Waynesboro's Cat Weber scores 1,000th point
Heading into Monday night's girls basketball game, Cat Weber needed just 11 points to score the 1,000th of her career.
And with nine points to her name in a contest against Spring Grove, Weber just couldn't seem to find the hoop.
"At nine points, I kept in my head, and I kept thinking about it," Weber said. "It was definitely getting to me, and I kept getting underneath the basket. All the way from ninth grade, everything was getting in my head."
After a series of near-misses, Weber was tossed an in-bounds pass from Olivia Gardenhour and she immediately nailed a quick jumper to send her teammates into a frenzy of celebration.
Weber immediately hugged fellow senior Chelsea Cover, and was awarded a game ball, which she promptly handed off to her mom.
"I tried to keep my cool, but I felt sick to my stomach until I hit that 11 points," Weber said. "My teammates kept looking for me, and I appreciated that. It felt really good. It felt like a whole weight was lifted off my shoulder."
Although the game didn't end in Waynesboro's favor - the Rockets climbed out to an early lead and claimed a 59-40 victory in non-league action - Weber still gave the Maiden faithful something to celebrate. She finished with a game-high 20 points.
"I think Cat's biggest accomplishment this year is we didn't want her to force the shot," 'Boro coach Allison Steiger said. "Last year, she started off a little bit slower, but this year, I don't feel like she's forced a lot of shots. And most of the time, she knows when to give it up."
Steiger has coached Weber since her sophomore season, and said Weber's biggest evolution from then to now was her mental state during games.
"One of the things Cat really needed to work on these last three years is really controlling her emotions during the game," Steiger said. "You could take her out of the game, mentally, and she's not like that anymore. She's very focused, very zeroed in."
Weber attributed her success to her family support. She said her parents, Amy and Kurt, have always been supportive of her AAU basketball career, and her brother, Ben, has made her tougher because "he's always pushed me around."
"It means the world to me that I can make Waynesboro proud with this, and now I have my name up on the banner," Weber said. "I look at that banner every day in practice, and now I know I'll see my name up there."
Weber is the first 1,000-point scorer for 'Boro girls basketball since the 2008-09 season.