Work hard within the team structure. Put teammates ahead of yourself. Play your role. Or more succinctly: be a good team player.

If you do, and to it long enough, good things – including individual accolades – will come your way.

That pretty much sums up Kristen Smoluk’s girls’ basketball playing career in a few words.

On Friday night at Warwick High School, the individual milestone that Smoluk reached during the Palmyra girls’ basketball team’s 54-27 triumph over Hempfield was as much a testament to her abilities as a teammate, her hard work and the Cougars’ success than anything Smoluk could accomplish on her own. With 33 seconds remaining in Palmyra’s District Three Class AAAA quarterfinal contest, Smoluk sank a free throw that was her tenth point of the evening and the 1,000th of her career.

The evening was also significant in that it was the 100th win of Smoluk’s and fellow seniors Maria Tukis’, Katy McClellan and Katie Dembroski’s four-year career. A hundred wins is a career total that few groups of Lebanon County student-athletes, in any sport, have reaached.

The triumph also qualified the Cougars for the District Three Class AAAA semifinals, as well as their fourth straight trip to the PIAA postseason.

– Jeff Falk.