Kelly's Hall filled role of dominator

~ The center averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Hawks her senior season.

One reason Debra Hall enjoyed playing basketball at Kelly is because she said coach Rod McQuerter is so team-orientated that all the pressure never is placed on one player.

Still Hall, like all the other Kelly players, was told that she had a specific role. Hers was to be the dominant scorer.

"There was sometimes when I would get 20 [points] or sometimes I didn't do very well at scoring at all," Hall said. "But he told me I had to dominate every night in order for us to do well. That way, it will help everyone else do their roles. He had said that to me since my freshman year, and my senior year is when he really pinpointed it out just about every game. He'd look at us four seniors and tell us what he wanted us to do. Mine would just be to dominate."

Hall, a four-year starting center at Kelly, is this year's Southeast Missourian girls basketball player of the year.

She averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds per game, and has committed to play basketball at Three Rivers Community College next year.

Hall had a remarkable four-year career as she was the all-time leading rebounder and scorer at Kelly, compiling more than 1,700 points, McQuerter said.

Jodi Menz, whose Delta team lost to Kelly two of the three times the schools met this winter, said Hall is at her best when playing offense.

"She is big, she never gives up, she rebounds and she's strong," said Menz, who will play basketball and room with Hall at Three Rivers next year. "I think she's better on offense than defense. She shoots kind of behind her head so there's really no way to block her shot."

McQuerter, who just finished his 10th season coaching the Hawks, said that Hall's job was to score.

"Each girl on the team has a certain role." McQuerter said. "Some girls' roles are to score. Some are to defend. Some are to rebound. Some are to have a positive attitude. And Debra's role this year was to score for us. And she did a tremendous job of that -- scoring and rebounding."

McQuerter added that Hall provided the best leadership of any girl he has coached in his tenure at the school.

"The most important thing Debra brought to us was leadership," he said. "That's something you'll never see. "It's because the only thing people want to see and talk about are the points. But Debra brought leadership to Kelly High School, something that no other girl has done in my 10 years there. The main thing is that she was able to get girls this summer to come out and play ball with her. She was able to get girls to go to team camp this summer. And that's being a good leader. She never was a yeller."

Hall had many strong performances this past winter. She scored 39 points in a win over Scott City in January and 32 points in a victory over the Rams in December. She posted 37 points in a win against Saxony Lutheran, 33 points when beating Chaffee and 31 points against Neelyville.

But Hall's favorite game was not the one in which she had her highest point total. Nor was it a game her team won. It was a 57-43 loss to Dexter in which she scored 24.

Dexter finished fourth in Class 4 this year. Hall will play with current Dexter seniors Jill Temples and Ashlee Taylor next year at Three Rivers.

"It wasn't the game that I scored the most points in, but it was one that I actually just played, whether I went to the basket, shot or anything like that," Hall said. "I was guarded by probably one of their best defensive players. It was great because all those girls are very good ballplayers."

McQuerter couldn't pinpoint one of Hall's games that he considered the most memorable to him.

"Something specifically that sticks out in my mind is when Debra was in the fourth grade," McQuerter said. "I remember when she was in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, didn't understand the game of basketball, had no clue. She was just a tall girl with long arms. And she transformed herself into a basketball player.

"You will never understand how important Debra was to our program unless you were with her for four years. I think Debra wasn't blessed with all the athletic ability. She wasn't blessed with all the natural basketball skills. She had to put time in at the gym. That should not only motivate girls at our school, but girls everywhere."

Despite Kelly earning two victories over Scott City during the regular season and being the No. 1 seed in Class 3 District 1, the Hawks lost to the Rams in a district semifinal. Hall, playing in her final high school game, scored 23 points.

"That was real disappointing," Hall said. "We put in so much time during the summer. ... And we'd always have more than 15 girls at open gym. And one thing that we were not prepared for was injuries. We had too many of those. We had too many knee injuries."

Hall said she always will remain proud of the career she put together at Kelly.

"I'm very proud of myself," Hall said. "I keep myself humbled. I don't think it's really hit me yet. It probably won't hit me until I come back 10 years later and walk through the doors and my number got retired. Then, it will probably hit me. Right now, I'm proud of myself."