Girls basketball: Alden-Hebron all-time leading scorer Jessica Webber thriving in final season

When she was in the seventh grade, Jessica Webber got her first look at high school basketball, going up against players much older and more experienced than her during a summer tournament with Alden-Hebron in Wisconsin Dells.

From that moment, Giants coach Marty Hammond knew Webber was going to be special.

“She kind of got a rude awakening,” Hammond said of Webber’s first time playing against high school kids. “It didn’t sound great, but she never backed down from that point forward. When she was a freshman, I mentioned to her and the team that I fully believed Jessica would be the best female basketball player to come out of the school.

“She believed and she hasn’t missed a beat.”

Webber has made Hammond’s prediction look very good.

The 5-foot-6 senior guard recently broke A-H’s all-time scoring record with 18 points in a 38-37 nonconference win against Harvard. Webber passed 2021 graduate Rachel Pahl, who ended her varsity career with 1,226 points, for No. 1 on the list.

Webber has averaged 19.8 points a game in six games since breaking the record, including a 32-point performance against Westminster Christian. She now has 1,349 career points through Thursday.

Webber’s older sister, Emily, graduated in 2017 and was among the school’s top rebounders. Emily was taller than Jessica at 5-foot-10 and scored most of her points in the paint while Jessica has relied more on her outside game.

But Hammond said Jessica is willing to mix it up, too. She has over a dozen double-doubles this year.

“Jessica has a great outside game, but she loves to drive,” Hammond said. “She’ll take it right to the big trees in the middle without thinking twice.”

When she was a freshman, I mentioned to her and the team that I fully believed Jessica would be the best female basketball player to come out of the school.”

—  Marty Hammond, Alden-Hebron girls basketball coach

Webber’s individual accolades have coincided with the rise of the Giants, who are 19-8 through Thursday and could challenge for the school record for wins in a season. Hammond does not believe any girls team at A-H has reached 20 wins before.

Webber obviously is a big part of the team’s success, but she enjoys seeing her teammates succeed, too.

“Jessica is a great leader, one of the best,” Hammond said. “She’s always there early and she’s always staying at least a half hour to an extra hour after practice working on her game. She’s very relentless, but it’s not about her.

“She really does get the whole team involved. She would say that she’d rather make a great assist than hit a 3-pointer. And she expects the rest of the girls to step up at any moment and gives them opportunities to win. She really commands what’s happening on the court.”