Kelly Mazzante is not the type of person who allows the public to know all aspects of her mind-set, manners, memories and motivations.

She is much more comfortable talking to her parents or teammates on a cellular phone while walking to Willard Building. In press conferences she keeps the sight of her brown eyes pressed to a desktop to avoid contact with dozens of people attempting to ask her questions about a game or about herself. She would rather be known as a part of the team, a freshman college student at Penn State, a member of a close-knit community and family, anything that does not draw attention specifically to her.

But just as some people are destined to live the ranks of mediocrity, Mazzante may be destined to live in the limelight as a stellar athlete coming into her own cosmos.

Her new home is the Bryce Jordan Center with its ceiling resembling an enormous circus tent, its dark rafters full of black iron beams and concert speakers, 15 white championship banners telling the storied past and present of Penn State women's basketball and bright lights shining on a pale brown wooden court with the Nittany Lion painted at the center.

Mazzante stepped into the role as a freshman starter on an injury ridden Penn State Lady Lions basketball team early in the season and has done nothing to return herself to her short tenure as a spectator on the bench. In fact, Mazzante has used her limited amount of time in Happy Valley to carve a piece of history from the fat of the Lady Lion legacy.

She has already captured the Big Ten scoring title with 18.8 points per game, a three-time Big Ten player of the week — a feat never accomplished even once by any other freshman, an All-Big Ten First Team selection, Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Co-National Freshman of the Year.

Personal awards and accolades aside, the 6-foot guard from Montoursville, Pa., spent the season playing with her squad at the forefront of her motivations and immersing herself in the cauldron of team chemistry.

"For any freshman coming in you're not sure how you're going to adjust to the college game," Mazzante said. "It's been a quick adjustment but it's been really good so far. I just want to make sure I do anything I can for the team."

A fallen star, a birth of anew

When Penn State senior point guard Chrissy Falcone went down with the third Anterior Cruciate Ligament tear of her career in a pre-season practice, a major question mark hovered above the defending Big Ten regular season champions and NCAA Final Four participant — who would replace a player that could drain three-point shots at will and be a consistent producer in the starting lineup?

Falcone set the all-time Penn State record with 70 three-point shots made in the 1999-2000 season and was being counted on to add senior leadership on and off the court for a team consisting of five incoming freshmen. Although the Lions experimented in the season with an older starting roster, one young player already made an impact in the first two games scoring off the bench with a limited amount of playing time.

Mazzante came to Penn State in August in peak physical form from intense workouts during the few months following her senior high school graduation.

While classmates enjoyed the summer vacation before going off to college or entering the work force, Mazzante was waking up early in the morning seven days a week for five hour workouts consisting of stretching, sprinting and training to get in shape for a draining season of Div. I basketball, a goal she set for herself ever since her freshman year of high school.

If her friends roller-bladed through the streets of Montoursville, Mazzante followed close behind in a pair of running shoes and a look of determined on her face. She came into the front yard of her house and vomited a meal previously held in her contorted stomach from the amount of stress she put herself through. At the beginning of the summer Mazzante could not touch her toes, but by the end of the summer she was completely flexible and on her way to play basketball for Penn State.

When she first set her sights on the University Park campus and prepared to begin her college basketball career, Mazzante's main goal was to play five minutes a game. She thought she would spend most of her time waving to her parents from the bench.

But since a fortuneteller or psychic could not predict the string of injuries that started the season for Penn State, there was not no way to know such a young player would have to make an impact immediately in her career. However, Penn State coach Rene Portland used her intuition and saw the potential of the 19 year-old freshman.

When Portland was asked what the most valuable asset Mazzante lends the team, she let out her characteristic robust laugh that resonates in the inner ear of the listener's head.

"The way she scores," Portland said. "It's the variety in the way she scores. Offensively she's fun to watch."

Her ability to score points became apparent in the first game of the season when Mazzante posted 14 points on only 16 minutes versus the then No. 12 team in the country, Old Dominion.

She followed up with a 12-point performance in the next game against Villanova.

By the third game of the season, Mazzante made a phone call to her mother, Julia, to tell her she would be in the starting lineup for the next game versus Duke. Both could hardly contain their excitement as tears of joy flowed from both ends of the phone line as Mazzante fulfilled a dream she held for a long time.

