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Every basketball coach wants a player like Jessica Abbey.
Coaches love athletes who take pride in playing outstanding defense, dive for loose balls, grab some rebounds, make a few steals and chip in around 10 points a game.
Anyone who has followed Lake's girls basketball team this season knows that describes Abbey, the Flyers' 5-8 junior guard.
"She almost never comes out of a game," Lake coach Denny Meyer said. "I compare her to our Heather Cox last year. She does a lot of things people in the stands don't notice, but we coaches do. She never looks tired. She's consistent and does all the little things coaches love to have, but she doesn't get a lot of recognition for doing it."
Abbey, in fact, relishes her role as a defensive stopper. She scored 18 points in one game this season, but that was an aberration.
"I don't need to score that many every game," Abbey said. "That's not my point to be out there. I just want to play good all around. If I score a lot of points, it's not that big of a deal."
Abbey is one of the key cogs in the Flyers' second straight unbeaten regular season. A 58-18 rout of Gibsonburg on Feb. 20 sent Lake into the Division III sectional with a 20-0 record, including 12-0 in the Suburban Lakes League.
The Flyers, who finished 22-1 (14-0 SLL) last season, have won 43 straight regular-season games and will play league rival Genoa for the sectional title Saturday at Bowsher.
Lake was ranked No. 5 in the final D-III Associated Press state poll, its highest ranking ever. The Flyers were ranked sixth in last year's final poll.
Abbey is scoring 9.3 points per game while shooting 53 percent from two-point range. She is shooting 69 percent from the free throw line and has 39 steals to go along with 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists a game.
Abbey was named honorable mention All-SLL and all-district after averaging 8.3 points per game a year ago, and she was a regional track qualifier in the 400-meter dash. Last fall, Abbey went out for varsity soccer for the first time and, as a right outside midfielder, helped Lake reach the regional finals.
A 4.0 student, she also played AAU ball last summer for the Findlay-based Northwest Hoopstars. About the only thing she doesn't do "well" is talk.
"She's a great kid, but she's a quiet kid," Meyer said. "We were worried about that, so that's why we waited until halfway through the season to make her our captain."
Abbey chooses to let her play do the talking. Her primary responsibility on the court is to guard the other team's best guard.
"If it's a real fast person, we put Jess on her because Jess is real fast," Meyer said. "She has some long arms and she jumps real well. Her anticipation, especially when she's guarding someone on the ball, is great."
Woodmore coach Kyle Clair, whose team lost to the Flyers twice this season, echoed that statement.
"She's really intelligent and she doesn't take a lot of chances," Clair said. "She's a position defender and she's smart about what she does, and it causes a lot of havoc. She doesn't gamble and put her teammates out of position, and that's a good thing to have as a defensive player. She can shoot the lights out, too. We took some chances against them and left her open, and I don't remember her missing an open shot."
Abbey said being able to score is nice, but she prefers to have more of an all-around game.
"Whatever role our coach gives us is what we do," she said. "If he tells me to shut someone down, I try to do that first. Playing good defense gets you more pumped up. Once you get a steal or a five-second call, I feel like I do better after that. It gives me incentive to play better. When I was younger, defense was always my thing. I like it more than offense."
Abbey said she is proud of the fact that, even with a bulls-eye on their backs and a beefed up non-league schedule, the Flyers finished 20-0 for the second straight season.
"It means a lot," she said, "and it shows everyone that last year wasn't a fluke. We work hard all the time. We put in the time and effort to go 20-0. Everyone knew we were good from last year and everyone came at us really hard.
"We added a couple new teams, like Clyde and Whitmer, and they were better than some teams we played last year. Coach Meyer has pushed us really hard, and it's paid off."
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