Girls Basketball POY : Showman draws share of attention
By Ryan Sonner
The stands are packed. Fans are chewing on popcorn and sipping on cool drinks. Children are running up and down the bleachers to fill the time before tip-off. Everyone in the gym finds a way to keep busy, whether they're chatting it up with the person next to them or talking on a cell phone.
Then the doors swing open, and she emerges. Suddenly, everyone stops what they're doing. The gym goes quiet.
"When she walks in, everybody sees her — the tall, blond girl," Stonewall Jackson girls basketball coach Jeff Burner said.
For the next two hours, all eyes are on 6-foot-2 center Jessica Showman. She's the girl the opposing fans love to hate. They hate her because she routinely drops double-doubles on them. They hate her because they know they can't have her.
"Honestly, my senior year, that was an expectation," Showman said. "I can't say it was the greatest feeling in the world, but after four years of it, I was used to it."
It's always the same thing every game — the officials didn't call enough fouls on Showman. Those elbows went undetected. She must have traveled three or four times, but the whistle never blew.
Those annoying hecklers started the minute she walked into the gym, and they didn't quit until she left — just as long as their team got the best of Showman.
"Over at Page County, she had 10 blocked shots in that game," Burner said. "She got her shot blocked twice, and that crowd went crazy. She blocked 10 shots in that game, and the crowd didn't make a murmur. She just laughs at those things now."
Burner knew from the moment Showman arrived at Stonewall Jackson that the points would come. He also knew the rebounds and the blocked shots would come. What he didn't know was how she would handle the attention. Physically, Showman had the goods. Mentally, there were still questions.
Finally, all the I's are dotted, and all the T's are crossed.
"It's been so cool watching her grow up," Burner said. "I won't lie, she was a head case when she started. She could talk herself out of a game easier than anyone you've ever seen in your life. But this year, she handled the pressure."
Because of her mental durability as much as her record-setting career, Showman is the 2003-04 Northern Virginia Daily Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Showman has been honored with the award twice in the last four years, as a sophomore still learning the ropes and as a polished senior who will leave as one of the greatest players ever to walk the halls of Stonewall Jackson High School.
Anyone who thinks Showman had it easy is sorely mistaken, though. For every time she hit a turnaround jumper in someone's mug, there were two or three times she'd get knocked to the floor. Showman not only drew double teams every time she touched the ball. Often, teams would send three girls her way — one in front, one behind and one more for backup.
"Our strategy was to make it tough to get her the ball," Buffalo Gap coach Phillip Morgan said, "which means you may have to double down. Once she got the ball, we knew we had to double down to make it hard for her to score."
To the person that never saw Showman play this season, her numbers aren't very impressive at 15 points and 10 rebounds per game. That she did it with two, sometimes three people on her back is incredible. Apparently not everyone saw it that way. Showman placed third in the voting for Shenandoah District Player of the Year, behind Page County's Rachel Morris and Buffalo Gap's Tiffany Acker.
"Stats do stand out more when you have three people guarding you every game," said Showman, who recorded two triple-doubles this season. "Of course, my stats weren't going to be as high as in previous years. That's a given."
Burner said he was shocked when he realized Showman received such little love in the district voting. The all-district teams are voted on by the district's coaches, and he said one district coach left her off the first team completely.
"If anyone doesn't think she's one of the best players in the league, I find that interesting," he said, "because if anybody had the chance to pick somebody to start a team with, almost all of them would pick her. I told them in the meeting flat out, there's no other kid in this league that would put up the numbers she did if they faced the same defense every night, and I'll stand by that."
Life without Showman isn't going to be fun for anyone at Stonewall Jackson. Gone are nearly 1,300 points, 900 rebounds and 300 blocked shots. In the long run, numbers are always replaceable. The tough part is finding another player who puts up those numbers and handles the attention that comes with it.
"It wasn't easy for her," Burner said. "The girl has had pressure on her since the day she walked in."
R Contact Ryan Sonner at rsonner@nvdaily.com
JESSICA SHOWMAN
î School: Stonewall Jackson
î Position: Center
î Stellar stat: Showman achieved two triple-doubles this season.
î Dream vacation: Paris
î Favorite color: Blue
î Favorite basketball memory: Scoring 1,000 points
