Second Varsity Player Hits 1,000 Mark This Season
Senior Georgia Rather became the second girls’ varsity player this year to reach the 1,000-point milestone. Once again, this achievement came in the final minutes of a closely fought game (played at Visitation Academy)—as Georgia scored two points through a contested layup on the right side. “What made it even more special was that both my parents were able to be at the game,” she said, smiling.
Although she has been playing basketball since she was a fourth grader back home in Madison, Wisconsin, Georgia says she had never really set her sights on achieving the 1,000-point high school landmark. “It was only during my sophomore year that I realized it was an attainable goal, so I started putting in more and more time in the off season,” she says.
Since arriving at the Upper School as a boarder her freshman year, Georgia says she has improved most in her ball-handling skills, moving from the post position as a middle schooler in Wisconsin to being a shooting guard at Principia. In addition, she says, “I’ve had to learn how to step into different leadership positions, which has been a valuable lesson.”
A multisport athlete, Georgia plays varsity soccer in the spring and has competed at State for the last two years running. At Principia, she chose basketball over her third sport of swimming. “I love the fast-paced nature of basketball and the quick decisions you have to make,” she says. And just as much, she loves “the Christian Science atmosphere” that surrounds the program at Principia: “I had never been a part of a team before where the first response to anything was always prayer, and that has, by far, been the most valuable thing to me the past four years.”
“I also so appreciate my teammates and coaching staff—because I couldn’t have done any of this without them,” she says.
This year, the team is being coached by former Panther (and 1,000-point scorer) Kara Johnson (US’12, C’16). “Georgia is an integral part of our team, always playing with a lot of grit and energy,” Johnson says. “She has had a great year, stepping into the role of co-captain and scoring her 1,000th point. . . . I am expecting great things for her in college!”
From freshman through junior year, Georgia was coached by Shad Nichols (C’98), who is now assistant women’s basketball coach at Washington University in St. Louis. Commenting on Georgia’s achievement (and that of her teammate Jordan Fredrickson (US’20) two weeks prior), Nichols notes, “What the two of them have accomplished is unprecedented—because throughout their high school careers they have both played with three other 1,000-point scorers, which is a rare if not once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.”
“It's very rewarding to see Georgia achieve this milestone not only because of what she's done for the team but for the fact that she gave up playing at home in Wisconsin in front of her family and with her childhood friends,” Nichols says. “The 1,000 points is representative of sacrifice, work ethic, love—in other words, character. So, it should be celebrated as something more than a statistic.”
Georgia is a leader both on and off the court—as a co-captain of the team this year and as a member of the Girls’ Dorm Core. In the classroom, her favorite subjects have always been math and science, and, Georgia adds, “Recently, I’ve loved having opportunities to take computer science classes.” She plans to attend Principia College next year and hopes to play both basketball and soccer there.