Heather House has found a winning home at Garrett.
And the senior has helped keep up a winning tradition in her four years of varsity basketball. House has played in 99 games for Garrett and after playing in Saturday’s Culver Community Class 2A Regional semifinals, she will tie Madison Diedrich at 100, the most in program history.
House has helped Garrett pile up 86 wins, four sectional titles and two regional championships. Two more wins and House will be part of a senior class that would have three regional championships, a first for Garrett.
“My career at Garrett has always been very exciting and had high standards for the team ever since I was a freshman,” she said. “My career has been a big blur of adrenaline rush. Remembering back to when I was extremely nervous as a freshman to now where I don’t like being taken off the floor because I love it so much.
“When I first came to Garrett I wasn’t sure how much playing time I would see because of the reputation of the program. I had no idea that this is where it would bring me. The amount of games and experience was more than I thought. Regionals every year and semistate twice, just shows you how working hard as a team pays off.”
Because of a more balanced scoring effort this year, House was moved from shooting guard to point guard and has become the architect of the Railroaders’ success this year.
“Last year we had a younger team and not a lot of experience playing together,” she said. “Our chemistry off the court was great, but we had to learn each other’s style of play. My role last year was to be a scorer and put points up on the board for the team, the coaches reminded me of this every game.
“This year we have a well-developed team, and no one can be pinpointed due to the other threats we have as well. So now my role is to handle the ball and get it to where it needs to be in order for us to score. This change wasn’t to hard to adjust to once we started the season. I struggled a little with decision-making on passes, but I have started to get the hang of it. I love our get-out-and-run style of play, it makes my job so much easier and challenging at the same time.”
House leads 2A No. 4 Garrett (22-2) with 11.4 points, 4.4 assists and 2.4 steals.
Along with fellow seniors Megan Getts and Kelly Singleton, House is trying to leave her part of the winning legacy at Garrett.
“I didn’t think too much about leadership as a freshman, but as upperclassmen graduated I realized where I wanted to go as a team and that I wanted to be one of the ones that would help push us to get there,” House said. “Although being a leader sometimes means taking a lot of heat, it doesn’t bother me. I know our coaches push the team and me only because they know what we are capable of.”
