A Rocket to remember

For most of her high school basketball career, Routt senior Melissa Nichols was overshadowed by the older, higher-scoring teammates she grew up playing with.

But as players like Colleen Doyle, Casey Johnson, Megan Martin and Jaclyn Meado graduated over the past two years, Nichols found herself at the forefront this season, expected to lead a young team that included more freshmen and sophomores than juniors and seniors.

Nichols made the transition from role player to leader, guiding Routt to a second consecutive appearance at the state tournament. After averaging just over seven points a game during the regular season, Nichols scored more than twice that in the postseason, lifting her team to a fourth-place finish at state.

“When the postseason hit, Missy really started looking to score more, I believe,” Routt coach Joe Eilering said. “She got more aggressive on the offensive end, and once she did that, it kind of opened up the game for everybody else.”

Nichols didn’t become much of a scorer until her senior season — she never did reach the 1,000-point plateau — but the feisty guard will be remembered as one of the players who helped turn Routt into a local girls’ basketball powerhouse.

“When you look back at the success they’ve had — I think this is their third regional title in a row, second sectional in a row, and fourth 20-win season — Missy is right in there with all the other girls,” Eilering said.

Nichols is the 2007-08 Journal-Courier Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year.

“She’s been extremely valuable to this program, this team. Just her competitive nature and the heart she comes to play with, she made everyone on this team around her better,” Eilering said. “When you look at it, she’s meant as much to this program as anyone else has meant prior.”

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When Nichols came to Jacksonville from White Hall as a third-grader and enrolled at Our Saviour School, basketball was a way to make friends.

“When I transferred schools it was kind of hard not knowing anyone,” Nichols said. “Basketball was my way to meet people. It was initially what got me friends.”

Basketball had never really been one of Nichols’ interests before she changed schools. “I didn’t start playing until I came to Jacksonville,” she said. “I was always kind of a girly girl.”

Nichols had played other sports before, but not basketball.

“I always played softball and T-ball, but in White Hall they didn’t have a basketball league. But I always watched my brother play,” she said. “I wanted to try it.”

When Nichols started playing hoops at the YMCA under former Routt coach Bruce Martin, she was one of the youngest players on the team. They traveled all over the region, often playing older, more experienced teams. Martin’s teams occasionally would even play against boys’ teams.

“They did a lot to the program. They went and played everywhere. They played any competition they could find,” Eilering said. “Melissa was always in that group.”

Despite her age, Nichols always found a way to contribute. She could play either guard position, and often came off the bench as a reserve.

“She’s been there from day one,” Eilering said. “There was a load of talent ahead of her and she was always with that group and she worked and worked and worked.”

Throughout her entire high school career, Nichols was forced to be a versatile player. She came off the bench as a reserve in both her freshman and sophomore seasons, often spelling Megan Martin as the team’s point guard.

During her junior season, after Johnson graduated, Nichols became the team’s shooting guard. This season, she went back to the point.

“It’s one of the things that a lot of people don’t realize about Melissa,” Eilering said. “She truly is a team player and she will fit whatever role that team needs.”

Nichols didn’t mind.

“I think it was different for me. It was just what was asked of me at the time,” she said. “I think it was exciting for me to get to watch the older girls, to learn a lot from them, and then get to help the younger girls this year.”

Although other Routt players scored more points and grabbed more headlines, Nichols did the little things to help her team win.

“She just looks to involve all of her teammates at all costs. She’s never interested in her own stats,” Eilering said. “When Missy plays the game, it’s whether we win or lose, and that’s really all she’s ever cared about.”

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While Nichols was always one of Routt’s better shooters — she finished third at this year’s Class 1A 3-point Showdown — she seldom shot the ball. She was more interested in passing.

“I feel better when I make a good pass or whatever, versus a shot,” she said.

No one ever told Nichols not to shoot the ball. She just preferred to pass to players who she considered better shooters than herself.

