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06/07/2006: "CHS junior Amber Hegge named top female high school athlete"

Amber Hegge, a junior at Crofton High School, and the daughter of Bob and Helene Hegge, was named as the Nebraska High School Female Athlete of the Year by the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal-Star. To read the articles from each of those papers (printed in their Sunday, June 4 editions, see the rest of this story.

Lincoln paper cites Hegge’s toughness as ‘hidden’ part of her
athletic prowess

Reprinted with permission from the Lincoln Journal-Star.
By Ron Powell
Lincoln Journal Star
Amber Hegge’s slender, wiry, 6-foot-1 frame and quiet, somewhat shy demeanor probably isn’t that intimidating to some unfortunate, unknowing female athletes getting ready to compete against the Crofton junior for the first time.
“At first look, you’d think you can blow through her,” says Crofton girls basketball coach Aaron Losing. “But she’s a lot stronger than she looks.’’
With her unusual athletic talent, Hegge has the speed and quickness to blow by you and the explosive jumping ability to blow over you.
And more often than not, when Hegge finally is done with you, her team probably has blown you out.
Hegge combines those physical skills with a competitive nature and mental makeup that maximizes her performance level on the state’s biggest athletic stages. That’s why she has more state gold medals than any current high school athlete, why she’s a Division I college recruit in both basketball and track and why she’s the 2006 Lincoln Journal Star Girls Prep Athlete of the Year.
With Hegge leading the way, Crofton has won the last two Class C-1 girls state basketball titles and the last three Class C girls track championships. Hegge, a first-team all-stater and a second-team Super-Stater this past season, is one of 11 Warriors returning next season when Crofton tries to extend its current 32-game girls basketball winning streak.
Hegge averaged 16.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and almost three steals per game in Crofton’s 24-0 basketball season. She shot 56 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free-throw line.
She has a basketball scholarship offer from Drake on the table, but that list likely will grow when she plays for the Daubert/Pinnacle Bank Nebraska All-Star team against some of the nation’s top high school players this summer. The fact she’s a 4.0 student in the classroom with an ACT score of 31 makes her an even stronger recruiting target.
There was similar pressure this spring to repeat in track. Hegge won all three Class C jumping events as a sophomore, and then repeated the feat two weeks ago at the state meet. Hegge’s 5-foot-9 effort in the high jump won the all-class gold medal and puts her in a tie for 10th on the state’s all-time charts.
She also registered season-best marks in winning the long jump (18-1¼) and triple jump (37-3¾). Hegge is fourth on the state’s all-time triple jump charts with the 39-2¾ she leaped as a sophomore.
That jumping ability allows her to grab a basketball rim with both hands, a rare feat for a girls athlete.
Whether it’s basketball or track, “I’ve never felt pressure to win or to meet somebody’s expectation,’’ said Hegge, who has eight state gold medals in track. “It’s not the end of the world if something went wrong, it’s not life or death. I just do my best and whatever happens, happens.’’
And usually what happens is that Hegge wins.
“Amber does not like to lose,’’ said senior Brooke Nelson, a good friend and teammate of Hegge’s. “When we split up our team and scrimmage, you always want to be on her team. I usually ended up having to guard her, and that’s quite a chore.”
Hegge has been a lifetime resident of Crofton, located just west of U.S. Highway 81 and 15 miles south of Yankton, S.D. Her childhood sports experiences mirror those of many small town Nebraska athletes.
She played a lot of driveway basketball with her older brother, Nick, and other kids in the neighborhood. Her father, Bob, a postal worker, coached her traveling girls teams from fourth through eighth grades. Amber also played softball growing up, pitching and playing shortstop.
She quit softball last summer to focus more on basketball. “It’s more recreational softball, and that’s something I don’t want to do,” Hegge said. “I like the competitiveness, it’s more fun that way.’’
Hegge got involved in track as a seventh-grader, the same time volleyball entered the picture. Volleyball is Hegge’s third sport, but it has not been a priority like the other two.
“ Volleyball’s not that big in Crofton, we’re more into basketball,’’ said Hegge, an all-Northeast Nebraska Conference middle blocker last fall who had 234 kills and a .475 hitting efficiency for the 13-4 Warriors. Hegge ran cross country as a freshman before going to volleyball as a sophomore.
“I like it (volleyball), kind of. It’s not my sport.”
Hegge began playing on a traveling team in third grade with Nelson, the senior starting point guard for the Warriors this past season. “That helped a lot playing against girls a year older than I was,’’ Hegge said.
The fact Crofton has several girls as tall or taller than Hegge has helped her development as an all-around player. With 6-2 senior Dani Arens in the post, it’s allowed Hegge to play on the perimeter.
Ask Losing what position Hegge and his answer is, “I don’t know.”
“We started Brooke (Nelson) at point and had Amber on the wing where she could use her quickness and slash to the basket,” said Losing, who just finished his second season as the Crofton coach. “At some point during the game, we’d move Amber to point guard where she’s a tough matchup because of her size. She can play all five positions if we need her to.’’

