The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Forthofer breaks rebound record
There’s been a lot of learning on the job for Jessica Forthofer in her freshman season.
Playing her first season of varsity basketball in the midst of a pandemic on a very young team, Forthofer was thrown right into the fire this season for Keystone. She’s responded in a way that she didn’t think was possible.
Forthofer not only finished the season as the area’s leader in rebounds (both per game and overall) but she broke the school record for rebounds in a season.
“I had no idea coming into this season that (breaking the rebound record) would be something I would accomplish,” she said. “It means a lot to me. My coaches pushed me a lot to get this and it was honestly really surprising. But once I got going I thought ‘I can really do this’.”
In just 18 regular season games, Forthofer grabbed 210 rebounds, toppling the previous record held by Jessica Fraley. Houston estimates that Fraley’s record came in somewhere close to 21 or 22 games.
After a 20 rebound game against Black River on Jan. 13, Houston took a look at the Keystone record book and realized how close Forthofer was. In the remainder of the Wildcats’ games Forthofer had under ten rebounds just two times after the Black River game.
“She had just missed the school record for rebounds (against Black River). The record was 21 and that’s when I started looking at her numbers,” Houston said. “I told her she was on pace to catch this record and that’s when she got really focused on it.”
Three times she recorded over fifteen, including a 19 rebound game against Clearview that was preceded by a 17 rebound performance.
Needing four rebounds to break the record heading into Keystone’s last regular season game against Mapleton, Forthofer put up another herculean effort. The freshman brought down 17 rebounds and helped the Wildcats earn their seventh win of the season.
“Going into this season that I would have a lot on my plate with us being a young team,” she said. “I just wanted to do my part, because I knew I was more than capable of doing it. I’ve been playing basketball since the third grade.”
Despite the pandemic affected season that has cut not only Keystone’s games but also its roster down the Wildcats are just one win off their total from 2020. That’s thanks to not only Forthofer, but strong play from other youngsters in the starting lineup.
The area’s leading 3-point shooter from last season, Delaney Peters has continued her strong play in her sophomore season and new addition Helayna Houston has also brought a spark to the Keystone offense.
“I only had one senior again this year, so we were really young again and had to go through that whole learning process,” Houston said. “But we’ve played
much better (since the start of the new year) everything has started making sense for them and we’ve executed very well. Even though our record is about the same as it was last year
we are much more competitive, we’ve competed with just about everyone.”
The Wildcats will look to match their win total from last season Feb. 17 in an opening round matchup of the OHSAA D-II tournament against Lutheran West. It’ll be a measuring stick performance for Keystone who fell to the Longhorns in the tournament a year ago.