Mazzante's playing time increased dramatically throughout the season and so did her numbers in the box scores. By the middle of the season, she was averaging 18.4 points per game and bringing fans to their feet in excitement when she hit a shot.

Mazzante quickly garnished the reputation as a fan favorite with her quick trigger shot, her hustle for a rebound, a steal leading to a wide-open fast break or a three-point shot to put the team in the lead.

The culmination of success for Mazzante came on a brisk February night in a game versus Illinois. Before the game even started, an electricity ran through the crowd donned in blue and gold, the team colors of Montoursville High School. A substantial group from her hometown came carrying signs and a large banner that read "Go Kelly" to watch her play.

By the end of the game Mazzante tallied a Bryce Jordan Center record 38 points, the most scored by any player in the building, men's or women's. The 38 points also marked the most ever scored by a Penn State freshman in a game. With time running out in the game, Portland pulled Mazzante to the side during a timeout and told her to go for the record. It was the most memorable moment Portland had of Mazzante all season. The Lions dismantled the Illini, 101-80, avenging an earlier season loss.

After the game, Mazzante stood at center court waving to the fans, being hugged by children running at her feet and giving a wide smile to her mother and father sitting in the stands.

"I just got in a rhythm and the shots fell for me," Mazzante said. "It was exciting that the people from Montoursville could share that game with me."

Mazzante was far from finished placing her name in the Penn State record books. In the season finale versus Michigan she scored 14 points to give her 508 regular season points, five more than Penn State legend Susan Robinson's freshman scoring record. Robinson sat in the audience to watch her 12-year-old record come to an end.

But although Mazzante set the scoring record on that night, the accomplishment was bittersweet as the Lions went on to lose to the Wolverines, 75-74. Mazzante had an opportunity to win the game for Penn State, but her three-point attempt sailed past the basket as time expired.

Mazzante laid flat on the ground with her face buried in her hands. She was the first player to apologize to the two seniors on the team, Lisa Shepherd and Maren Walseth, for allowing the team to lose.

"She (Mazzante) takes the breaking records and all of that kind of stuff very much in stride," Walseth said. "That's not a front, that's just her personality. That's how she is. Some people think she's shy, but that's just genuinely how she is."

The episode shows a perfect example why Mazzante plays basketball — not for personal accomplishments and records, but to play as a team and come out victorious in the end.

"Sitting on the bench and you look up to see all the people there, the atmosphere, and the music playing," Mazzante said. "It's the reason you play a sport."

Growing up with family

Nestled in a valley carved out of the Allegheny Mountains by the meandering Susquehanna River lies the small middle-class working community of Montoursville, Pa.

With Williamsport looming a short distance away, the town of Montoursville has changed very little in the past 50 years. A Wal-Mart and shopping complex now greets motorists exiting Route 220 at the Montoursville exit. A short drive around a bend leads to a welcome sign covered with plaques of the Rotary and Lions Clubs and churches in the town.

On cold February afternoons neighborhood children are out running through backyards, tossing baseballs with an eager anticipation of Little League in the spring and shooting basketballs in driveway baskets.

Street names recall a forest of prefabricated houses that sprung up throughout suburbs after World War II — Oak, Cherry, Maple, Spruce, Elm, Walnut, etc. — Broad Street is the main thoroughfare and is littered with churches, small businesses and old houses converted to apartment complexes.

On one of the back streets sits a two story gray house with a driveway in the back and large trees growing around the property. This is the house where Kelly Mazzante grew up.

A new green Jeep Grand Cherokee with the license plate SPLK13 — standing for "Special K 13," Mazzante's affectionate nickname given to her by her Penn State teammates, sits in the driveway.

The walls of the Mazzante household are covered with pictures and sitting on every tabletop are gold frames with old photographs. Many pictures are of Kelly, her senior class photo in the living room. Others are of Mazzante's older brother, Louis Jr. Most of the pictures depict the Mazzante children in sport's uniforms or participating in sporting events.

The household is not atypical of families found anywhere in the United States and certainly not unusual in Montoursville, a community that gathers strength through several generations of families living together.

