East Rowan guard Nicole Loggins, picked as the county’s best for 1998-99, signed with the Catamounts on Sunday night. Loggins, who averaged 16.2 points a game as a junior, will join forces with ‘99 South Rowan graduate Janetta Heggins, recognized as the county’s top player for the 1997-98 season.

“It’s going to be neat,” said Loggins. “I’ve never got to play on any team with Janetta before. It’s going to be fun because she’s such a great player.”

It’s not difficult to imagine Loggins, a shooting guard, and Heggins, a forward who excelled in last summer’s East-West All-Star game in Greensboro, forming 40 percent of the Catamounts’ starting lineup somewhere down the road.

First, Heggins, who held a 3-2 edge on Loggins in games in which their teams went head to head, will have to overcome some shoulder problems. As for Loggins, youthful Catamount coach Jill Dunn has told her that the sky’s the limit if she keeps working.

“Working hard,” said Loggins, “won’t be a problem.”

Loggins had scholarship offers from Wingate and Winthrop in addition to Western, and other opportunities were sure to come in after this season. But like West boys star Scooter Sherrill, she wanted to be able to concentrate on getting things done for East and new coach Randy Bingham rather than worrying about recruiters.

“I didn’t want to be stressed out wondering who was in the stands watching me,” said Loggins. “I didn’t rush into anything, but I did want to get it done early. You never know, if I hadn’t signed, Western might have moved on to someone else.”

It’s unlikely, though, that Dunn was going to find anyone better than Loggins. Loggins is a tremendous shooter. She connected on an astonishing 65 3-pointers last year (more than some teams made) and needs just 69 points to reach 1,000 for her career.

Loggins also showed growth as a junior in areas besides shooting. She drove more, got to the foul line more (where she shoots 72 percent) and accounted for a team-high 91 steals and 83 assists (second on the team). She added four rebounds per game.

Loggins said she got Western’s attention when she played for the Newton Flames during the AAU Nationals in Texas last summer.

“The funny thing is they saw me in one of my worst games,” Loggins said. “I was thinking, ‘Hey, if they were impressed by that, what if I have a good game? They must really like me.’”

There’s a lot to like. Loggins is serious about the game year-round and has been able to maintain the quickness of a small player, despite a growth spurt that has her pushing 5-11. She’s actually a little taller now than Rowan County’s top post players — North’s Megan Honeycutt and Salisbury’s Sherree Gillespie.

“I’ve worked mostly on defense in the offseason,” Loggins said. “I’ve gotten quite a bit stronger and I’ve been developing my post-up game. My dad’s even got me shooting a hook shot.”

Loggins said she likes the Western campus nearly as much as that new hook.

“I like everything,” she said. “The academic program (she wants to be a P.E. teacher and coach) and the location. It’s about three hours away. That’s perfect. Close to home — that was important to my family —but not at home.”

Loggins will have to purchase some heavy sweaters but said she’s even pumped up about the chilly climate in Cullowhee.

“It snowed an inch there the other day,” she said excitedly. “And this girl’s all about some winter-time.”