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Pippa makes a strong point MT file photo The ballhandling skills of Jenny Pippa (25) have been crucial to Ashland's success. Guard leads Grizz against Crater tonight By GREG STILES ASHLAND -- Jenny Pippa was happy just to make the junior varsity basketball squad her freshman year. The thought of playing varsity for the Ashland Grizzlies hadn't crossed her mind. Coach, brother helped Pippa grow Two people who helped develop Jenny Pippa's basketball skills before she entered Ashland High: former Southern Oregon University men's basketball coach Steve Humann and Pippa's older brother, Sal. Humann recognized Pippa's talent soon after she arrived in Ashland from Southern California. Humann was coaching his daughter's seventh- and eighth-grade AAU team and invited the slight sixth-grader to join his ranks. "He was my first real coach," Pippa says. "He did everything possible to make me better. He never gave up on me. He taught me how to make eye contact and steal the ball. "I wasn't a very good shooter. He taught me how to keep my arm straight and follow through." Brother Sal, who graduated last year, spent hours with his youngest sister in the yard. "We never had a basketball hoop, so we would make our own," Pippa says. "We played every day, and he's probably the one that taught me all my moves." Pippa had been too busy having fun playing with her peers at Ashland Middle School to notice that, over at the high school, varsity coaches came and went and that losing seasons and long winless streaks were all too common. But early in December 1996, the young point guard was thrust into the varsity lineup. Thrown to the wolves, Pippa survived, even prospered. She helped Ashland to an unprecedented run of postseason appearances, the team's first Southern Oregon Conference championship and the Grizzlies' first trip to the Class 4A state tournament. This year, Ashland is ranked eighth in the state heading into a critical SOC road game against No. 10 Crater at 7 tonight. Things weren't always so stable. "I thought I was going to go with (senior) Mary Baird at point guard, but she got hurt early on," coach Heather Roberts, who took over the program the previous summer, recalls of 1996. "We went to a jamboree at Hidden Valley and I watched the JVs play that night." The junior varsity's overwhelming defense caught Roberts' eye. So did Pippa. "I thought, `Oh my gosh, she's better than anyone I have on varsity,"' says Roberts. Four games later, Pippa was in the starting lineup. While she relished the opportunity to play, the demands Roberts put on varsity players took Pippa by surprise. Pippa hadn't thought much about varsity basketball the previous summer. She recalls showing up for just one of the summer games Ashland played. "We had a lot of camps, and I didn't go to any of them," Pippa admits. "I didn't know (Roberts), and I didn't know what was going on." It didn't take long to discover things were different on a varsity program headed the right direction. "I went from shooting-around practices in middle school to where we were working hard every day," Pippa says. "I really didn't have the dedication and didn't know what to expect." She soon discovered. We're talking gut-wrenching practices, new levels of conditioning, demands on her time and heightened classroom expectations. "I ask a lot of the varsity kids," Roberts concedes. "The kids who stay with me are tough kids, mentally and physically." Was Pippa ready for that kind of commitment? It wasn't like middle school or playing AAU ball for former Southern Oregon University men's coach Steve Humann. "I didn't like coach Roberts," Pippa says. "We didn't get along. I felt she yelled at me for no reason. There was so much pressure. I felt like quitting the game I loved. But you just can't do that. You've got to deal with it." And Roberts knew the Grizzlies needed Pippa's ability to compete for a playoff spot or SOC title. "Basically, we needed each other," Roberts says. "I needed a point guard and she needed a coach." Roberts relied on freshmen each of her first three years. This is the first season that she hasn't had a freshman in her varsity rotation. Pippa and Chelsea Morgan contributed; then came Jackie Woods and Hanna Seltzer; last year it was Kacey Zundel. "I think the program is finally to the point where I don't have to bring up any more freshmen, and I don't want to," Roberts says. "I have a lot of expectations, and I can't lower my expectations for a freshman. Probably, neither Jenny nor Jackie liked their freshman year very much. But by their sophomore year, it paid off." Assistant coach Stephanie Santos and senior center Sarah Petersen helped Pippa through that trying time. "You can imagine being a little freshman on a team with all these senior girls," says Petersen, who led the SOC in scoring that year. "Being in that position my freshman year, I remember how intimidating it was and so much was expected. I tried to remember those feelings I had and put myself in her shoes." Petersen played at the University of Hawaii before transferring to Southern Oregon this year. "What I also realize was how bad our team wanted to make a change before we left," Petersen says. "We definitely needed a point guard. I think she really stepped up to what her role was. She definitely helped me." Ashland reached the state playoffs for the first time in a dozen years. Pippa earned second-team SOC all-star honors as a sophomore and then was a first-team pick last year. The relationship between player and coach has grown as well. "She wasn't my favorite person, but she stuck with me and put up with me as a freshman not knowing what to do," Pippa says. "I felt I could break a press, but I was slacking on setting up an offense." The dissonant relationship has become harmonious and both player and coach realize four years of interdependence have resulted in the best of times for Ashland girls basketball. "I became a little more understanding," Roberts says. "I can't see it all myself. I realize we come from different places. I have nothing but respect for Jenny, and I will miss her a lot. I sit there and watch Jenny when people press and say to myself, `We're going to have to work on this next year.' And then when she gets us into our offense it's, `We're going to have to work on this, too.' I take so much for granted now." Pippa's mettle was challenged when she sprained her right ankle in the first round of last year's Class 4A state tournament against Sheldon of Eugene and was forced to ride out the remainder of a last-second loss on the bench. "I had chipped a bone playing soccer in middle school, but I had never been hurt playing basketball before," Pippa says. "I had never wore ankle braces before, stubborn me. Now I tape and wear ankle braces every game." Pippa courageously hobbled back onto the court and helped spur the Grizzlies to two victories. "I didn't want to let anything -- a broken knee or arm -- to get in the way," she says. "Just being on the bench those three quarters crushed me. I felt I let the team and myself down." There was one more hurdle in the tournament. Pippa was confined to the bench for the first quarter of the consolation final when the tourney trainer failed to show in time to tape her ankle before the game. She went scoreless in a 63-60 loss but still managed to dish out seven assists. Although the ankle is feeling fine, Pippa encountered shinsplints in December. It slowed her but failed to knock her out of the lineup. In 13 games, Pippa is averaging just under nine points, four assists, two steals and three rebounds. More important, she turns the ball over only about twice a game. "She's one of my favorite kids," Roberts says. "A lot of what she does doesn't show up in the stats. She might get mad when she's on the court, but keeps it to herself and doesn't let it show. She doesn't get frustrated or let down. "She has a real sense for knowing when we need a basket or a steal. But she's real unselfish, and that's what you need in a point guard." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, OR U.S.A.