Anyone who follows youth sports in Siskiyou County has likely heard of Paige Finley from Etna High School. What most people probably aren’t aware of is her complete sports resume. It is impressive.

I remember the first time I ever spoke to Paige. It was at a junior high school basketball tournament, and I was taking her picture for a publication I worked for at the time. She was getting what was then the equivalent of the SiskiyouYouth.com Impact Player Award. Paige is the only junior high school athlete to ever get the award.

I told her that it was just one of many awards she would receive during her athletic career. She flashed a shy smile and said, “thank you.”

Paige will be graduating from high school in a couple of weeks with a GPA of 4.0. She’s 16.

Among her athletic honors and achievements are:

College of the Siskiyous female high school Athlete of the Year

MVP of the Shasta Cascade League her junior year for basketball

SCL All-League for basketball as a senior

SCL All-League her junior and senior year for Softball

Pitcher on the NSCIF D-V softball champions her junior and senior year

Point guard on the SCL basketball champions her junior and senior year

Shared pitching duties on the SCL champion Lady Lions softball team her sophomore year (more…)

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She wasn’t flashy. Going coast-to-coast for a lay up was a rarity. And, she was never a show boat. What Etna Lady Lion Annaleisa Nadig did do was consistently perform on the basketball court. On a league championship team that was loaded with talent, no one was better than Nadig this season.

Nadig led the Lady Lions in rebounding (6.9 rpg) and blocked shots (1.9 bpg). She had the best shooting percentage on the team (47) and 3-point shooting percentage (42). Her free throw percentage was second best (67). Nadig averaged 10.5 points per game, and 2.6 steals. She had the least turnovers among the starters.

Six times in the 2009-10 season, Nadig registered a double-double for points and rebounds. Her highest scoring output was 26 points against Lost River. She also had 10 boards in that game. However, Nadig’s most impressive game came against Fall River in a must win situation for the Lady Lions. A loss meant third place. A win meant a co-championship and high playoff seed. Nadig responded to the challenge with a 16-point, 18-rebound performance.

What makes Nadig’s stats impressive is not how high they are. Many players in the Shasta Cascade League, and even on her team, have numbers that are higher in various categories. What’s impressive is the number of different areas where she excels. Plus, Nadig did it on a team where there were several players capable of putting up big numbers, and playing time was distributed among nine players. (more…)