Rossville's Amanda Hill is Kansas Wesleyan's all-time leading scorer. She's also a full-time nurse.
SALINA — When Rossville High School's Amanda Hill arrived at Kansas Wesleyan prior to the 2017-18 season, she had no idea of what she would accomplish.
Five years later, she can say she's the all-time leading scorer at KWU. She broke a 37-year-old record of 1,568 points set by Joedy Zimmerman in 1985 during Saturday's 83-75 victory over Ottawa.
Hill now has 1,604 career points after scoring 18 in the Coyotes' 89-41 victory over Southwestern on Monday at Mabee Arena. She has played in 140 games since graduating from Rossville.
"It feels really good," Hill said. "It was definitely something that I wasn't expecting and I didn't really know about it until a few games before. I don't think it really occurred to me until I was in the nursing program.
"There's like a ton of games left, so it's awesome that I still get to be able to do this and I'm super thankful that every single game I get to go out and just embrace that. I mean 37 years, that's a really long time, so that speaks to that."
For the record. 1570.🏀🐺✅
That's it, that's the tweet. @amanda_hill34 @kwuwbb @coachshowman pic.twitter.com/psDQ1K6Fbc— Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes (@kwucoyotes) January 23, 2022
Hill, a nursing major, opted to take a fifth year at KWU when the NAIA granted athletes an additional season in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This season, Hill has balanced her time between basketball and the night shift in the emergency room at Salina Regional Health Center.
She said communicating with her coaches has also helped her become better while also working and being a student-athlete.
"(KWU coach Ryan) Showman has really ingrained in me and just strengthened my communication skills," Hill said. "I just have good coaches that are so supportive with everything that I do and I just have a team that is so amazing with everything and they support me and everything."
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Star player spends her nights as a nurse
Showman said a lot of people don't see the sacrifices Hill makes to be able to put on a KWU jersey every night along with being a nurse.
"When she's not at practice or not working, she's probably sleeping," Showman said. "It's been incredible, just the resiliency and the hard work that she's been able to do and she will forever just amaze me and how she's been able to do it this long."
At the end of the 2020-21 season, when Showman found out Hill was coming back for her fifth year, he knew she had a chance to become the program's all-time leading scorer.
"She (was) going to have this record between games 15 and 20," Showman said. "If she was going to stay healthy and play, she was going to crush it."
Dylan Sherwood has been a sports reporter for the Salina Journal since August 2019. He can be reached at dsherwood@salina.com or on Twitter @DSherwoodSJ.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Amanda Hill, Rossville alum, is Kansas Wesleyan's all-time top scorer
