Greenville senior all-state Sara Woodgeard.

By ALEX ABATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

Sara Woodgeard sat glued to a chair, watching her teammates run and down the floor and make up all the plays.

Now she is the one everyone is watching.

Back in sixth grade, Woodgeard sat the bench, but now she has just finished her Greenville basketball career and was recently named to the Class 3 All-State squad for the third time.

"It is a real honor," said Woodgeard who was named to the first team for the second straight year.

Woodgeard averaged 22.4 points and 14 rebounds as she led the Lady Bears to per the game MSHSAA quarterfinals where they lost to St Louis Metro.

"I'm telling you, for a player to get all-state three years is rare," Greenville coach Diane Meyer said. "She works super hard and has natural athletic ability."

The playoff run during her senior season was all and more than what she could have asked for.

"We accomplished what we wanted to," Woodgeard said. "I am proud of what we did. Districts is what we wanted and it is what we got."

Woodgeard could not only get to the basket but always managed to find a teammate when she was surrounded by defenders. She averaged 3 assists per game over her senior season.

"She has really improved on that in her senior year," Meyer said. "We encouraged her to look for that open player and she really has developed some good peripheral vision on the court."

Woodgeard played her freshman season at Puxico before coming to Greenville for her last three seasons. She has become a much better allaround player during the course of her career.

"Well, freshman year coming in, I didn't know a whole lot," Woodgeard said. "I have learned to see the floor a lot better."

Defense, specifically has improved significantly from her first year through her senior season, Meyer said.

"She came in and had to learn about fundamentals," Meyer said. "When she got here as a sophomore, she was behind in defensive fundamentals but took it and went after it hard. It shows that whatever she sets her mind to, she can excel at."

Woodgeard's confidence has grown over the course of the Greenville's best run since 2003 when it lost to Stoutland in the MSHSAA quarterfinals of Class 2.

"I am sure she is building more confidence " Meyer said. "Going through the games that we had to go through changes an athletes perception."

The Lady Bears have been extremely successful during Woodgeard's tenure as they are a combined 53-26 over the last three seasons. Woodgeard shot the ball at a 77 percent clip from 2-point range over the course of her senior season which got Meyer used to seeing positive results from Woodgeard.

"She is just very versatile " Meyer said. "She is not real big and strong but is quick and explosive. Pushing and pulling up and shooting jump shots is pretty automatic."

Woodgeard has verbally committed to continue her basketball career at the college level for the Three Rivers Lady Raiders next season.

"The competition is going to be better," Woodgeard said. "I am going to have to adapt on defense because they play man (to-man) and we didn't do that. I will have to find out how the players play and get to know them."

Woodgeard also averaged two blocks during her senior year but something she didn't do a lot of was shoot the 3-pointer. That is something that will be a strength for her with the Lady Raiders, Meyer said.

"She is deadly from the 3-point line but we couldn't get her to look for it," Meyer said. "Every player has to adjust to (better competition) when they go to college. But they can't put three on her because they have kids all over that can score."