Heading into last Saturday’s game with the East Coweta Lady Indians, Gabby Seiler, a starting point guard for the McIntosh Lady Chiefs, knew she needed nine points to reach the 1,000 points milestone in her high school basketball career.
Head coach David Dowse knew the junior was counting down as she neared her goal, and when she reached the free throw line in the second quarter, she hit 1,000 points when she connected with the second foul shot.
Dowse called a time out and got the game ball and the game continued. Seiler netted 10 more points to push her career total to 1,010 four games in to her junior season. There are at least 21 more games on the Lady Chiefs schedule this year (“Hopefully more,” said Dowse) and another 25 or more next year. Seiler started her high school basketball career with 1,000 points as a goal and 2,000 is not unthinkable now. If she hits that, she may pass Jeff Sheppard for most points in school history.
Seiler was very humble and soft-spoken when asked about reaching 1,000 points.
“I worked hard in the off-season,” Seiler said when asked what characteristics she attributed to reaching the milestone. The Lady Chiefs had a player reach 1,000 points last season as well, Laura Higgason, who returned to watch her former teammate hit the mark on Saturday.
“It meant a lot to reach 1,000 points, but it wouldn’t have meant much if we hadn’t won the game,” Seiler said.
Dowse added that Seiler is a competitive and aggressive player who has learned patience on the floor and is seeing the game better than she has before.
“As players mature, the game tends to slow down for them,” Dowse said, adding that the bigger the moment and the bigger the challenge, the more Seiler shines. “She’s not just our leading scorer. She leads in assists, steals and deflections. She does all the blue collar stuff and that’s what allows her to be successful.”
Seiler is also a member of the defending AAAA state champion Lady Chiefs soccer team and one can see the same attributes that make her successful on basketball court on the soccer field as well. She makes an impact in both sports but has more touches in basketball, and Dowse has seen the difference she makes on the court.
The team surprised Seiler with a cookie cake after Saturday’s win and there was a brief ceremony before the boys game on Saturday night. One gets the sense that Seiler quickly moved on from the milestone. McIntosh had a game with rival Fayette County to plan for.
The Lady Chiefs hosted the defending AAAA state champs last night after the paper went to press and Seiler wasn’t thinking about how many points she would put up, just how they could find a way to win.
McIntosh lost their last meeting with Fayette County 37-36 (Jan. 21, 2011) and, going back as far as 2004, have never beaten the Lady Tigers. Perhaps a win over Fayette County in her career would mean almost as much as 1,000 points?
Whatever the game’s outcome, Gabby starts climbing toward her second thousand this week.