Montoursville is a family oriented town where everyone knows each other and watches out for the well being of the residents of the community. Teachers, churches, businesses — everyone has a hand in keeping stability in the small town. Its most illustrious citizens wind up staying even when the opportunity arises to move to another location.

Mike Mussina, the former Baltimore Orioles' ace pitcher who was born and raised in Montoursville, continues to live there, and although he likes to keep his privacy, residents who speak to him say Mussina would not live anywhere else except in the town where he has his roots and can consider himself a part if its heritage. The multi-millionaire still walks the aisles of the Montoursville Wal-Mart.

This is the type of community Mazzante was raised in. She grew up with her whole family nearby. Her mother has five brothers and five sisters, almost all of them living in Montoursville or in nearby Williamsport. Her father, Louis Sr., has two brothers and a sister living there too.

The close proximity of living near children her age, including many of her cousins, afforded the lifestyle of a lively youngster running the streets. In the summer months, neighborhood kids would play sports by day, chase birds and lightning bugs by night, hit tennis balls off sheds or shoot baskets with the spotlight on.

"I was hardly ever inside my house," Mazzante said. "We were always out doing different things. That's how Montoursville will always be."

Mazzante finds peace when she has a fishing rod in her hand. She enjoys fishing in a stream that runs through land the Mazzante's own outside of Montoursville. One of her most vivid memories as a child was a fishing trip on a lake in New York. Her father had to hold on to her make sure she was not pulled overboard when she caught a large fish.

She could have been considered a stereotypical tomboy wearing a pair of overalls, a baseball bat on her shoulder or a basketball under her arm. But from an early age, boys were afraid to call Mazzante a tomboy because she showed so much talent in sports.

Starting with basketball at age six and tee-ball a few years later, Mazzante's life revolved around sports. Her mother signed her up for dance lessons before she started to play Little League at age 11. Mazzante wore blonde pigtails and Julia bought her little pretty outfits to dress in for dance class. A week and a half after starting lessons, Mazzante told her parents she did not want to dance, she wanted to play baseball.

"We bought her a pair of cleats and that was it," Julia said.

Kelly was like the classic adolescent, coming to practice on her bike, her glove hanging on the handle bar. She threw down the bike and went to work. In baseball games, Julia dressed Kelly in pink petal pushers and lace socks. People laughed when they saw her playing on the field, but they did not laugh at her abilities.

The girl with the frilly pink socks was a pitcher for two years who worried 11-year-old boys before games about striking them out. Julia laughed when she saw them disturbed by the presence of a girl on the field. Many parents were not happy when Kelly started as a pitcher over boys in local Little League all-star games. She was the only girl in district history to start pitching an all-star game and obtain the win.

When Louis Sr. recalls some of the most vivid memories of Kelly's childhood, he remembers standing at the corner of the right field fence of the Little League fields in Montoursville so he could watch both his children pitching at the same time on two adjacent fields in two different games.

Both of Mazzante's parents are second generation Montoursville residents and grew up together. Louis Sr. is a regional sales manager for Hitachi, a computer monitor company. Julia works in the cafeteria of Montoursville High School.

Life with sports

When Louis Sr. approached Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach John Kuester and told him about a basketball player, he did not know what to expect to see.

Kuester was a friend of the Mazzante family who knew Louis Sr. while working as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics. He called and asked if Kuester could work with his son to build his basketball skills.

A few years later Mazzante made another call to Kuester and said he has a daughter now who plays basketball. From the first time he watched her play, the North Carolina graduate could tell she was a gifted athlete with real potential. Kuester said she has excellent ball handling skills and a pure outside shooting presence. He worked with her to improve her shot even more, especially making sure to keep the ball high and ready to shoot at any second instead of bringing it to her waist when the ball is caught.

"The neat thing about her (Kelly) is she won't be satisfied with having just a good freshman year," Kuester said. "She has a strong mental attitude towards the game."

Mazzante's enthusiasm for basketball originated while playing in church leagues in Montoursville and blossomed over time. She started playing organized basketball at age 13, the reason she wears No. 13 on her uniform, and quickly moved through the ranks of junior high, landing herself a starting role on the varsity basketball team as a freshman.

By the end of her first year, Mazzante totaled 501 points to set the district scoring record for a freshman. She continued her scoring feats in high school into her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. Mazzante is no stranger to the score board in any arena she plays in. She scored 3,270 career points in her high school career, the third highest girl's total in Pennsylvania history.

