It marks the second time in the past 30 days that a schoolgirl basketball player in southern Aroostook County has scored her 1,000th career point. On Dec. 22, Houlton’s Kolleen Bouchard reached the scoring milestone.
Stoddard, a 17-year-old, 5-foot, 11-inch senior center for East Grand, reached her historic benchmark on a shot she has practiced countless times throughout her career — a free throw. She was fouled just eight seconds into a game against Ashland and needed one point to reach 1,000. She finished with 17 points on the night as the Vikings won 45-42.
“I knew how many points I needed because the night before at the Limestone away game Coach Carlos told me I could only score so many,” Stoddard said. “I wanted to score [the 1,000th] at my home court since it was the first time a girl has gotten 1,000 points in 15 years.”
The daughter of Holly Stoddard and Thomas Stoddard III, Sarah has been playing basketball since fifth grade. She also plays softball and gave soccer a try before deciding “it wasn’t my thing.” Her mother also played basketball for East Grand.
“The thing I love about basketball is the action in it,” she said. “It gets my adrenaline pumping when we win games.”
Reaching the coveted scoring plateau became a goal of hers at the start of her senior season.
“It’s been my goal since I knew about the 1,000 points,” Stoddard said. “I definitely knew I was going to get it my senior year because Coach Carlos told me that I needed 92 points before the season began.”
The last girl to reach 1,000 points was Amanda Godley who accomplished this feat in 2003. Other 1,000 point scorers for the East Grand girls are: Elise Morse, Jami Downs, Holly Brown, Shelly Page, Rusti Hannington, Suanne Hannington, Nikki Neal and Megan Amero.
