Established in 1925, Northtown has played through many winter sport seasons, and of all the seasons, only ten hornet girls have made basketball history. One lady hornet who made history is current Northtown senior, Aries Washington. Scoring her thousandth point in her basketball career, Washington joined the hall of fame.

Not wanting the nearing of her thousandth point to add any pressure or stress to her performance, varsity girls basketball coach, Jeff Lacy, decided not to bring Washington’s attention to her climbing career points.

“I didn’t want her to think about it too far in advance,” he said. Also emphasizing that he did not want her to feel as if she had only a limited amount of games left to reach the thousandth point, adding additional stress and the possibility of a weakened performance.

“[During the game], she scored, and I called timeout real quick, everybody was cheering like they knew. She had this confused look and obviously figured it out,” Lacy said, explaining Washington’s historical moment.

“It’s awesome [and] surprising. Surprising because I wouldn’t expect myself to get it,” said Washington. “I shot a layup, turned to play defense, and the ref blew the whistle,” she explained. “That’s how I found out [about the thousandth point].”

The girls “bombarded” Washington on the court to join her in the moment and congratulate her.

“At first I [didn’t understand], and then I was happy.”

Lacy explained that Washington didn’t earn these points on a whim; “She puts in all that work, because she loves basketball, and deserves to be recognized,” he said. “Just knowing all that she has gone through and that she fights through the season…[it is] very rewarding.”

Washington and her success were recognized specially by the coaches and the girls of the basketball team; “They gave me the game ball, and they all signed it,” she said.

Lacy is working with athletic director, Chad Evans, to create a display case for the athletes, such as Washington, to be specially recognized for their achievements.

Even after making history, Washington remains first and foremost a team player; “I feel the same [after the announcement], I don’t really care about points,” Washington said, “I just care about my team;” highlighting what her coaches admire most: her humbled personality.

“Her biggest strength to me, [humbleness], says a lot about her character, [which is probably why] people don’t know how good she is,” said Lacy. “I’ve talked to a lot of coaches who say that they’ve never seen anything like her.”

“[She] has taken our whole program to a new level, [she] has changed the whole culture to the program, staying humble and keeping it up in the classroom. People tend to follow her [example],” said Lacy.

“She is definitely the heart and soul of our team.”