Salisbury High’s Ke-Ke Chunn was a girl among boys last summer.
“I needed to toughen up,” said Chunn. “I played with the guys all the time. I’m glad. They made me a whole lot better.”
Chunn, an effervescent senior guard, has been voted the top girls basketball player in Rowan County for 2001. She’s the first Hornet to win the honor since Catawba’s Donna Carr in 1995.
Off the court, Chunn is all about long, fluttering eyelashes, lipstick, big smiles and charm, but on the court, she transformed herself into a hard-nosed take-it-to-the-hoop type and a serious college prospect.
“She carried our load every night,” said Salisbury coach Jennifer Shoaf. “Around the Christmas Tournament, she started playing with great confidence.”
Chunn outpolled South’s Brittney Gaddy, North’s Joyce Hipps, East’s Emily Rich and West’s Danielle Scearce in an unusual year in which all five schools nominated a girls player of the year. Usually, Post sportswriters and county coaches choose from among two, or at most, three, nominees. All the player of the year nominees except Gaddy are seniors.
Chunn’s selection caps her meteoric rise from a player who had never made the all-county team to the top of the heap. East’s Nicole Loggins, now at Western Carolina, did the same thing her junior year in 1999.
Chunn’s 17.5 ppg was tops in the county (Gaddy was runner-up at 17.2) and the sixth best scoring total in Hornet history. Chunn scored more points as a senior (385) than she had scored in all her previous seasons combined. She had nine 20-point games, with a high of 25 against East.
Chunn had the quickest first step in the county and elevated her game even more after the Hornets lost No. 2 scorer Jenny Reilly to a knee injury in mid-season.
“When Jenny went down, Ke-Ke was the focus of defenses every single night,” said Shoaf. “But she held up against some really tough teams.”
The Hornets finished only 6-16, and were the only county team not to make the state playoffs. Because of that record, Shoaf thought player of the year was a longshot.
“I don’t know who was more surprised — me when I found out or her when I told her,” said Shoaf.
“It was probably me,” laughed Chunn. “There was a lot of talent in the county that I went up against. After Jenny got hurt, I did all I could. I just tried to make things better for the team.”
It was enough to make her player of the year.
Seven seniors made the 11-person team, with West’s Scearce and Jenny Sloop, East’s Rich and Lora Williams; and North’s Hipps and Courtney Hill, joining Chunn.
Rich, Hipps and Hill were repeaters from a year ago.
Gaddy is the lone junior on the team, while North’s Amber Hill is the only soph.
Two freshmen, West’s Hillary Hampton and East’s Maggie Rich, made the squad. They are the first freshmen all-county picks since North’s Jackie Wood made first team and West’s Kari Schenk and North’s Megan Honeycutt made second team in 1997.
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