Freeport’s DeZort joins select club
BUFFALO TWP — Not much about Freeport senior Melaina DeZort’s high school basketball career was conventional — the make that gave her 1,000 varsity points included.
In a Senior Night win over Derry on Feb. 6, with the Yellowjackets still in the mix to make the postseason, DeZort had the century mark on her mind.
“Everyone knew that I was trying to get my points that game,” she said. “It was just like, fast break. I was getting mainly lay-ups.”
As she got closer, she saw it fit to eclipse it from beyond the arc.
“I just felt that would be a cool thing to have, so coach called a timeout and he set up a pick for me to get screened and then have an opportunity to shoot a three,” DeZort said. “I shot it and it literally bounced in and there was some special touch on it. I’ve probably shot that shot a million times and it was just crazy because it bounced in and out and off the backboard.”
Freeport coach Fred Soilis called a timeout for DeZort to embrace her teammates in celebration. All things considered — a pandemic-shortened sophomore campaign to playing without a key teammate this time around — it was a lot to take in.
“She was one of our key players,” Soilis said of DeZort. “Once my daughter went down, she had to shoulder more than she normally did. Her importance to the team was evident in the scoring.”
Fellow senior Ava Soilis was the team’s leader in rebounds, assists, and steals. She tore her ACL on Jan. 5 at the beginning of the team’s loss to Highlands. DeZort said that the two fed off each other on the court. The injury thrust her into an unfamiliar role.
“Whenever she got hurt, I think everyone was like, ‘Okay, we have to figure out what we’re going to do now,’” DeZort said. “I had to take the point guard role because it was either me or her who could handle the ball best. Usually, I’m more comfortable as the shooter or a play being set up for me … We had to come up with new plays and kind of get everyone involved being that we lost one of our leading scorers.”
She took it upon herself to keep her team positive and zeroed in on its goals. That included putting in extra work on her own time almost every other night — either before or after the Yellowjackets’ sessions.
“Whenever I would train outside of practice, I focused more on ball handling and coming off of screens — stuff that I wasn’t doing before,” DeZort said. “I think that we just had to come together as a team to focus and do it for Ava.”
Reaching 1,000 career varsity points was an objective of DeZort’s from the time she stepped on the court and started as a freshman. Her older brother, Mitch DeZort, previously accomplished it at Highlands. Melaina estimated that she needed just over 300 points this go-round to get there herself.
“I kind of just played my game and it just happened to come down to the points at the end of the season that I was able to do it,” Melaina said. “It was really one of those staples in my basketball career that just kind of showed all of my hard work and everything that I put into the past four seasons of playing. It just felt relieving that I was able to be in that club and be up on the wall at Freeport.”
“I think it just further solidifies that the program expects and produces players that are going to work hard,” Coach Soilis said.
The other ‘Jackets girls to reach the plateau are Jamie Beechey (1983), Beth Shearer (1984), Tammy Thompson (1987), Daashia Fish (1997), Zoe Soilis (2016) and Harley Holloway and Sidney Shemanski (2020).
DeZort recently committed to continue her hoops career at John Carroll University, which began courting her during the AAU circuit last year.
“It’s kind of like hitting the reset button here,” Melaina said. “I feel like I’m in the same position I was four years ago, being that I’m going all the way to Cleveland and they have some really good girls there … I know I definitely have an opportunity with playing (as a freshman).”
