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Rarified Air! Marissa Gingrich to go down as one of the greats from MIfflin County

By Kenny Varner
LEWISTOWN – Rarified air!

For the past four seasons, the MIfflin County girls basketball fans have been witnessed to talents that are hard to come by, some would say even a once in a lifetime talent.

Marissa Gingrich has the resume to join the ranks of the best or one of the best hoopsters that I have had the privilege to watch and even cover in the 25-plus years I’ve been covering local sports.

Listening to lifelong fans, old timers and local historians, Gingrich has shown that she is right up there in the All-Time list of great basketball players to come out of MIfflin County.

Her skills were more than just being able to shoot and score, no matter who was covering her or what defense the opposing coaches played up against her.

she was also the leading scorer in MIfflin County High School history.  Definitely, not a bad thing to post on her basketball resume.

It was also the intangibles, the things she did that not many people would catch. She seemed to do everything with ease.

She played the game at 100-percent from beginning to end, no matter what the score, she could always be found around the ball both offensively and defensively.

Not only could she score clutch shots, showing her opponents that she had “Ice water in her veins” but Huskies’ fans were never surprised if she would sink a clutch three at the buzzer, no matter what quarter.

She was also a rebounding machine, despite sometimes being smaller than some of her opponents, her on the court intelligence was off the charts. She knew what position to be in for the rebound and whether or not to try to outjump her opponent or wait for the ball to bounce off the glass and box out an opponent.

She also was a distributor of the ball. When being double covered she would find the open teammate and dish it off if they had the better shot. She was not selfish with the ball at all. She was also a player that made everyone around her better. The team was a strong unit.

NJIT is getting a great player as Gingrich prepares to take the next step in her basketball career, playing as a D1 player.

She has been one of the greats!! Much like her Aunt, Lewistown Krista Gingrich, she has risen to the top of all-time greats and will be forever talked about when it came to being called one of the greats!!

Congratulations Marissa for a great career!  Thank you for all the memories you provided to the MIfflin County faithful and to us local sports reporters. It was fun to watch and cover you !!

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