Mazzante carried over a winning spirit into her high school team too. In the four year's Mazzante started at Montoursville, the Warriors compiled an astonishing 106-10 record in class AAA play and was a four-time district champion.

Montoursville continually fought their way into district play and every year a loyal following of Montoursville faithful would follow their team through the season. People in town would wait at 4 a.m. at the high school for district and state playoff tickets to go on sale. In the freezing cold, wearing winter coats, the fans took turns sitting in cars and standing in a line that extended around the school and down the block to watch the girl's team fight its way through the post-season.

When the state playoffs started, Mazzante turned her intensity up even more than the regular season, creating incredible shots and awesome scoring displays. In a state playoff game against Steel High, she made a shot beyond the half court line at the end of the first half to cut the lead to nine.

Montoursville went on to win by 10. She set a school record by scoring 46 points in a single game. Montoursville and Mazzante found so much success that in back-to-back years they found themselves in the PIAA State Championship game in Hershey against the same team, Black Hawk.

Both games were played in Hershey Park Arena, a classic sports venue that holds the distinction as the place Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA game. With its overarched dome roof, multicolored seats and ravenous high school basketball fans, Montoursville entered twice and came out on the losing side both times. Mazzante had lackluster performances in both games as Hershey turned out to be a bittersweet place in her career.

In her final high school game, Mazzante fouled out and cried as she walked over to the bench. Her coach gave her a big hug and told her to keep her spirits up. She never allowed the losses to dampen her high school career. Mazzante also added to her basketball experiences by participating on other teams. After finishing her freshman season, Mazzante played in Amateur Athletic Union, a national basketball league for high school students, and continued for three years. Initially she participated in local leagues around the Williamsport area but by her junior year she was asked to play on an AAU team in Philadelphia, the Mid Atlantic Lady Runnin' Rebels.

Most of the practices were held at Villanova, which meant a three-hour drive to Philadelphia. Practices began in April, right at the end of the school year and lasted two hours a day. On the three-hour drive to Philadelphia, Mazzante would do her homework in the car while her father drove. This was the routine from April through July.

Mazzante had to deal with more than just the hassles of traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway. After she played in the state championship basketball game on a Saturday in 1999 and coming off a tough loss, Mazzante went to her first AAU practice for the Rebels the next day.

In the end, all the driving and practice would pay off for Mazzante when the team traveled to Kingsport, Tn., for the 1999 AAU National Championship during the blistering hot month of July. The Rebels, the No. 7 seed in the tournament, fought their way through the brackets and eventually arrived in the championship game.

Although they went on to lose to the West Texas Flyers 86-69 in final, along the way the Rebels came up with upsets of higher ranked teams including Penn State freshman Courtney Upshaw's team, the Connecticut Starters by 28.

But a win that surprised more people was the defeat of Texas Freedom, a team with Tennessee freshman Ashley Robinson. In the game, Texas Freedom made a three-point shot to put them up by one with little time remaining. The Rebels called a play to get the ball to Mazzante and was fouled with three seconds to go. She made both free throws and Texas Freedom never had an opportunity to shoot as time expired. A father commented to Louis Sr. he was glad his daughter was not on the foul line.

Mazzante was named AAU All-American and gained national exposure in front of major college recruiters. Up to 100 college scouts were at each game. Legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summit came to watch the games.

After the success she experienced in AAU play, Mazzante continued to find achievements in other aspects of her high school career. Instead of letting high school sports fade in her last semester as a senior, Mazzante did something she had never done before - she took up softball.

Mazzante was persuaded to try out for the team by friends and quickly made an impact in a sport she never played before. In her first at bat in a game, she hit a triple and she did not stop there. Mazzante did not swing a baseball bat for at least five years in a game, but her offensive numbers in softball were unbelievable.

She finished the season with a .421 batting average, .458 on base percentage, .750 slugging percentage, two home runs, six triples, seven doubles, 19 runs and 20 RBI. In her second game against high school rival, Danville, Mazzante turned on a pitch in the eighth inning and almost hit the right fielder with a screaming line drive and used her glove for self-defense.

