By Ronnie Flores, Senior Editor 

While watching a recent NBA playoff game, we noticed the TNT broadcasting crew had mentioned referee Violet Palmer as the first female official to work an NBA playoff game in 2006. Back in 1997, along with Denise Kantner, she became one of the first two females ever to referee in a regular season NBA game.

Thumbing through the pages of the newest edition of the CalHiSports.com State Record Book and Almanac, we were looking at some of the first all-state teams for girls basketball. For the 1981-1982 season, Palmer's name immediately stuck out like a sore thumb. The 5-foot-8 backcourt ace pumped in 19.5 ppg for the Compton High Tarbabes that season and later helped Cal-Poly Pomona win back-to-back Div. II NCAA titles.

Another all-state pick from the 1981-1982 season who you can catch on television these days was actually chosen Ms. Basketball for two consecutive seasons. Of course, we're talking about TNT sideline reporter Cheryl Miller from Poly of Riverside. We've seen Candice Parker of Illinois, Maya Moore of Georgia and even dunking sensation Brittney Griner from Texas, but we're not sure any of those recent standouts were better prep players than Miller.

Cheryl's younger Reggie, who was a year behind her at Poly and is headed for the NBA Hall of Fame, can also be seen on TNT's NBA playoff telecasts.
     
Scanning other all-state teams from the 1980's reveals a unique assortment of successful coaches and players whose brothers or fathers were more famous than their female family counterparts.

Two coaches that stand out on the 1982-1983 all-state team are Margaret Mohr (La Reina, Thousand Oaks) and Julie Rousseau (Dorsey, Los Angeles). Mohr has been an assistant coach for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and also had successful stints at Cypress College and Long Beach Wilson High School. Rousseau also had a coaching stint with the Sparks and served as the team's head coach during the 1998 season after coaching at L.A. Washington High for five seasons. Rousseau will begin her sixth season as the head coach of Pepperdine University in the fall.  

Another name that jumps out on that 1983 team is 6-foot-1 Jackie Rogers of Sacramento Grant. She is the younger sister of former Notre del Rio High School grid-hoop standouts Don and Reggie Rogers. Jackie showed great promise as a basketball player for the Pacers and accepted a scholarship to Oregon State. The cocaine induced death of Don in 1986, however, had a negative impact on her basketball career. The death of the former UCLA and Cleveland Browns standout safety and the ramifications it had on his family is detailed in the 2007 book "One Moment Changes Everything."

A few other all-state players from the mid 1980's whom had more well-known siblings include Kim Van Horn (Diamond Bar) and Kristen Bruich (Fontana). Van Horn led the state in scoring at 36 ppg during her junior season in 1983 and is the older sister of former Brahmas all-state player Keith Van Horn, the second pick of the 1997 NBA Draft behind future hall of famer Tim Duncan. Bruich's younger brother, Kurt, was a two-way starter for the 1987 mythical national champion Fontana High Steelers and currently is the head football coach at Redlands East Valley. His sister (who now goes by the name Kristen Braun) is a teacher at Chaparral of Temecula and their father, Dick, was a coaching icon in the Inland Empire who retired last season with a 292-85-4 career record.   

As we were gathering info for this piece, Executive Editor Mark Tennis was watching television and noticed that a breaking story about a freak car accident in Sacramento involved yet another former all-state player, 1993 Ms. Basketball pick Danielle Viglione.

Last Tuesday, the former Del Campo of Fair Oaks sharpshooter was an outdoor patron at a popular café on 16th and U streets in Sacramento when a truck and a Volvo SUC collided at the intersection, slammed into a parked car and a pole before coming to a stop just a few feet from a dining table outside the café.

The force of the accident's impact was great enough to knock down a brick office building adjacent to the eatery. The office space had previously been occupied by the campaign staff of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson (who similar to Van Horn led the state in scoring in 1983 at 32.8 ppg). There's no telling what kind of injuries or fatalities would have occurred had the building been occupied or if not for the quick reactions of Viglione and her colleagues.

"If it wasn't for that pole and that (parked) car right there, I'd be dead," a shaken Viglione told the Sacramento Bee. "My life just flashed before my eyes."