Kamela Gissendanner named Girl's Player of the Year
Kamela Gissendanner approached Clairton coach Jes Hutson with a request. No, make that a demand: she wasn't going to start this game.
At first, Hutson was taken aback, then he smiled.
“It was two days before senior night and I asked my four starters who aren't seniors if one of them would give up their starting position so the other senior could start,” Hutson said. “Before I could finish my sentence, 'Kam' volunteered to give up her starting spot. It brought tears to my eyes and all the kids started clapping.”
That isn't the only time Gissendanner, a junior, commands applause. Gissendanner, who has 1,944 career points, is one of the top players in the WPIAL. She led the Bears to their second consecutive WPIAL Class A championship this season and to the quarterfinals of the PIAA playoffs. Gissendanner is the heart of the Clairton girls basketball team body. Because of what she's accomplished this year, Gissendanner is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Girls Player of the Year.
“Kam is an incredible athlete,” Hutson said. “When you have a player like her she covers up our mistakes. She also is the leader. The kids follow her lead. As Kam goes, so goes the Lady Bears.”
Hutson didn't start coaching Gissendanner until January of this year, but that wasn't the first time he watched her play. He saw her when she was in grade school and played in a tournament at Penn State Fayette, where Hutson works. He told his brother who was there with him that wouldn't it be nice to coach the team Gissendanner was on. Not only has he gotten to coach her. He has watched her become one of the most sought-after players in the state.
Huston said colleges from every conference are recruiting Gissendanner, the cousin of Darrell, who played at Pitt from 1979-82. Hutson said he wouldn't want to be in her house the first day coaches can contact her this summer.
“I would let the answering machine get all the calls, but it might blow a fuse,” Huston said.
Gissendanner said all the attention was overwhelming at first, but she has gotten used to it. Before she goes on to college she has one thing she wants to do in high school.
“A state championship would be nice,” said Gissendanner, who also has a 4.0 grade point average. “I felt I could have done better this year. I wish we would have gone farther. I didn't go and watch (the PIAA championship games) in Hershey because it would have broken my heart to be there and not be in the game.”
Gissendanner's decision to sit out so fellow teammate and senior Lauren Chavis could get in the game was honorable.
“I felt she deserved to start,” Gissendanner said. “There were other players who said they would have given up their starting positions, too. It really wasn't a big deal.”
But, it really was.
