WORTHINGTON — A celebration for senior Tarren Spartz’s 1,098 prep basketball career points took place in the Trojan Tower Conference Room at Worthington High School on Thursday.
Spartz finished seventh all-time in scoring for the Worthington Trojans, and with 600 rebounds she finished as the school's sixth all-time glass cleaner.
The celebration was planned in haste as it was only discovered this week that Spartz had, in fact, passed the 1,000-point threshold.
“I stopped by (Josh) Dale’s office two days ago, and I saw how many (points) I scored this season and then my all-time career scoring, and I thought, ‘Huh that looks strange,’” said Spartz. “I thought I had scored 687 points (through) last year.
“So then we went home and I further talked and looked into it. I called my other coach and said, ‘Linder, do you still have all the stats from past years?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah yeah.’ So I took a look at them and I sent them to my mom.”
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Shelly Spartz — Tarren's mom — was the one to go through the box scores and add up her soon-to-be graduate’s statistics.
“I got home from volleyball that night and she goes, ‘Tarren, take a look at the counter.’ And sure enough, she added all those points up and it equaled 1,098,” said Spartz. “I mean, I never thought I was going to score over 1,000 points. I never really took that into consideration.”
With the tally in hand, Dale and the Worthington High School staff worked promptly to arrange a celebration for Spartz. On Thursday morning, family, friends and coaches filled the conference room to congratulate the senior.
“It was kind of cool, but it was also kind of sad I didn’t get to see it in the real game,” said Spartz. “But it’s neat to see that I exceeded 1,000.”
Spartz scored 332 points for the Trojans in her senior season.
She is headed to Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa next fall. There she plans to study pre-dentistry. She will play volleyball for the Defenders.
On Monday, Spartz was recognized among her peers at WHS as the Most Valuable Senior Female Athlete. She played volleyball, basketball and golf for the Trojans. The winner for the Most Valuable Senior Male Athlete was Mikele Walu.
“It is rewarding, but I wouldn’t be able to receive that award without my upper classmates having played with, and the younger classmates. And the coaching staff believing that I can play at a higher level, even when I was at such a young age,” Spartz said. “My previous coach, Pat WIlliams, always told me, ‘You made your mark as soon as you stepped on that court freshman year and scored the game winning point in overtime in Windom.’”
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Another important influence on Spartz was her mother, Shelly.
“Basketball has always been a tough mental sport for me, just having someone experienced in that aspect really helped with sticking it out, and all the physicality of the game itself,” said Spartz on the lessons from her mother. “She’s been through everything I have been through.”
As high school begins to wind down for Spartz, collegiate volleyball has already begun to take a part of her life.
“Now I get to focus on one sport rather than all three, which is fun,” said Spartz. “All as I pursue my degree, career and my future, it is going to be fun.”
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