Valley to a 20-9 record and their first regional title since 2002, the accolades started flowing in for senior center Melanie Thompson — among them an honorable-mention A.P. All-State selection, and Three Rivers Conference Player of the Year recognition.
Add one more honor to Thompson’s impressive list of credentials — the 2010 BCR Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.
For Thompson, who averaged 17.2 points per game, six more than the second highest player in the area, teammate Lauren Hasbrook, while hauling in 9.4 rebounds (second only to Hasbrook), the regional title and post-season honors are the perfect culmination of many years of hard work on the hardwood.
“It’s like a dream come true. It means a lot. This is my eighth year of playing basketball for my school,” said Thompson, who got her start playing hoops competitively in fourth grade in suburban Lockport.
“Winning regionals this year was the highlight. And getting all these other awards is awesome. I’ve been playing basketball for so long, and I always wanted to be good. I feel like I’ve accomplished all the things I’ve wanted.”
“Melanie’s an accomplished player,” said Storm coach Jeff Ohlson “Her hard work has earned her the attention and respect she’s gotten.”
Thompson increased her scoring average five points from her junior to senior years while shooting an incredible 54 percent from the field, which she credits in part to the Storm’s new offense this season, which featured more of a fast-paced transition game.
Thompson, a third IBCA All-stater, was able to be a force in transition for BV this winter despite having a screw surgically implanted in her right ankle over the summer to alleviate some problems she had been having with Hyperpronation, a hereditary ankle condition.
Thompson said the surgery, which took six weeks of recovery over the summer, left her a bit sore during the season.
“(It bothered me) a little bit at the beginning of the season because I was doing more running than I had in previous years,” Thompson said. “It would get sore — swollen and stuff, but it wasn’t too bad.”
Even with the ankle problems, Thompson excelled at playing the transition game Ohlson said.
“We asked her to run the floor, and she not only ran the floor, she ran the floor great,” said Ohlson.
“It required us to run the floor a lot more,” Thompson said of the Storm’s fast-paced offensive approach “a lot more moving around than we had last year.”
“I don’t really enjoy running,” Thompson chuckled, “but I enjoyed it (the new offensive attack), we got a lot of good points in transition.”
After a successful senior season at BV that saw Thompson finish as the second all-time leading scorer with 1,147 points, behind Bethany Ellis’ 1,284, and tie the single-game scoring record with a 33-point performance against Seneca at the Lady Bruin Christmas Classic, Thompson will be hanging up her sneakers and focusing on track and field in college.
Thompson, who was a state champ at BV South in the discus in junior high, and placed fifth at the state meet in the shot put last year, said that she is he hoping to continue her track and field career at “a bigger school,” although she has not made a decision yet where she will attend.
What will be the hardest thing about giving up basketball?
After establishing such a close relationship with her senior teammates Courtney Doty, Hasbrook, Megan Mussche and Sara Monson, Thompson said that the hardest part of leaving behind basketball will be losing that feeling of community.
“The bond with your team,” Thompson said. “When you play a team sport you get so close to your team and everyone. It’s going to be hard not having those close bonds, I think.”
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