Montoursville softball coach Harry Shearer said Mazzante could play the outfield by herself and made diving catches he never saw anyone else do. Opposing coaches made comments to him that she could be a major Div. I softball player.

The Montoursville team was so successful they battled their way to the second round of state playoffs and finished second in the district to Danville. They lost to Valley View, the eventual state champ, but Mazzante was not at the game because she had junior national basketball tryouts. Shearer believes the outcome could have been different if she was playing on the team.

"When the game was tight she (Mazzante) wanted to be the one up to bat," Shearer said. "She goes out and plays and proves that she's an elite athlete. She's a workhorse and a winner."

Besides sports, Mazzante also stood out in the classroom. She finished consistently at the top of her class and excelled in many subjects such as math classes. School was very important to Mazzante and she hated to miss a day. Her parents said she probably only missed two or three days of high school. On the way home on the bus she would do her homework to make sure she would complete all her work.

One of her toughest challenges in school came in a college English 11 class with Bill Fryan, a difficult teacher of 28 years at Montoursville. Fryan said the harder the work was the harder Mazzante worked. She did things ahead of schedule, sometimes several days before they were due.

"As people praise her on the court it is important to realize she did just as well off the court," Fryan said. "She was one the students I never caught unprepared."

Mazzante has always thrived on difficult situations in both athletics and academics, but nothing she could have ever experienced could have readied her for a disaster that would strike her life nearly five years ago.

Tragedy in the air

On the night of July 17, 1996, the town of Montoursville became more than a name on a map in central Pennsylvania.

Off the coast of Long Island, TWA Flight 800 mysteriously exploded taking the lives of all 230 passengers on board. Included in the passenger list were 17 students and four teachers from Montoursville High School on their way for a student exchange in France. The close-knit community was devastated by the tragedy of that night.

People in Montoursville still have a tough time talking about the incident since almost every family living there was directly or indirectly connected to the passengers who tragically died. Mazzante's best friend in high school, Katie Hettler, lost her brother in the explosion.

Beside the stone and brick façade structure of the Montoursville High School building sits a grass circle with 21 trees surrounding a stone memorial with the statue of an angel perched above. The memorial stands in tribute to the Montoursville residents who were on the flight and the story of the tragedy.

"Obviously it was a very hard time," Mazzante said. "I think I was very heartstricken because it was such a small community it happened to. They are always in our thoughts and prayers. It's something we try to always keep in the back of our minds, but we try to move on with it."

Mazzante admits she has a difficult time flying on planes, a necessary evil she goes through on every Penn State road game. Her mother, who has never flown, worries every time her youngest child steps on a plane.

Both of them had a real scare about flying earlier this season when Penn State returned from the January 25 game at Indiana. The airplane the team traveled on suffered malfunctions and made an emergency landing in Cincinnati. Mazzante was so sure she was going to meet her fate she wrote a goodbye letter to her parents. Everyone on the plane was nervous, but due to the circumstances surrounding Montoursville, Mazzante may have been even more nervous.

"With the memory of Flight 800 it made the situation all the worse," Julia said. "She was pretty worked up and upset."

Of all the events Mazzante experienced in her life, the tragedy of Flight 800 has produced the longest lasting effect on her psyche. But instead of letting the tragedy stop her life, Mazzante uses the experience to guide her through tough situations she experiences now.

"People always say everything happens for a reason, but it's tough to find a reason for those things that happened," Mazzante said.

Life in Happy Valley

After spending 18 years in the friendly confines of a town bonded together through common experience and a common lineage, Mazzante has now made he home in a college town with a transient population.

One of her first experiences in State College was with the Penn State basketball camp as a sophomore. Mazzante immediately fell in love with the school.

"On her first visit she said she felt at home," Julia said. "She's very home oriented and very into her family. They just made her feel like family up there."

The first day of recruiting for college basketball, Mazzante received 55 letters from schools all over the country, but by the end of the day she had the list narrowed down to five schools — Penn State, Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Stanford and Duke.

However, almost from the beginning, Mazzante's mind was made up where she wanted to go to school. She had her mind set that she was going to go to Penn State. The Lion coaching staff aggressively pursued Mazzante, but it may not have been necessary.

"All the way through recruiting Rene and her staff stayed on Kelly like white on rice," Louis Sr. said.

