As Manchester basketball coach Jody Shewman looked at the 1997-1998 issue of Hoosier Basketball with star junior forward Megan Eckert, any excitement or anticipation they had when they opened the magazine dissolved into disgust by the time they tossed it aside.

Two things irked Shewman and Eckert. One, the Squires are coming off a 14-6 season, they have four starters returning, yet they couldn't crack the top 10 poll - in Class 2A. Two, Eckert did not make the all-state first team. She didn't make the second team. Or the third team. Or the fourth team.

Eckert and Shewman felt she was deserving, and they had the numbers to back their argument. Eckert, who started on the varsity squad her freshman and sophomore years, averaged 19.4 points and 5.8 rebounds a game last year. If she stays on the same pace, she will be one of the top four players in school history when her career ends, along with Amy Fahrnow, Jennifer Frieden and Barb Orpurt.

"She has a chance," Shewman says, "to produce a lot of stats."

Yet Eckert wasn't listed as one of the top 100 players in the state.

So yeah, Shewman, Eckert and every other girl on Manchester's team are a little ticked off. It's about respect. After last year, Shewman thought her Squires should have earned it.

When Shewman talks, disappointment - not arrogance - hangs on every word.

"We're hoping to be (ranked) eventually," Shewman says. "I wish we would. It's a goal of ours. In the Hoosier Basketball magazine, we weren't ranked. I was real upset with that. We weren't listed at all. I don't care if you write this down, but I don't care for that magazine anyway. You can write that down and report that.

"That (magazine) frustrates the kids, too. Megan Eckert, who had a very good year, is honorable mention all-state. Some of the girls who were on the second, third and fourth teams, I just shook my head. It's ridiculous.

"Megan was upset with it. She should be."

To deal with the Manchester Squires is one thing.

To deal with a group of slightly ticked Manchester Squires is another.

To face Megan Eckert is one thing.

To face a Megan Eckert eager to open up a can of kick butt on another team is another.

The Squires - and Eckert - wasted little time in proving their naysayers wrong. They beat Bluffton 53-51 on Saturday.

Don't be fooled by the score. The Squires led the whole way minus a minute or so in the second quarter.

In beating Bluffton, the Squires:

A) Avenged a 64-50 loss to the Tigers last year,

B) Beat a team that was No. 8 in Hoosier Basketball magazine's preseason poll,

C) Beat a team that was No. 12 in the Associated Press preseason poll,

D) Beat a team with a legitimate Miss Basketball candidate, Abby Salscheider.

Does a win in the first game of the season over a team ranked eighth or 12th in a preaseason poll mean anything? Maybe. Maybe not. But Shewman believed her team belonged with the elite in Class 2A.

If one game's any indication, she's right.

The Squires are legitimate. They're not like other girls basketball teams. They don't throw the ball away 83 times a game. They have good athletes who know how to play the game, who are fundamentally sound. Eckert, Katie Parker and Jodie Peden can create. They can drop three-pointers or take it to the rack.

Eckert's the real deal. She's torn the anterior cruciate ligament in one leg - twice. She played with a knee brace last year. The brace came off this year.

During the 20-minute shootaround before the Bluffton game, Eckert took 17 shots in a six-minute span.

She hit 16. Then she quit to stretch out.

Some may say great warmup players are a dime a dozen.

Fine. Let's look at her game numbers.

Twenty-five points. Nine rebounds. Two assists. Two steals.

Those weren't the most impressive stats.

She hit two buzzer-beater shots, an off-balance runner in the second quarter and a three-pointer in the third quarter.

Some players would feel fortunate just to get back on the court after two torn ACL's.

Eckert's back on the court and unarguably one of the best players in this part of the state. She competed in a camp with Lisa Winter, a Miss Basketball winner from Huntington. A birddog told me Winter had nothing over Eckert.

How many games will the Squires win? Who knows. They were 14-6 in Shewman's first year as head coach. And Eckert, Parker, Peden and Lindsay Seagert - four starters - are back.

Odds are they'll win more than 14 games.

In one year under Shewman, the Squires did what they couldn't do the previous three years combined - win 14 games. The Squires saw a way to validate their season, their program and their players. They saw a way to build confidence for the future.

Before Shewman took over, the Squires were the Los Angeles Clippers of local high school girls basketball teams. They were 7-32 the two years before Shewman.

You go from 7-32 to 14-5. You have one of the most exciting players around in Megan Eckert.

You'd like people to notice. You think they would notice.

Too bad - for Manchester opponents - they haven't.

Maybe this year, they will. At least Jody Shewman tried to warn them.

The word's out.

These Manchester Squires are for real. [[In-content Ad]]