“They’ve encouraged me (to shoot) since my freshman year when I got some varsity time,” Nichols said. “I listened, but it didn’t really register when I was playing.”

Shooting didn’t come so easily.

“It’s just not in her makeup, and she’ll just flat-out tell you, she loves to make that assist and that pretty pass,” Eilering said. “For her, that’s when basketball is fun.”

Things had to change this season. With most of her former teammates gone, Nichols had to learn how to get the ball to the newer players.
And she had to do more scoring herself.

“Everyone loves her beautiful passing, and that is a very vital part of her game, but this year we needed her to score,” Eilering said. “From day one, we were asking her to look to score and be more aggressive offensively.”

That became even more important once the postseason began.

“The postseason, I don’t think anyone directly said that in order for us to win, you’re going to have to shoot,” Nichols said. “I think I just picked that up myself and it just came to me, I guess. But the encouragement was good because it kind of forced me to shoot.”

Nichols more than doubled her regular-season scoring average during seven postseason games as she led the Lady Rockets to the state tournament.

“She always had been good throughout the season, but when it came to the postseason, she just stepped up and carried the team on her back,” sophomore Katie Lindsey said. “She wanted to play her best in her last games and she definitely did that.”

Nichols’ finest moment on a basketball court had nothing to do with a pass. It came at the Virginia Sectional, against a team that had given the Lady Rockets more problems than any other area school.

With her team trailing Greenfield the entire second half, Nichols led a comeback that started with a 3-pointer from the wing with 30 seconds left, and ended with a deep, game-winning 3-pointer at the final buzzer for a 53-51 victory.

“I took it down and Morgan (Eilering) set a pick for me, and I shot it,” Nichols said.

The feeling after making the shot was one she’ll never forget.

“I think it was pure excitement,” she said. “I was overwhelmed with emotion, actually. I was so happy and stunned, kind of, that we had won.”

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All business on the basketball court, whether during a game or in practice, Nichols wasn’t always the most vocal leader. But when something wasn’t going the way it was supposed to, she was often the player who got the team back on track.

“There were a lot of times just by her demeanor in practice, by her getting upset, that sometimes I didn’t have to say anything,” Eilering said. “The players knew that practice wasn’t running well, we weren’t running the plays, or performing like we should.

“There were times I didn’t have to say anything, just because the way Missy carried herself made the other girls realize that we needed to focus.”

Lindsey recognized the look Nichols’ would get when things weren’t going right.

“You could definitely tell when she was getting frustrated at practices and stuff, and we all were,” Lindsey said. “She would be the first one to say, ‘Let’s quit screwing around and start playing.’”

Nichols had a different message for her teammates just before the first game of the playoffs.

“I just remember before the postseason, before the Triopia game, she said, ‘I’m not ready for it to be over yet,’” Eilering recalled.

Her teammates understood.

“I think everyone had that ‘If we lose, this is our last game’ mentality,” Nichols said. “I think everyone kind of picked their game up.”

•••

Melissa Nichols will be remembered for many things. Her passing and dribbling skills. Making it to state twice. The shot.

But her coach and teammates will remember her as the consummate team player.

“You don’t find a lot of players that can do it all like that,” Eilering said. “Some players are pure scorers, but I think Melissa is just a complete ball player.”

Lindsey said Nichols will be hard to replace.

“She’s been a really big part of our team this year and we’ll really miss her next year,” she said. “It’ll be tough next year without her leadership.”

Nichols is being courted by a number of schools to play college basketball, including Illinois College, MacMurray College, Eureka College, Lewis and Clark Community College, Lincoln Land Community College and the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“If I get the right offer, I definitely would like to play,” she said.

Playing basketball is Nichols’ favorite thing to do, the place where she feels most comfortable.

“It’s been a life-changer for me. A lot of good things came out of it for me,” she said. “It set me up to do things I hadn’t done, to go places I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t played.”