By David Harry

Staff Writer

Scarborough High School senior Christy Manning climbed a mountain with her team as it won its first-ever state championship in an undefeated season.

After the nets were cut and trophies awarded, Manning stayed at the peak: Last Friday, she was named Miss Basketball 2010.

Manning received the award from the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches at a banquet in Bangor. Jennifer Nale of Waterville High School and Claire Ramonas of Deering High School in Portland also were finalists for the award.

“It is unbelievable that something that big could happen to me,” said Manning. “I knew Claire was good and had a chance and I heard Jen was a really good shooter.”

Manning also found herself trying to balance championship success shared among close teammates with her own honors.

At the core of those teammates are seniors including Jennifer Colpitts, Brittany Ross, Ellie Morin and Heather Carrier, who have been playing together since elementary school.

“It was a great season for me, we got along really well. To win, you have to believe you can win,” Manning said.

She may also have a genetic spark to her game. Her parents, Ed and Lisa Manning, starred in high school basketball with Cheverus and Westbrook High School, respectively.

Lisa Manning, then known as Lisa Blais, was a star on the Westbrook teams that dominated girls basketball in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even with her bloodlines, Christy Manning came to the game later than most of her teammates and joined when she was a sixth-grader.

She said her mother asked if she wanted to play on basketball teams because Christy would play in the driveway with her brothers Eddie and Kevin, but she never joined an organized team until she decided she was ready.

“She has worked very hard and come a long way,” Lisa Manning said about her daughter. “She grew leaps and bounds every year.”

Lisa Manning played guard in high school and said she had to learn about playing closer to the basket in order to give pointers on fundamentals. Along with that came teaching her daughter to be more aggressive. Manning said Christy has enjoyed some advantages in her development because of a wider talent pool in girls basketball than 30 years ago.

Manning also taught her daughter the game goes beyond scoring, lessons that fit well into Scarborough coach Jim Seavey’s “defense first” philosophy.

Each year, Manning said, the team strengthened and learned to play together, practicing and drilling on defense.

“We were successful in what he was teaching,” she said.

Despite her court success and love for her team, it is Manning’s individual skills in track and field that landed her a college scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

Manning also excels as a discus, shotput and javelin thrower, sports that require a different kind of motivation, she said.

“You have to motivate yourself, you don’t have teammates to push you as much,” she said.

Manning’s mother, who coaches for the school track team, also helped her with track.

Lisa Manning also played field hockey and was on the track team at Westbrook. She said likes her daughter’s athletic versatility.

“I still enjoy the kids who play two or three sports,” she said, recalling how she was often ready for a change in sports when one season ended.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219