MEMORY LANE: Still No. 1: Backstrom remains Belle Vernon girls’ all-time leading scorer
Megan Backstrom had an outstanding basketball career at Belle Vernon Area High School. She graduated in 1998 and remains the Lady Leopards’ all-time leading scorer.
Backstrom recalls that she got an early start in athletics.
“I think I started in the fifth grade, my dad Thomas played a huge role in my life and encouraged me to try all kinds of different sports,” Backstrom stated. “Our school had a league that they had started. Tom Rodriquez, he was a huge part of my overall development in all sports. I played softball for him and he led a lot of the leagues for Belle Vernon and started them and he was the one who really gave us the opportunities at that young age.”
Backstrom eventually gave up softball and became a four-year basketball starter for Belle Vernon. Her team went 12-12 in 1994-95 and 16-6 in 1995-95 with a WPIAL playoff berth with the Leps being ousted by West Mifflin 61-35. It was the fifth time the Lady Leopards had made the playoffs in their history and they had lost in the first round each time.
Belle Vernon notched back-to-back section titles in 1996-97 and 1997-98. The Leopards were 19-6 as Backstrom went over the 1,000-point mark her junior season, but they fell in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs to Peters Township, 52-42, despite a 23-point, 12-rebound effort by Backstrom.
In 1997-98 Backstrom had a banner senior season. The 5-foot-9 forward tallied 508 points while leading BVA to a 20-8 record. The Lady Leopards finally won a WPIAL playoff game, beating Keystone Oaks, 58-42. They lost to South Park in the quarterfinals, 55-46. In the PIAA playoffs they downed Westinghouse, 66-48, as Backstrom pumped in 23 points. They lost to West Mifflin in the next round, 62-43.
“Winning a playoff was like getting a monkey off our back,” Backstrom said. “That team in 1997-98, we had started at a young age together. Sasha Zuro, Tracy Rodriguez, they were a year younger than me. We were all softball and basketball players together. We had a really good relationship and we just knew each other.”
Belle Vernon benefited from the dynamic duo of Backstrom and the 6-foot-1 Zuro, who also scored 1,000 points in her Belle Vernon career.
“Tragically, Zuro passed away in a fire at Seven Springs,” Backstrom lamented. “We were quite a tandem and she was a great girl. I have wonderful feelings about my high school career.”
Backstrom has great memories of her high school coach, Len Volpi.
“We had a great relationship,” Backstrom offered. “He was a great coach. He actually was our middle school and high school coach. He was with us the whole way.”
Volpi back in the day described Backstrom as a complete player.
“She gets real good position inside,” Volpe said. “She gets to the foul line, she runs well. She can rebound at one end of the floor and finish at the other end.”
Backstrom is the all-time leading scorer in Belle Vernon girls basketball history with 1,592 points. She ranks second in Belle Vernon history for girls and boys, trailing only BVA great Vince Graham who scored 2,394 points.
Backstrom took down some honors during her career: all-section as a junior and senior, Post-Gazette Washington County Fab 5 and All-WPIAL Class AAA as a senior.
“Just hearing that is sort of surreal to me,” Backstrom offered. “I just always thought of myself as a team player and it was always about the team and the girls I played with.”
Belle Vernon last year honored all of the 1,000-point scorers in the history of girls and boys basketball.
“It was great coming back to be honored,” Backstrom stated.
The fact that she is still the girls all-time leading scorer amazes Backstrom.
“My children get a huge kick out of it,” Backstrom said. “I’m proud of that. It’s hard to believe. I never looked at it that way. I just played with a great group of girls. It never really hit me until I was invited back and they honored the 1,000 point scorers.”
When Backstrom graduated from Belle Vernon she was recruited to play college basketball, receiving interest from W&J and Seton Hill. She was an all-star in the classroom with a 4.1 grade point average and scored 1,130 on her SATs.
“I wanted to go to a bigger school than some of those smaller Division III schools,” Backstrom explained. “So I just decided to forgo basketball to go to Penn State. I did well and majored in business marketing. I tend to be at peace with a lot of my decisions, but you do look back and wonder, what would have happened?”
Backstrom graduated from Penn State in 2002. She worked for Owens Corning in Toledo, Ohio and then transferred to San Jose, California. She moved back to work with General Electric in Erie and now she is at Erie Insurance Group and has been there for 11 years.
Single and living in Erie, she has two children, a son Freddy, 12, and a daughter Madison who is 10.
Looking back, Backstrom is pleased with her athletic career and what she gleaned from it.
“I’m 100 percent pleased,” Backstrom stated. “It taught me teamwork, how to deal with challenges, things don’t always go your way and how you deal with that. It was a huge part of my life and I encourage my children to get in every sport they can possibly get in.”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.