“She’s too big!”

“She’s too aggressive!”

“She’s gonna hurt somebody!”

Senior Stephanie Agre was not a popular player when she first signed up for basketball. Stephanie, who was a head taller than all of her fourth-grade teammates in the YMCA basketball league, always drew criticism from opposing team parents for her play. From early on she dominated the court, scoring up to 20 points a game. According to Stephanie’s mom Joy Agre, it was common for Stephanie to miss a shot during play, get the rebound off that same shot, and still score.

“In fourth grade [Stephanie] became so aggressive when she played,” Joy said. “Not bad, just hard play. She was bigger and would go for the ball and parents would yell on the side-lines about her.”

Eventually her play drew so many complaints that she was kicked out of the YMCA basketball league.

“Basically the YMCA director came up and told us that I was too aggressive
and to go to club,” Stephanie said. “So I went to the AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] and have been playing there since.”

Stephanie’s play hasn’t changed much since fourth grade. She’s still dominating on the court, but this time she’s not getting kicked out of her league because of it. Stephanie has spent her four years at North leading the Knights at both forward and center, and she still hasn’t stopped scoring in that time. Now in her senior year, she is going for 1,000 career points; a feat achieved only twice in North history.

The 6’1’’ senior is no stranger to setting records. She has already set two in her high school career, one in blocked shots (159) and another in free-throws made (291); and she is 2 rebounds away as of press time from the all-time rebounds record (621) set by Ashley Wiedner, a 2006 graduate.

Stephanie says she usually doesn’t think about records while she’s playing. She finds out about them only when she gets her yearly stat packet at banquets.
But the 1,000 point mark, she’s thought about that one before.

“I think that [getting] 1,000 points says a lot about me as a player,” said Stephanie. “Like ‘Hey, I can score.’ It’s prestigious.”

Stephanie has scored more than 250 points to date this season, putting her less than 40 away from the mark. However, finding the net has become harder for her lately as she is drawing more attention from other teams defenses.

“What’s causing her the most trouble right now is [that] every time she touches the ball, she getting double and triple teamed,” Head coach Dawn Hahn said. “Other opponents know who they have to guard in order to beat us.”

Having that knowledge was still not enough for St. Charles West on Jan. 26. That night Stephanie scored 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds from the Warriors in a 59-38 win, tying the individual single game points record for North.

“At one point in the game Stephanie was out scoring the other team, “ junior Brooke Oostendorp said. “She was carrying the team for us. You could tell she was in the zone. We had just came off a tough loss and she was ready for the game.”

If Stephanie keeps pace she thinks she should break 1,000 within the next three games. When she breaks the mark, play will stop and her accomplishment will be announced to the crowd. But until then, according to Stephanie’s mom, that is the last thing either of them talk about come game day.

“Actually I’m trying not to mention it before [Stephanie] goes to play,” Joy said. “I have a tally sheet on my computer at home, and after her games are over I let her know how close she is.”

For Stephanie, the team and season always take priority over individual records. In her past three seasons on varsity, the lady Knights haven’t finished with a winning record or won a conference or district championship.

This season, however, seems to be promising for change as the girls currently have a 11-8 record. This season is especially important for Stephanie because it’s her last chance to play with her friends before leaving for college.

“Yea this has definitely been the best year for this team,” Stephanie said. “We’re all best friends and being on the court together, you know we’re going to have each others backs. For me, I know that I never could have accomplished anything without them.”

An aspiring pre-med major, Stephanie has been contacted by more than 60 schools for basketball. Currently she is considering University of Massachusetts Boston, University of Mary Washington, Austin College and Truman State University. She is not considering telling any of the coaches about her records or the 1,000 points.

“Some people could be like ‘yea I want this [1,000 points], this could be a big seller for me’,” Stephanie said. “But I thought that if they want me before, they’ll want me now.”

With 1,000 points on the way, there is still one category left blank on the list of Stephanie’s achievements at North; a district championship. With a strong team this season, chances have never seemed better for this to happen. For Stephanie, this is the one thing says she would give anything to accomplish.

“I’d rather have a district championship any day over 1,000 points,” Stephanie said. “My team matters way more to me than any statistic ever will.”