Staff writer
Shelby Makovec and Brenna Shields were the two Centre High School girls’ basketball players who played in the state basketball tournament all four years of high school. Makovec was the starting point guard on all four teams. Shields was a good rebounder and defensive player.
After losing the first round the first three years, they finished in third place this year.
“I feel very accomplished,” Shelby said. “Finally, we were rewarded after a great season with a great team and coach.”
She said 6-foot-2 exchange student Lotti Benning was a key player in Centre’s victories, providing numerous blocks and rebounds.
Shelby, the team’s leading scorer, has received several colleg basketball offers.
Brenna was proud of her team.
“We all worked together and played so hard every minute of every game,” she said. “We never gave up but always did our best. We broke records and put our team into Centre history. Centre has been home for some of us since kindergarten, and some since high school or even this year, and I’m glad to say I’m from here.”
Brenna was in a unique situation in which her mother, Kim Shannon Shields, was the team’s assistant coach all four years of her high school career. She said they got along well.
“I acted like she was my mom, and she would tell me what I did wrong and could do better,” she said.
Coach Shields was in her first year as assistant coach when the team went to the state tournament for the first time. She was elated with their third-place finish this year.
“If someone had told me when I started that our girls would go to state four years in a row, I wouldn’t have believed them,” she said. “Not that they didn’t have talent, but it takes a lot of hard work to get there. I am proud of them.”