Instead of “Girls Night Out” in will be “Girls Night In” when the Logan County Athletic Booster Club inducts six new members into its Athletic Hall of Fame Friday, Jan. 10. To be inducted are former Lady Cougar basketball stars Cindy Huffines, Kim Johnson Higgins, Carrie Horlander and Shana Dean along with their coaches, Jim Thompson and Mike Haynes.
Thompson coached the first six Lady Cougar teams following consolidation, winning 119 games and all six district championships. Two of his teams reached the regional finals, and he was named Fourth Region Coach of the Year in 1987 and Coach of the Decade in the voting for Dream Team honors.
All four of the players to be inducted were also Dream Teamers.
Huffines, one of Thompson’s star players, was one of three front-liners on the 1986 team who went on to play Division I basketball. She was named Fourth Region Player of the Year in 1987 before playing for the University of Louisville.
Kim Johnson and Carrie Horlander played two years for Thompson before he gave up coaching to become an administrator. His top assistant, Mike Haynes, succeeded him as head coach and won 50 games, two regional championships and a game at state his first two seasons, 1988-90.
Shana Dean, Horlander and Johnson comprised the nucleus of those regional champions in 1989 and 1990. All three played such vital roles that it was never clear which one was more important than the other two to the Lady Cougars’ success. Johnson was the star player of the first three Lady Cougar softball teams. Horlander also was a standout tennis player.
All the players, coaches and managers from those two teams will be honored before the induction ceremonies, which will be held between the girls and boys games against Russellville.