Union girls have had plenty in 40 years
To Bethany Koch, they were giants. Koch was just a little girl when she got her first look at Union High girls basketball.
The players towered above her. They were larger than life. They were legends.
Koch was in awe.
“My first memories probably were of Mary Jane Eaton and her sister (Rachel),” Koch said. “The Wisemans (Bethany and Kellie). They looked so much bigger to me back then. They were awesome and I wanted to be like them.”
Such is the way of the Union girls basketball program. In their 40th season, the Damsels have become the model of consistency.
Koch understands first hand why Union has become synonymous with winning.
As she watched the players who came before her, she aspired to emulate them.
And to win like them.
“Every year, year after year, you hear that,” Koch said. “You are expected to win.”
Win is all that the Damsels have done for nearly four decades.
In the program's 39 years, only one season ended with a losing record — and that season has an asterisk attached to it.
During the 1988-89 season, teachers in the school district went on strike. By the time it was settled, the Damsels had many games to make up and played almost every day for three weeks.
The team went 9-12.
The next season, Union went 18-7 and have won no fewer than 14 games in a season since.
Some of the numbers are remarkable:
• Union has averaged 19 wins per season for 39 years.
• Union has won 20 or more games 20 times.
•Union has been to the PIAA playoffs 23 times and has won the District 9 championship eight times.Perhaps the most amazing number is three — the number of coaches the program has had.“There's not many programs who can say they've only had three coaches in their history,” says Karen Davis, who coached the Damsels from 1992 until 2002.Davis won 203 games in those 10 years. She also played for Ed Jamison, who started the program and won 382 games from 1971 to 1992.Davis, who now coaches the Union boys, moved into the district as a sophomore and quickly discovered that girls basketball was unlike any other program in the region.“That's what I wanted,” said Davis, who finished her career at Union as the career assists leader. Her record was broken by one of her players, Jess Divins, in 2000. “I don't like to lose. I didn't like to lose as a player or as a coach.”Davis also coached with Jamison until taking over for him. When Davis decided to step aside following the 2002 season, her successor was waiting.Davis plucked former Union boys basketball player Josh Meeker from Clarion University to coach at the lower levels before the 1995-96 season. When she left, he was a natural choice to succeed her.“My situation was perfect,” said Meeker, a 1993 Union graduate who entered this season with 177 wins.Meeker coached Koch in middle school and junior high. Not long after Koch and her talented group of teammates reached high school, Meeker took over the program.What followed were perhaps the glory days of the program.In Meeker's first five seasons, Union posted a 129-21 record and reached the PIAA semifinals during the 2005-06 season when Koch was a senior.“Glory days — that's a good way to put it,” Koch said. “I feel honored to have come from such a tradition, to be connected to ‘that team,' as people call it.”The last three years have been more difficult for the program, however.The record is still very good — an average of 16 wins in the last three seasons — but by Union's lofty standards, they have been a mild disappointment.“The bar is set pretty high here,” Meeker said. “I've been disappointed that we haven't made the state playoffs in the past three years.”But Meeker, a math teacher in the school district, is counting on a return to those 20-win seasons and state playoff appearances.The freshman class is loaded with talent and the Damsels are off to a 7-2 start this season.Koch and former teammate Nikki Davis are now Meeker's assistants, imparting their vast experience to the current crop of players, many of whom looked up to them as Koch once did to the Eatons and Wisemans before her.Season No. 40 looks to be another winner.
This is the 40th season for the Union High girls basketball program, which has been coached by only three people:<B>Years Coach Record</B>1971-92 Ed Jamison 382-1101992-2002 Karen Davis 203-672002- Josh Meeker 183-48<B>Overall 753-217</B>
