Sally Ward
She guided the Hickory High girls team for 22 years and posted a career mark of 324 victories and 167 losses. Sally took over the program in the 1972-73 season, the first full year for girls basketball at Hickory since 1931-32. It was the first year of the Mercer County League and Hornettes went on to finish with a 13-3 record and take District 10 runner-up honors.
he built the program into one of the most respected in western Pennsylvania, developing several top individual standouts.
Her squads won five Mercer County championships and finished runner-up four times. Hickory won a District 10 championship in the 1982-83 season, while her teams finished runner-up in District 10 seven other times. He clubs twice advanced to the Elite Eight in the PIAA tournament (1988-89, 1990-91).
Her teams won several individual tournament titles and she coached numerous Mercer County All-Star teams as well as the Hoyle All-Stars. In the summer of 1990, she coached an NCAA Division I All-Star team from the United States for six weeks in Brazil and the team posted a 14-1 mark.
She also coached track and field at Hickory for 10 years and trained several top athletes, including two-time state high-jump champion Karen Krichko Morris.
Sally was an outstanding athlete in her own right, both at North Hagerstown (Md.) High School and Slippery Rock University. She excelled in swimming, softball and track and field. As a member of the Fredrick (Md.) AAU track team, she competed nationally and internationally. She was a long jump finalist in the 1964 United States Olympic Trials. She placed in both the shot and discus at the National Outdoor Track and Field Championships and placed in both the 400 relay and long jump at the National Indoor championships. She won numerous other meet titles and set several records.
At Slippery Rock she played basketball and softball and was inducted into the Slippery Rock University Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
In 1972 she climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, a height of 19,340 feet, despite having no previous mountain-climbing experience.