High On Work Ethic Joanna Storey Sets Hard-Working Example For Her Lc Basketball Teammates

When Joanna Storey was in the fourth grade, her basketball skills were noticed when she scored in her first game.

The ball went in the opponents’ basket, and the rest of the game was just as comical.

“There was this big, tall kid guarding me, and I was thinking, ‘This is so much fun! You just run up and down the court and don’t do anything else,”’ she recalled, grinning and rolling her eyes.

The 5-foot-7 post player for Lewis and Clark High School is now doing a lot more than running up and down the court, but she’s having just as much fun.

Coach Jim Redmon said Storey, who received the team’s Most Inspirational Player award last season, has an enthusiastic, hard-working attitude that sets her apart from many other prep athletes.

“It’s refreshing to coach someone like Joanna,” he said. “You see so many kids who have the God-given talent, but they don’t work like she does.”

Redmon described a player that would be any coach’s dream.

“She’s just one of those players that, if I asked her to run through a wall, she would,” he said. “She’s so coachable.”

Redmon remembered Storey’s attitude during a difficult week. Two seniors had been asked to leave the team just before an important game Jan. 16 against Shadle Park, and Storey filled the gap.

“Jo came into this game all over the floor, bouncing off the walls, making steals,” he said. “She’s always taken our group as more important than herself. … She believes in a commitment to the team.”

The Tigers lost the game 41-36, but Storey said close losses like that one don’t dampen her attitude.

“Tomorrow’s another day,” she said, shrugging. “I keep trying for my teammates.”

Many team members have been playing together since they were in elementary school, and that may explain why the team is so important to Storey.

“My teammates have been behind me always,” she said. “I love that I can look at them and know we’ve been playing since we couldn’t shoot, dribble or pass.”

Since she scored that first basket, Storey has been committed to basketball. As a child, she spent Saturday mornings watching her older brothers play basketball, drawing her work ethic from them and from her parents.

“My dad always said, ‘Just keep on doin’ what you’re doin’,”’ she said.

For Storey, working hard and having fun go together.

“My goal is just to try my hardest and do my best,” she said. “I play always for fun.

“It would always be nice to be really good, but it’s fun to keep trying.”

Though she doesn’t lead the Greater Spokane League in scoring or rebounding, Storey is one of the team’s stars because she is a role model, Redmon said.

“From a work-ethic standpoint, we have three young sophomores on our team, and they just watch her work,” he said. “When they really get old enough to understand what Joanna has done for them and for herself, they’ll realize the benefits.”

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