Makovec awarded all-state status by KBCA
Staff writer
Centre senior Shelby Makovec is one of five girls’ 1A Division I basketball players to receive first team all-state honors from the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, as well as the Wichita Eagle, Topeka Capital-Journal, and Sports in Kansas.
Makovec said it was a goal she set as a freshman.
“I was very happy to reach my goal,” she said. “I was a little surprised, but at the same time, I felt I deserved it.”
She said she was always outside with some kind of a ball in her hand as a child. Her parents, Darren and Amy Makovec, and her siblings were sports-oriented. She has an extended family that includes nine cousins close to her in age, and every time they got together, they played ball.
She was in third grade when she began playing basketball competitively. She was a member of a Centre team that played in the Marion Recreation League. Her classmates Nellie Kassebaum, Brenna Shields, and Kailyn and Callie Riffel also were members of the team. They played together for 10 years.
In junior high, the team lost one game over two years.
Makovec attended a basketball camp at Kansas State University as a fifth grader, but since then, she has worked to improve her skills herself.
The 5-foot-6 point guard was a starter all four years of high school and led her team to the state tournament every year. They placed third this year. She scored her 1,000th point during the season.
Her coach, Alan Stahlecker, was pleased to see her get the all-state honor.
“She was such an important part of all four of our trips to state, and she has had a magnificent career,” he said.
That career isn’t over.
“Before the season started, I had decided, OK, I’ll go to KU and forget about playing basketball, but that changed this year,” Makovec said. “I decided I’m going to be playing basketball in college, so that gives me something to look forward to. I’ll be practicing every day.”
She agreed last week to play basketball this fall at McPherson College. She will be going there to practice twice a week during the summer.
“I’m very, very excited,” she said.
Makovec recently competed in a North Central Kansas all-star game with 23 other players from 1A through 5A schools. She said her team won the game by a wide margin.
She will play in the state all-star game June 27 in Salina.
Last modified April 2, 2015