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Chase is aiming high - on the court and online By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings She's thinking big and playing bigger. She's in the key and behind the arc. She's got the game and the brains. She's Whitney Chase: post for the Ashland Middle School eighth grade girls basketball team, 4.0 AMS student and, yes, Web goddess. Somehow, she's made time for it all. Chase, a disciple of Ashland High head coach Steve Humann, averaged 17.9 points and eight rebounds per game over the fall for Ashland's 2002 AAU girls basketball team (coached by Humann), leading the traveling squad to a 26-5 record and five first-place tournament finishes. She did so efficiently, making 63 percent (162-for-258) of her field goals, 63 percent (12-for-19) of her 3-point attempts and 78 percent (69-for-88) of her foul shots. Ashland Middle School eighth grader Whitney Chase (left) gets a high five from a teammate. Ashland Daily Tidings/DENISE BARATTA She's also an academic all-star - a National Scholastic Honors Society member who's held a perfect 4.0 GPA since enrolling at AMS two years ago, when her family moved here from Woodenville, Wash. But all that's rudimentary compared to the gig she's got on the side. Chase designed and manages her personal Web site (whitneychase.com), which she's using to track her statistics so that later, college recruiters can log on and find out everything from Chase's sixth-grade scoring average to her favorite food (sushi and pasta). And as far as recruiters go, Chase doesn't just want a nibble. She's already thinking Division I scholarship, preferably from a Pac-10 school so she can stay close to her family. This isn't your typical 13-year-old. "She's just a very self-motivated person," says her dad, Steve Chase. At an age when most girls are thinking less about their own future and more about Justin Timberlake's, Chase has mapped out the next four years of her life on her Web site, and goal No. 5 - right after "earn athletic college scholarships in basketball" and before "earn national All-American athletic honors in basketball" - is to lead the Ashland High girls basketball team to a Class 4A state championship. "She's a very good eighth grade player and she's worked very hard," says Humann, who introduced Chase to basketball after spotting her at a soccer tryout in the summer of 2000. "She goes around to camps, she loves the game and she practices very hard. She reminds me of several girls that we have on the varsity team right now. She's an excellent student, she does things right and does things that her parents can be proud of." Like win awards. Lots of them. In 2002 alone, Chase won the Stanford University Elite Camp Most Valuable Player award, the SUEC 1-on-1 championship and the Elks national free throw shooting championship. In 2001, not long after taking up the sport, Chase won the Stanford Cardinal Award (most inspirational) and the Cardinal Challenge 21 shooting award. The improvements in her game haven't come without a price, however. Chase is as dedicated as middle school athletes come, and then some. Playing for Oregon Triple Threat, Ashland's AAU team, the middle school and even the high school team (one tournament over the summer), Chase has participated in seven hoops camps and 29 tournaments in the last two and a half years. The stint with Triple Threat was particularly taxing. During the fall, Chase traveled back and forth to Portland three times a week to play for the Oregon all-star girls team, which finished its season a perfect 22-0. How did she manage to get through her school work with that kind of schedule? "I talked to my teachers a lot," Chase said, "and they knew that I was traveling up there, so basically they (helped) me out with school work and they've been telling me what I need to get done, and I turn it in. Basically, I do my work either the night before I go to Portland or on the way." One of several talented girls on the AMS squad - which finished 8-2 last year and is 2-0 so far this season - Chase is a 5-10 guard who has modeled her game after Stanford sensation Nicole Powell. Not coincidentally, Chase has actually met Powell. In fact, during one of the many Stanford camps that Chase has attended, Powell gave the young Ashlander a 1-on-1 lesson. "I got to do a little workout with her," Chase recalls. "I got to shoot with her and do some of the drills that they do in practice and just all the dribbling moves, and it was fun because I got to know her." "She's so creative," added Chase, describing her basketball idol. "She has this signature move where she backs one girl down, she has like two people on her and somehow she finds a way to stick the ball in the hoop." Chase hopes to eventually develop some of those skills. So far, so good. Whitney Chase fast facts Athletic Achievements Elks national free throw shooting champion. Stanford University Elite Camp MVP. Stanford University Elite Camp 1-on-1 champion. Stanford Cardinal award winner. Academic Achievements 2001-02 National Scholalstic Honors Society member. 2002-03 National Scholastic Honors Society member. 2001-02-03 4.0 AMS student. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -