[Hold My Own]

There was a girl that came up to LU today to take a look around, she is from Redding, CA and plays at Liberty Christian and is 6'8" and is built like Katie....the big kicker is she's only a soph. so we got a few years...but she loves it here and wants to be apart of what is going on here

[Sly Fox]

She may not be able to sign a letter of intent for a year and a half, but its never too early to lock up a verbal commitment.

Coach Green has certainly created a vibe around the program that is contagious to young players.

[Hold My Own]

I said PA and I ment CA.....sorry

[PAmedic]

was gonna ask- had never heard of a school by that name in our Reading- thanks for the correction.

She sounds like a real find- what ramifications (NCAA), if any, are there for us having any contact, "unofficial" or not?

[Hold My Own]

none, she came up here without any prior notifications....in fact Coach Green got a phone call today from someone saying, "So in so" is up here looking around and he frantically called up a few people like JF to see if they could show her around, b/c he's out of town and not to mention her age, once coach caught her name he knew who she was....there's a pretty big interest from tons of schools having that size and ability at this age

[PAmedic]

thats quite interesting- the fact that she showed up on her own. Must know someone? or maybe the Sweet 16 run had a bigger impact than we thought?

Stands to reason: Christian athletes see that on TV and WILL start thinking, "why not Liberty?"

Thank you Katie!

[A.G.]

I would think the female athletes, very few who have aspirations of "the next level," would buy into "Why Not Liberty" moreso than males, who want to win and showcase their talents on a bigger stage than the Big South offers.

[flameshaw]

There is a long-term connection between Liberty Christian and Liberty. Gordon Luff, who was here in 72-80? as Youth Director and taught at LU, moved to the Burg from Redding and has since returned. In addition, the biggest church in town is/was pastored by Royal Blue (true name), and was instrumental in sending many many kids to LU over the years, (was real tight with JF). I believe Liberty Chrisitian is a ministry of the church, but I am not positive.

[SeoulFlame]

My wife is from Redding, CA. Her dad went to Liberty Christian. It is not part of that church. The church is North Valley Baptist Church.

Gordan and Dotty are still in Redding. My wife and I met at the camp that he runs close to Lassen Park. I will see if I can find out anything about this girl but I don't have many connections there anymore.

[Sly Fox]

Thanks for connecting the dots, flameshaw. As for the girl in question, she appears to be a bigtime prospect who apparently is a longtime fan of Stanford.

Jessica Oestricher
6' 7" Center
Redding (CA) Liberty Christian HS
AAU Summer Team: Spokane (WA) Stars Elite Blue

Scout Profile

Here she is mentioned in a USA Today story from last summer:

Coaches get chance to size up prospects at girls hoops camps
By Christopher Lawlor, USA TODAY

Size was a big thing at last week's elite girls basketball camps, particularly the Adidas Top 10 All-American camp in Suwanee, Ga.

In Suwanee, 95 of the 220 campers were 6-2 or taller, including 6-7 junior center Jessica Oestricher of Liberty Christian (Redding, Calif.). Jayne Appel, a 6-4 center from Carondelet High in Concord, Calif., was named the top post player.

"College coaches want size," says analyst Dan Olson, a former college coach who rates players for the All-Star Girls Report. "It was the main selling point of the camp and gave coaches a chance to see those players go against each other."

The Atlanta area also was the site of another girls camp, the debut of the Best of the Best All-American Camp in Riverdale.

Two camps in the same town cleared up last summer's logistical challenge for coaches who had to travel to three sites: Adidas in Suwanee, Nike All America in St. Louis and All Game Sports in Charlotte.

Adidas Top 10: "The younger batch of players showed they could compete and excel against the older kids," says Blue Star Report analyst Chris Mennig, an assistant coach at Illinois last year.

The top underclassmen were 5-8 sophomores Nikki Speed of Marlborough (Los Angeles) and Shay Selby of Regina (South Euclid, Ohio), Oestricher and 6-3 freshmen Krystal Thomas of First Academy (Orlando) and Kelsey Bone of Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas).

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/ba ... amps_x.htm

[thesportscritic]

Good find Sly Fox.

[LU'sbestmanger]

so is she interested? if she is we can prob. get her in the early period of nov.

[Hold My Own]

she had the red carpet treatment....Coach Green really stressed to JF how good she is and how she could walk in right now and take over.....JF dropped everything he was doing and met her over there with some others (who shall remain nameless! )

Oh yeah, she loved her visit

[LU'sbestmanger]

sounds great. now all we have to do is get her to sign in november. some big time schools have to be after her

[givemethemic]

Is this the same Liberty Christian outside of Huntington Beach, CA?

[SeoulFlame]

Here is a link to Liberty Christian in Redding: http://www.libertygbs.org/

They have some pics on the site but they may be old.

[Sly Fox]

I couldn't find anyone who met Jessica's description when I was tooling through the school site looking for pics of her.

And Redding couldn't be much further from Long Beach and remain in the same state. Redding is up in the land of the redwoods.

[givemethemic]

The Liberty Christian that I went to in Huntington Beach last summer was called of all names the Liberty Christian Flames....so this is not the same school