Amber Raves
Friday, December 25,1998

by Scott Reinardy TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER


We probably should have seen her coming.

From the time she won the Elks free-throw shooting contest as an 8-year-old, Amber Jacobs has left her basketball mark on every court in the region.

While the Abington Heights High School junior has clearly engraved her career with statistics, she etches her legacy with no-look passes and incredible court instincts.

There is a groundswell making claim that Jacobs could be the best player ever from this area. After guiding the Lady Comets to the Class AAAA state quarterfinals last season and being named the Times-Tribune Player of the Year as a sophomore, we finally began to notice this unique talent.

Don't feel bad if you didn't realize Jacobs already ranks among the Jane Gilpins, Sue Serafinis, Tara Maccioccos and Jessica Muskeys. Before last summer Jacobs father didn't recognize it either.

For a while, I didn't (know she was a great player), Roger Jacobs says. Last summer, when she went to nationals with her AAU team, at least I felt she fit in with those other girls. She certainly could hang.

Jacobs not only hangs, but she pulls her Abington Heights teammates along with her.

In the season opener against Montrose, off a steal Jacobs smoothly dribbled behind her back and dished a no-look pass to a teammate in the lane. The Abington Heights' gym filled with a collective gasp even though the player missed the basket.

Jacobs was not upset with the blown layup. She received her satisfaction after making the great pass. The bonus was her teammate actually catching it, something that isn't always the case.

The kids now know they better not look at the shot because the pass might hit their face, Abington Heights coach Vince Bucciarelli says. We still miss some because sometimes she has to take a little bit off them.

Jacobs says she jokes with her teammates about the missed passes and has difficulty taking something off them.

It's funny because we'll be practicing and the girls will know the pass is coming and they still can't handle it, the 5-6 guard says. I'll tell them to get their butterfinger hands ready, and they laugh.


Destiny

For more than 20 years, Roger Jacobs has coached basketball at all levels and his daughter at every level.

He and his wife, the former Dawn Pickering, played basketball at Abington Heights, and both wore No. 23.

As if destiny took hold, Amber also wears No. 23 partly because of her parents and partly because of Michael Jordan.

I guess (Jordan) took after us, Roger jokes.

Roger claims he wasn't a great basketball player, but he spent hours teaching Amber, and son Derek, the game.

When the kids were growing up, we always had them shoot at a basket that was lowered, he says. If Amber was 3, she would shoot at a six-foot basket with a smaller ball and do it right, whether she knew it or not.

The seeds of perfection were sewn on that six-foot hoop. Amber eventually became a gym rat, usually playing against older players.

When she was in fifth grade, she would compete against high school kids during her father's summer basketball camps at Baptist Bible College.

In seventh grade, she played on Abington Heights eighth-grade team. That's when she experienced final-shot pressure for the first time.

During the eighth-grade championship against Scranton, Jacobs was at the free-throw line with a chance to win the game.

I was a puny seventh-grader playing on the eighth-grade team. I was scared out of my mind. Crying, that's how bad it was. But it made me want to work more at my whole game.

Her father taught her at an early age that the game isn't won or lost with the final shot. While watching hours of game tapes, Roger would pick apart the intricacies that can mold losses into victories. Amber learned it's not a game about the last shot, but every shot, every dribble, pass, rebound, steal and turnover.

Just because I missed the last shot of the game, I could have had a fast-break layup but bricked it during the first minute of the game, she says.

Perhaps that's why she avoids feeling pressure when the game is on the line. If the Lady Comets are in a close contest, Jacobs not only expects but desires taking the final shot.

It reminds me of that game against Scranton last year for the first-half championship and the fans are chanting, Amber, Amber, down the court. It makes me want to school a girl even more.

It's not always fun when you miss the shot, but I have the confidence that I want the ball.


Best around

When she isn't zipping passes to unexpected locations, Jacobs is scoring. Twenty-seven games into her sophomore season, she surpassed the 1,000-point plateau. She already has 155 points early in her junior year.

Still, Jacobs views assists as important as points.

I could score 28 points a game, but I like to get the girls the ball, she says. I like to pass. Passing is fun, especially when I do cool passes, like behind the back.

Getting her teammates involved in the game elevates Jacobs to a different level of player.

I would describe Amber as someone youd love to have on your team, junior Maureen Myers says. Someone with that amount of skill could just brush everyone off, but she really brings everyone up with her.

Sometimes Jacobs is too unselfish. On several occasions, Bucciarelli has had tell to his star player to shoot more.

We talked about that the other day, he says. She said, Coach, do you want me to score? I said, You do what you have to do for the team. We feel shes an all-around, team ballplayer.

She knows when it comes to crunch time we're going to her.

In his 17 years of coaching at Abington Heights, Bucciarelli said, he hasn't coached a better player than Jacobs. That list would include Muskey, who scored 2,191 points and now plays at NCAA Division I William & Mary.

I think she's going to be one of the best players to come out of this area, he says.

If Jacobs knows how good she is, she certainly isn't letting on.

I didn't know that I was considered the best player. I dont know what to say.

Best player. Hmm. she whispers.

I don't know. Wow. They can say I'm the best player, but I just love working hard at the game.

Regardless of what the masses may say, Roger Jacobs never has told his daughter she's a great player. He doesn't coach her as much as he used to, deciding this season to back away. He simply told his daughter, It's up to you, Amber. You're an upperclassman, and you know what it takes.

He doesn't give very many compliments, but I get a hug after every game, Amber says. I don't think I want him to tell me I played a great game. When he doesn't tell me that, it makes me want to play harder to show him I'm getting better.

Although his daughter's basketball skills are no longer a secret, Roger still finds it hard to believe Amber could someday be the best player to come from this area. It's not that he doubts Amber's ability, but perhaps it snuck up on him, too.

It's like, Wow, out of my family. It's hard to believe sometimes, he says. We're just trying to live a normal life.




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