Athlete's Sights Now Set on Program Scoring Record
In a 68-28 road Northeast Athletic Conference win at Fairport on Jan. 29, Cardinal junior forward Ivy Kaminski was 22 points away from her 1,000th career point — and she surpassed it, becoming only the second Husky girls player ever to do so.
In a 68-28 road Northeast Athletic Conference win at Fairport on Jan. 29, Cardinal junior forward Ivy Kaminski was 22 points away from her 1,000th career point — and she surpassed it, becoming only the second Husky girls player ever to do so.
“It’s a really great accomplishment, and I’ve been working at it for a really long time,” Kaminski said. “I give all the credit to my teammates, who really play a big part in helping me achieve this goal.”
Knowing a 1,000th point is within reach, it can be easy to become overzealous in trying to get there, so Kaminski said she took a different approach by just letting it happen naturally.
“I just wanted to move the ball around and, if I had a good shot, to take those quality looks and see where it gets me,” she said of her mindset.
From a coaching standpoint, whenever a big milestone is near, it can also be hard for everyone else to focus on the task at hand – winning a conference basketball game. But Coach Kim Domen didn’t have any trouble making sure the team’s focus was in the right spot because she also had a strategy.
“I didn’t really tell the team how many points Ivy needed, but I kept in contact with Ivy’s mom, Shelby, and we were back and forth for the last couple of days,” Coach Domen said. “I think the girls knew in the back of their heads, but they just needed to go out there and execute for the game. That’s exactly what they did.”
With Kaminski’s 1,000-career-points goal now out of the way, the junior will turn her focus to finishing the season strong with a good run in the postseason.
Of course the program’s scoring record, set by all-time leading scorer Lyndsay Cummins, is another accomplishment she’s set her sights on — but she knows that’ll be more of a goal for senior year.
“It’s really exciting (to chase the program record), but I’m just going to try and focus on finishing this season strong, hopefully go really far in the tournament, and then next season I’ll focus on it, and just play basketball,” Kaminski said.
Coach Domen has coached this junior class since its athletes were in eighth grade, when the high school didn’t even have a team.
Fast-forward a few years: the team played in its first district title game in nearly three decades, with hopes of getting there again, and now it’s added a 1,000-point scorer.
“It definitely helps having (Domen) as a coach,” Kaminski said. “We have a good connection, and she’s been my coach for a while, which helps. She knows how I play and has been a big help in getting me to where I am now as a player.”
Cardinal entered February at 12-6 with only four regular-season games left.
“We have to turn it up a notch as the tournament gets closer, and we need to hone in on each game and take care of business. That’s our big focus right now,” Coach Domen said. “We have a shooting practice on Sunday since we have a game on Monday (against St. John’s), for them to get in there and get shots up, so that come game time we can get rolling and handle our business.”
