Meghan McNicholas-Leggett doesn’t remember much about the games. She remembers Southington made it to the girls basketball state championship three straight years, from her sophomore to senior years of high school.
She remembered the Knights lost the first two years. Then they won her senior year.
“I remember me and co-captain Debbie Suess, we walked out to the center of the court, and we were like, ‘Here we go, (a loss) isn’t happening again. We’re going to take this one home,’ and that was it,” she said.
“I couldn’t tell you the score, how many points or turnovers I had. What you remember the most is all the time you spent with those kids.”
The year was 1992. McNicholas-Leggett had 12 points and seven assists and Southington won its sixth state championship, and she won her first – finally – over Glastonbury, 65-51, in the Class LL final at Central Connecticut State University.
Southington won it again the next year and that was the last time the Knights were there.
Until this weekend. Sunday night, McNicholas-Leggett, who is a volunteer assistant coach, will sit on the Southington bench and help coach her daughter, senior guard Isabella Leggett, and her Southington teammates as they play in the Class LL championship against Sacred Heart.
“My whole life, I’ve always looked up to her, on and off the court,” Isabella said. “She used to tell me stories, how that should be the goal every year to get (to the finals) as a team, to enjoy every second of it and how there are memories she’ll never forget. My whole high school career, that’s been the goal and I’m so happy we finally got there.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to win, so hopefully it can be a generational thing.”
Isabella, a guard who leads the team in scoring along with senior Lily Cooper (both average 13.6), is in her first and only year playing for Southington High. She played for St. Paul her freshman year, where her father is an assistant basketball coach, and her older brother Jamie was a basketball and baseball star.
Then the family moved to Florida for two years. They came back to Southington last year, when Isabella joined the basketball team for her senior year.
She had played with Cooper since they were in third grade and her mom coached them in travel basketball. Most of the seniors played with them in eighth grade. They all know each other and grew up with each other.
“I watch them as a mom and as a coach,” McNicholas-Leggett said. “I watch them wanting to enjoy every second and they’re so excited and there’s the emotional component of it, too, for the seniors, holy cow, they only have one game left. This is it.
“I get to see if it from a different viewpoint now. They handle it with such grace and poise.”
McNicholas-Leggett, who was a point guard, went on to play at Assumption College.
“Sometimes I like to put up a little fuss, but no, really, it’s the best to have her especially on the bench because she’s one of the best basketball players I’ve ever heard about,” Isabella said. “I’ve taken her wisdom and what she’s had to say and it’s pretty special to share with her and have that bond with her and that we understand each other. I love having her there.”
Her mother has a VHS tape of the 1992 championship game somewhere. Recently, she pulled out some newspaper clippings and photos from her senior year.
“Oh my gosh, they do think they’re funny,” McNicholas-Leggett said. “Like ‘What were you doing with your hair? Your uniforms look like they’re from the ’50s.’”
She laughed.
“She showed me some of them last night,” Isabella said. “I’m like, ‘First of all, what were you doing with your hair?’ At least the sneaks were cool. Old school Nikes, those are the best part about that whole outfit. Those are sick.
“I’m like, ‘Did you guys have tank tops?’ and she’s like, ‘No, we had shirts.’ I was like, ‘That’s different.’”
But the excitement leading up to the game was the same back then as it is now. Never mind this year it will be played not at Kaiser Hall but at Mohegan Sun Arena, which wasn’t even built in 1992, with its flashing lights and fancy scoreboard and WNBA locker rooms.
Some of the former Southington players are planning to come to the game Sunday, McNicholas-Leggett said.
“We were pretty close, and this Southington group is super close,” she said. “Their respect for each other and their comradery is pretty neat to watch.”