It’s always been a little disappointing for me that I didn’t get to see Amy Wright play high school basketball at Northeastern.
A 1998 graduate of the school located in Fountain City, Ind., Wright will soon take her place in the University of Arkansas Hall of Honor later this year in September.
It was quite a surprise for her.
“Honestly, yes!” Wright said in an email. “This is a major BCS and SEC school, we call them a “Power 5″ school in coaching, with such great traditions in sports even before I arrived at U of A. I kidded with my coach that the honoree pot must have been slim this year.”
Amy is currently an assistant at Texas A&M University for her college coach Gary Blair, who had 198 wins during his 10 years at Arkansas.
“My primary responsibility is recruiting young student-athletes to join our championship program, but I also get to wear several hats,” she said. “We don’t just get to show up on the sideline on game day, there’s a lot more that goes into it.”
There’s a long list of accolades from her time in Fayetteville with the women’s basketball program from 1998-2002. Wright is at the top of all-time list for assists with 717 in four seasons having played in all 131 games during that stretch.
Impressive as that is, it’s more about winning when you are a point guard. Amy is certainly a winner. In her first year, the Razorbacks won the WNIT in 1999. Arkansas also had three seasons with 20 wins as the Razorbacks made the post-season every year she played.
However, her most important memories from her college days aren’t about winning.
“The people,” Wright said. “The most important thing any student-athlete will go through won’t be a championship or any honor, but the people. Arkansas surrounded me with so many amazing people that were willing to give so much, it made me feel lucky to just be a part of a great school and program.”
Unlike her high school career, I was able to witness a college victory at the University of Dayton when she was a junior. She was fun to watch, but it’s the first impression that will always last the longest.
Northeastern’s tennis season was just beginning in April of 1998. Wright had finished her senior year in basketball with 1,613 points as she led the Knights to their only regional title.
That was all I really knew. I had just started covering Indiana schools for the Palladium-Item newspaper in Richmond. Being on the Indiana-Ohio border, I started on the Ohio side in 1994 and had just made the move to the Indiana edition.
One of my first assignments was to track down Amy the day before the Indiana All-Star teams were going to be announced on Sunday. Having a story in the paper the day it was announced was always critical.
The problem was she didn’t know. Notification phone calls were usually made on Friday night. Amy didn’t get a call.
“I remember thinking I wasn’t going to make it,” she said. “There wasn’t social media or cell phones, so someone had to be available to take the call.”
“As a teenager, the most important thing at any moment is you and your life,” she continued. “Looking back, I wish I wasn’t so uptight about it and had just gone about my day like every other day. I wasted time and energy on things beyond my control.”
In my story that Sunday, I quoted her mother Karen talking about the five phone calls she had received on Saturday morning. I’m pretty sure I was one of those calls, but Amy wasn’t home. She was on her way to tennis practice on what was a cold and windy morning.
That’s where I finally found her … celebrating. She had been notified just before my arrival at practice and I got to meet her for the first time.
It was a fun interview. It was in a car in the parking lot next to the tennis courts because the weather was awful and neither of us wanted to be outside.
After our chat, I drove to meet her parents. Amy’s father, Bob, and her mother were both excited by the news and made me feel welcome in their home. It was a start of a great summer for me following an awesome all-star team.
In addition to Amy, I already knew two other players. Courtney Risinger of Terre Haute South had a Richmond connection. Her father, Rick, was once an Indiana All-Star for the Red Devils. Her mother, Jane and I had been assistant coaches together for the Richmond girls. Shana Sparks of Connersville had attended the basketball camp where I worked during the summer.
It was a blast finally getting to see Amy play for the first time.
“The Indiana All-Stars was a great experience,” she said. “At the time, it gave me confidence that I was an elite player. I can’t remember specifically, but the class of 1998 had six major D1 players that year, all attending Power 5 schools. There was always so many speculations from others if I would make it in the SEC. I always had a “prove them wrong” attitude, but this experience gave me confidence going into my freshman season at Arkansas.”
That confidence led Wright to the highest individual athletic honor at Arkansas and she thanked her mentors from the humble beginnings at a small Indiana high school.
“A big thank you to everyone that has been a part in shaping me as a student-athlete and coach,” she said. “That goes back to my elementary school days playing on Saturday’s at Northeastern Elementary that Dan Nufrio organized, to my current head coach Hall of Famer Gary Blair, family and friends, classmates and teammates. Everyone had a part in the successful career I’ve had so far.”
Not that there was any doubt after her college career, but now Amy doesn’t have to prove anything. She definitely belongs with the all-time greats at Arkansas.