Note: The Chambersburg Athletics Hall of Fame will induct its second class of seven athletes, one coach, one relay team, plus one team, on Friday, Sept. 12 at halftime of the football game against Harrisburg. Stories about each inductee and the teams will be published periodically before that date.
Hall of Fame – Lori Reese
You can list all kinds of great individual stats about Lori Reese, and we’ll do that later in this story.
But if you want to get to the bottom of her greatness, take a look at these team stats: In Reese’s senior year at Chambersburg, the field hockey team was 16-2-2 and won a Mid Penn Division I championship; the girls basketball team was 24-4, was the Mid Penn I champion and advanced to the PIAA Tournament; and the softball team was 24-2, won Mid Penn and District 3 championships, and reached the PIAA semifinals.
Lori Reese played on the USA Junior Olympic team and won a gold medal in 1995.
Add that up, and the teams Reese played on during that one athletic season had an astounding record of 66-8-2 combined.
Reese is one of the inductees in the second class of the Chambersburg Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame celebration will be held Sept. 12-13, and the inductees – 8 individuals, one relay team and one championship team – will be celebrated at halftime of the football game on Friday night at Trojan Stadium.
The other members of the second class include Harvey Staver (coach); Donald “Mike” Waters (legacy); Angie Rideout Lowe (volleyball, basketball, track & field); Garett Hammond (wrestling); Doug Walter (cross country, track & field); Ben Gabler (tennis); Chris Clever (track & field, basketball) the 4 x 400 relay team of Beth Muehl, JuliAnn Hopkins Morrell, Tammy McClanahan Allen and Rebecca Davis from 1990; and the 1984 baseball team that captured a PIAA state championship.
Stories about each athlete or team will be published from now until the end of the summer.
While Reese was a true three-sport star — she was named a Mid Penn All-Star 9 times, 3 in each sport — the softball diamond was where she really shined. In her four years (1992-95), the Trojans were Mid Penn I and District 3 Class 4A champions each year, won one PIAA title (1994), reached the state semifinals once and the quarterfinals twice.
Here is a good statistic to begin with: Reese played in 28 playoff games in softball during her career, batted .474 (46-for-97) and drove in 32 runs.
Overall in her career, she batted .430 (140-for-325), scored 130 runs, produced 110 RBIs, collected 9 home runs, 12 triples and 15 doubles and stole 45 bases. She was also an outstanding defensive player at shortstop.
In her junior season, when she helped the Trojans win a state title, Reese batted .512, scored 42 times, knocked in 37 and ripped 13 extra-base hits.
After her senior season, she tried out for the U.S. Olympic team and was one of only two high school players to make the next-to-last cut. That put her on the USA Junior Olympic Team, which won a World Championship gold medal. She was also a Fast Pitch World High School All-American.
Reese’s softball success continued in college. She started in every game for four seasons at shortstop for the University of Virginia. She was a two-time All-ACC selection and was named to the ACC 50th Anniversary Team in 2002.
In 1999, Reese was drafted as the No. 46 pick by the Carolina Diamonds of the Women’s Pro Softball League.
In basketball, Reese totaled 1,095 points in her career, and was a part of some of Chambersburg’s most successful hoops teams.
In her senior season of field hockey, Reese scored 13 goals and added 5 assists, as the Trojans won a Mid Penn title and were the No. 2 seed for the District 3 playoffs.
She earned four letters in each sport during her career and was named a U.S. Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete.
Reese said, “My favorite memory of being a Trojan is definitely the team bonding. Each year and each sport had a different look and feel to it, but each team created lifelong memories and friendships. All the wins were nice, but it was the team dinners, bus rides, pre-practice snack runs, toilet papering, music playlists, etc. that forged friendships that I will cherish forever.”
— By Ed Gotwals
NOTE: The Chambersburg Athletics Hall of Fame committee has an opening for one more person, preferably a female. Anyone interested in helping can contact Hall of Fame chairman Corey Dayley at trojanhof@gmail.com.