Cox part of junior stars
The Jack Blair Memorial Girls AAU All-Star Basketball Classic may be the swan song for area prep standouts, but for Ferris’ Stacey Cox and many other Greater Spokane League standouts on the Metro squad, it is a preview of things to come.
There are only three graduating seniors on the team that plays the Regional All-Stars tonight at 7:30 at University High.
Cox is one of four juniors – Lewis and Clark’s Briann January, University’s Jami Bjorklund and Emily Kuipers are the others – who are part of one of the best overall groups to pass through the GSL.
They were heralded long before any reached high school, having opened eyes in AAU ball as early as fourth grade. By the time they reached high school, several, Cox among them, contributed as freshmen and all were major factors for their respective high schools by their sophomore seasons.
For Cox, basketball is her passion. If her foot speed has been the deterrent that will prevent her from playing at the Division I collegiate level, no one works harder, said Ron Adams, the Spokane Stars coach and founder of tonight’s game.
“Nobody gives an effort like she does,” he said. “She plays so hard, is in the gym all the time and is a workaholic.”
Even now, Cox’s regimen includes a heavy dose of weight training, agility drills and hill running under the watchful eyes of Amy Galloway, in her bid to continue improving.
She has played on Adams’ Spokane Stars traveling teams since age 10 and currently plays for the Elite Blue team that has lost once this spring during tournament play, including an event in Arizona. Last year, she sat.
“It killed me,” she said. “I hate sitting on the bench.”
This year she’s getting ample minutes as a front-line substitute.
“She’s our first player off the bench, really our top reserve,” said Adams of a versatile athlete who has played every position from point guard to post. “She’s as highly skilled as any player we have, just not as fast, and understands the game well. She’s just a solid basketball player.”
Cox admits that as a youngster she was intimidated by the likes of January and Bjorklund while playing against them in AAU. Now she’s playing with them, in fact spelling them on the Stars whenever they, or any other player, gets in foul trouble.
Cox’s first basketball came in the second grade. She said she played a “ton” of other sports growing up, but “there’s never been a question, basketball is my main passion.”
At Ferris she was a junior varsity point guard as a freshman and got called up with the varsity during the 2001-02 season, when the Saxons finished third at state. Although the Saxons haven’t duplicated that success the past two seasons, Cox was the team’s leading scorer this year, her 14.0 average nearly double that of the next Ferris player.
She was the sixth-leading scorer in the GSL behind players who are teammates in tonight’s Jack Blair Classic – Reagan Pariseau, Bjorklund, sophomores Heather Bowman of LC and Corrina O’Brien from Gonzaga Prep, and Clarkston’s Abby Johnson, who is on the Regional team.
The 11th annual Jack Blair Classic is named for the former Central Valley girls basketball coach who compiled a 109-35 record and co-founded the Spokane Stars. He became an administrator and activities coordinator at Lewis and Clark before dying from complications of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1994.
Proceeds from the game, which features the top high school girls from North Idaho and Spokane area, benefit the Jack Blair Memorial Scholarship at LC. Five players in the lineups are league MVPs and all earned all-league stature, Cox among them.
All 24 players from the Metro and Region All-Stars will be available for autograph seekers and pictures at 6:30 p.m., said Adams.
Not too many years back, Cox was one of those.
“I remember going as a little girl, getting autographs and playing at halftime,” the 5-foot-10 junior said. “This is my first time playing in the game, so I’m excited.”