BY MIKE MASTOVICH
ALTOONA — Members of the Forest Hills girls basketball team noticed a green and gold banner was missing from the high school gymnasium on Wednesday morning.
The players didn’t think much about the banner until they entered the locker room at Altoona Fieldhouse prior to the District 6 Class AAA championship game against top-seeded Bellefonte.
“We were getting prepared in the morning and shooting during our activities period. We saw that our banner wasn’t up,” said senior Teddi Burkett, who scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds in the Rangers 39-35 victory over Bellefonte for the
6-AAA title. “We said, ‘What’s up with that?’ We saw it in the locker room before the game and we all went nuts.We were all pumped up.”
Forest Hills assistant coach Scott Lashinsky was behind the motivational tactic.
“We had a nice banner hanging up at our school and (Wednesday) it was empty on the wall,” said an emotional Rangers head coach Carol Cecere.
“My assistant coach brought our banner in the locker room. He said, ‘The banner is awfully lonely. Can we add a number to it?’ In reality, this is a tribute to all the girls who have been playing from the very beginning until now.”
Forest Hills’ banner will be updated with the slogan “District 6 Champions” largely because of the Rangers’ stingy team defense that limited Bellefonte scoring leader Jena Matter to 13 points, eight of which came in the final minutes.
Second-seeded Forest Hills (18-6) built a 20-15 halftime lead and played well enough to keep top-seeded Bellefonte (16-8) in check the rest of the way. The Rangers earned the school’s first district basketball title.
Cecere credited her players and the Rangers fans for their support. She reflected on the late Ed Terek persuading her to become a coach nearly 15 years ago. Her first season as an assistant, the Rangers finished 1-22.
The building project came full circle on Wednesday. Cecere said the history will be displayed on the banner she repeatedly spoke of after the win.
“We have a banner up for every sport in the school, and on the bottom of ours it had the words Central-Western Champs in 1979,” she said. “Then it had Tri-County League Section champs in 1985, my senior year. We had never won the Laurel Highlands, and we never won District 6.
“We’ve really been trying to motivate our players,” she added. “We’ve been doing different things to get them laughing. They walked in before the pregame and there was the banner. There was a letter from the banner to the Rangers. It
said, ‘I’m lonely. I’ve watched players fight, but you’re a special team.’ ”
The team concept was evident, as Casey Gallaher and Becky Bard each had eight points as well as key defensive roles. Seven players scored at least a point.
“It was awesome,” Burkett said. “Coming into the game we were pumped up.”