World-Herald says diversity brought honor to Hegge

Reprinted with permission of the
Omaha World-Herald
By Mike Patterson
World-Herald Sports Writer
Amber Hegge helped lead the Crofton basketball team to its second straight Class C-1 state championship and won three events in Class C at the state track meet to help the Warriors capture their third consecutive team title.
"I always try to remember that it's not life or death out there," she said. "Just try and go out and do the best you can."
For Hegge this past season, that was pretty darn good. She helped lead the Crofton basketball team to its second straight Class C-1 state championship and won three events in Class C at the state track meet to help the Warriors capture their third consecutive team title.
Today (Sunday, June 4), Hegge is honored as The World-Herald's Nebraska high school girls athlete of the year. The award is based on observations by the newspaper's sportswriters.
Other finalists were Brooke Delano and Gabi Ailes of Bellevue West, Jasmine Mosley and Yvonne Turner of Bellevue East and Sarah Lyons of Omaha Brownell-Talbot.
Hegge's coaches are quick to praise the 6-foot-1 junior guard, the first underclassman to win the athlete of the year honor since Millard North's Kelly Lindsey in 1996.
"In everything that she does - basketball, track, schoolwork - Amber is always committed to doing her very best," Crofton girls basketball coach Aaron Losing said. "She's a very self-motivated person."
Losing, in his second season as head coach, said he saw Hegge come into her own last year as a sophomore. The Warriors, who were trying to get to state for the first time in 11 years, were playing Norfolk Catholic in a subdistrict final.
"Amber had 20 points and 15 rebounds that night," Losing said. "I think she made all eight of her free-throw attempts in overtime, and we pulled away."
The Warriors went on to the state crown, but that only added to the pressure going into this season.
"I was looking forward to the challenge of trying to repeat," Hegge said. "I think everyone else was, too."
Crofton did that in a big way, finishing 24-0 - the only unbeaten team in the state. The Warriors defeated Ashland-Greenwood 47-39 in the final and Hegge, who averaged a team-leading 16.3 points, played a major role in the
Continued on page 11
victory.
But her 14 points were just part of the story. The rest was her defense on Ashland-Greenwood's leading scorer, Monica Laune, who was held to seven points - more than 10 below her 17.5-point average.
"Amber always covers the other team's best offensive player," Losing said. "You just don't see people with her combination of size and quickness."
After basketball season, Hegge turned her attention to track. She won the Class C high jump as a freshman and had swept all three jumps - high jump, triple jump and long jump - as a sophomore.
She was among the state leaders in all three categories heading into the state meet, and didn't disappoint on the big weekend at Omaha Burke. She won the long jump on Friday (18 feet, 11/4 inches) and then added the triple jump (37-33/4) and high jump (5-9) on Saturday.
Crofton track coach Gary Timm said Hegge's all-class gold medal performance in the high jump was one of his most memorable moments in 27 years at the meet. "She just kept going higher," he said. "It was really something because she was the only one still competing, and everybody in those north stadium stands was cheering for her."
That extra adrenaline rush helped Hegge go higher than she'd ever gone. It was higher than she had ever attempted.
"That was really fun," she said. "When the crowd got into it so much, it really got my heart pumping."
After being the only competitor in Class C to clear 5-5, Hegge hit her jumps at 5-6, 5-7 and 5-8.
She then cleared 5-9 on her second attempt, much to the delight of the crowd. Hegge even seemed to savor the moment, laying on the mat for a few seconds while staring up at the bar.
"When it's crunch time, that's when she's at her best," Timm said. "That all goes back to her determination and hard work."
Hegge also works hard in the classroom. She is president of the school's National Honor Society and is a member of the student council.
Amber is the second-oldest child in the Bob and Helene Hegge family. Older brother Nick just graduated from high school, sister Holly is 13 and brother Ben is 11. Her dad works at the post office and coaches the junior varsity boys basketball team. Her mom is a nurse in Crofton.
Hegge will keep busy during part of the summer as a member of the Daubert-Pinnacle girls' all-star basketball team. Then she'll prepare for her senior year, which will begin athletically with volleyball in the fall.
“Things couldn't have gone any better this year,” she said. “It was really a dream season.”