Lady Cougar basketball will be featured tonight when the Logan County Athletic Boosters induct six new members into its Hall of Fame. Four former Lady Cougar stars and their two heads coaches are the inductees, and all the players on the program’s two most successful teams are to be honored.
The players are Cindy Huffines (Class of 1986) and Kim Johnson Higgins, Shana Dean and Carrie Horlander, all from the Class of 1990. The coaches are Jim Thompson and Mike Haynes.
Lady Cougar basketball got off to a remarkable start upon the creation of Logan County High School in the fall of 1982. In the first eight years, the Lady Cougars won eight district championships, reached the regional finals four times, won two regional championships, and reached the state quarterfinals twice.
Jim Thompson, who had been as standout athlete at Adairville High School and had coached girls basketball, boys basketball and baseball at Chandlers High School, was the coach the first year six years. All six of his teams won the district and came within one win (119) of averaging 20 victories a year. His first Lady Cougar team lost in the regional finals to a Clemette Haskins-led Warren Central team which went on to win the state championship. His 1987 team lost in the finals to Franklin-Simpson in overtime. That season he was regional coach of the year. He was named girls coach of the decade of the 80s in Russellville and Logan County.
His assistant coach, Mike Haynes, took over the head coaching position when Thompson was named principal at Chandlers Elementary School. Haynes responded by coaching the Lady Cougars to 50 wins the next two years. Two of them were in regional championship games. Two more were in the first round at state each year. Haynes went on to coach the Lady Cougars several more years during two stints. In between he coached the Cougar boys. He had coached girls basketball and baseball at Adairville High School. Haynes was also an assistant principal at LCHS for nine years.
All four of the ladies to be inducted were named to the Logan Leader’s Dream Team of the 80s for Logan schools and RHS. Thompson was the coach of that honor squad. Among other players honored were Hall of Famers Lora Spencer and Tracie Mason, along with current Lady Cougar head coach Finley Baird.
Cindy Huffines played outstanding basketball for the Lady Cougars during her high school years. She was a rugged rebounder and accurate outside shooter on a Logan front line that featured three NCAA Division I players. She played a season for the University of Louisville and thee years for Lindsey-Wilson College where almost 30 years later she is still the all-time leading free throw shooter.
Huffines set a single season scoring record for a Lady Cougar with 563 points, scored 1,152 career points and grabbed 594 career rebounds. She was Fourth Region Player of the Year in 1987. She was two-time all-region and three time all-district. She has spent her adult life as an award winning policewoman, serving Metro Nashville for over 25 years.
Kim Johnson (Higgins) was the first eighth grader to play on the Lady Cougar varsity, after being “called up” from Lewisburg Middle School. As a freshman she was a starter at guard for a Lady Cougar team that featured three Hall of Fame frontliners. In fact, she was a four-year starter and made all-district and all-region three times each. She was a starter in three regional finals, winning two of them. She’s best-known for hitting a three-pointer at the final buzzer to beat Allen County-Scottsville in the regional championship game her senior year. She later became an assistant basketball coach under Haynes along with her long-time friend and teammate, Melody Goodman (Bingham).
Kim Johnson was also the first star of Lady Cougar softball. She was the starting shortstop the first three years the team was in existence and was named all-district and all-region all three years. She was Second Team All-State her senior year. She led the Lady Cougars in a statistical category 18 times during her career.
Carrie Horlander was a four-year basketball starter for the champion Lady Cougars. The first Lady Cougar to be all-district as a freshman, she was all-district four years, all-region twice, Honorable Mention All-State as a junior, Third Team All-State as a senior, and All-State Tournament as a senior. In the Lady Cougars’ two games at state her senior year, she totaled 36 points. She was named to the West squad in the East-West Game her junior year where she was coached by Haynes. She was ranked in the top five players in the region as a junior and the number two player as a senior.
Horlander ran track her freshman year and then played tennis for three years, becoming the number one seed. She played four years of basketball and tennis at Lindsey-Wilson College. She has been a degreed social worker in Warren County the past 14 years.
Shana Dean was literally the center of attention for the Lady Cougars. She not only played the post, but the offense went through her. She was all-district three years and all-region twice. She finished fourth in the state in field goal percentage and was one of the top rebounders in the state. She was named to the West squad in the East-West Game her junior year where she was coached by Haynes.
Her play in the middle was so important to the Lady Cougars that when she was sidelined with an injury early in the state quarterfinals her junior year, everyone who had followed the team knew it would be virtually impossible to win without her.
Dean chose academics over athletics in college and Is now Dr. Shana Dean, a dentist in Louisville.
Also to be honored are all the members of those two regional champion/state quarterfinalist teams.
Horlander, Dean and Higgins were starters both years. They were joined in the starting lineup as juniors by seniors Jalee Wright (Page) and Pam Collins (Pollard.) Top reserves were Christy Burton (Barnette) and Melody Goodman (Bingham). Gwen Dawson (Barnes) and Goodman became starters as seniors with Amy Stratton and Sandy Powell the most used subs.
Haynes was assisted in coaching by Lex Lindsey, who has had an outstanding career coaching the Franklin-Simpson Lady Cats.
The Lady Cougars and Cougars will host Russellville in the first Clash of the Cats this decade tonight.