When Mazzante finally decided to stay close to home, her parents were pleased with the choice. Instead of having to travel all across the country to watch her games, they could jump in the family car and drive an hour and a half to State College. With their daughter close to Montoursville, they have taken advantage of the nearby proximity to watch her college career unfold.

The Mazzantes have not missed a single home game and can bee seen sitting at the center court of the Jordan Center, Louis Sr. wearing his white Penn State Lady Lions hat and Julia with her camera in hand.

But even though they are so close to her, Mazzante's parents still keep a distance between them and their daughter to make sure she has a normal college experience to know what it is like to live away from home. They have visited her four times at school, including the celebration of her 19th birthday.

And in the end, Mazzante's parents are happy for her because she is happy at school. Julia can hear the happiness in her daughter's voice, even after she has a bad day. The presence of Mazzante's parents in the stands before every home game is enough to make her feel comfortable.

When Penn State goes on the road, the Mazzante's are well prepared to chart every point their daughter scores and every steal she makes. The purchase of a satellite dish allows them to watch the games on TV and sometimes have to sit in front of the computer to listen to the games, probably the most stressful time for the two of them. They even watch Mazzante's old games when they feel in the mood to see their daughter.

Julia relieves some of the stress of not having her children at home with the elaborate creations of scrapbooks consisting of photographs taken by her to chronicle the accomplishments of her children. She says she wants to keep the memories so her children will be able to relive them later in their lives.

Mazzante has conversations with her father about life and dealing with the pressures of being in the limelight of the media. She told her father that she does not want to be treated special. She just wants to do her own thing. From the middle of her freshman season on she has been receiving attention. She has been bombarded because she has done what she's done.

But one moment of individuality has stood out in the memory for Mazzante earlier this season when Montoursville High School retired her basketball number. Shepherd and Portland came down for the number retirement ceremony during the Montoursville Basketball Tournament.

That day meant a lot to Mazzante because she was the first girl to have her number retired at Montoursville. The only other athletes to have the same distinction are major league baseball players Tom O'Malley and Mussina, and Montoursville baseball coach Carter Giles.

The day was also special for Mazzante because she had her new coach and teammate along to share the moment. Almost from the moment Mazzante became a member of the Penn State family, it was assumed she would be Shepherd's heir apparent in her upcoming career. No one knew she was going to step in to the role so fast.

Shepherd has also stepped in as a mentor to the young athlete on and off the court, giving advice on balancing athletics with academics. Mazzante is often found lounging in Shepherd's apartment or sharing a laugh at basketball practice. The senior class, including Shepherd, took an active effort all season to make the young players feel welcome and a part of the team.

"Not only Kelly, but the whole group of freshmen, since they came on campus, have fit in with us," Shepherd said. "They came over to our apartment. We weren't always going over to them. They're really outgoing, have great personalities, and that made it easier for us to talk to them and help them out."

And the Penn State team has grown into more than just friends for Mazzante — they are her new family. Spending every day together for hours on end has brought her close to a group of girls she scarcely knew before August.

Within a period of four months Mazzante was integrated into the system and felt it difficult to stay away. She was home for four days at Christmas and after the short time in Montoursville she wanted to go back because she missed her teammates. Mazzante told her parents that she does not want her parents to take the feeling personally, but her teammates are family now.

Christmas day did not stop her from practicing either. In the afternoon Mazzante was in the high school gym shooting baskets. Her family came to watch as she hit 30 three-point shots in a row. The whole family just looked at each other in amazement.

And Mazzante's parents are not the only ones who have watched on in amazement this season as she took shots. Teams that played high school basketball against her last year have come to see her all season at Penn State. They are excited to see a player they played against last year excelling so well in college. Little children come up to her after games for autographs and admire.

Mazzante told her father she is amazed how different people react to her compared from one year ago in high school. She looks back at herself and realizes she was one of the same kids that come up to her now, and that is what makes playing worth the time and effort. Mazzante's father believes this to be a mature statement for an 18-year-old to make and shows him how much she has matured in a little more than two-thirds of a year.

She has also matured enough to handle the grueling task of balancing a college education with collegiate athletics. Independence has given her one more thing to deal with. She does not have someone sitting by her all the time telling her what to do and when to do it.