Beaver County Times Highlights Genevas Heidi Mann Reaching Historic Mark - Geneva College
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Beaver County Times Highlights Genevas Heidi Mann Reaching Historic Mark

GTs Heidi Mann

GTs Heidi Mann

Article written by Chris B. Mueller Times Sports Staff | Posted Sunday, January 25, 2015

BEAVER FALLS -- The Geneva women’s basketball program seemed in a constant state of transition. Before current coach Lori Wynn was hired in 2011, the program had five head coaches in a six-year span. There was no continuity, no direction. At a school that bills itself as "the birthplace of college basketball," the program direly needed a rebirth.

Wynn instilled what she called "a new vision" for the program. It’s a vision that maintains equality between on-the-court success and a devotion to faith.

It's why junior point guard Heidi Mann came to Geneva.

Mann captains the Golden Tornadoes and is their leading scorer, averaging 15.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. She’s 15th all-time in scoring with 879 career points. As a native of Colorado Springs, Colo., she is also one of two players on the roster not from Pennsylvania.

“It’s really good to see a program being built up from a pretty significant low,” Mann said. “Some people would look at our results and say we haven’t built that far yet. I would say it’s been pretty exciting because I’ve definitely seen the progress”

Geneva is 4-13 after a loss to Thiel on Saturday. But the Golden Tornadoes were 4-20 last season, meaning some progress is showing. Mann is a top reason.

“I honestly think her presence on the floor is the best thing. She tends to be able to calm everybody else down. She’s really grown into that point guard position,” said Wynn. “She understands what I want, what we need and wants to get better at those things.”

Mann is a dual-sport athlete. She has 30 goals and 13 assists in her soccer career and was an All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference first-teamer this past season. Her decision to attend Geneva was heavily influenced by the opportunity to play soccer with her older sister, Elise, who graduated in 2013.

Another factor was her faith. Geneva is affiliated with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. Faith is intertwined into both academics and athletics at the school. It was an ideal fit for Mann.

“Her faith is very real to her, and she just lives it out,” Wynn said. “It’s not a matter of ‘(Faith) is this part of my life, this is academics and this is basketball.' It’s, ‘This is my faith and it impacts everything I do.'”

Mann, who was named to the PAC fall academic honor roll, believes her experiences over the past three years has given her lessons to take for life after basketball.

“Geneva is a great place to learn perseverance and discipline, and truly celebrating the little things,” she said.

 

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Geneva College invites students to step forward and leap ahead with an academically excellent, Christ-centered and affordable education. Offering nearly 40 undergraduate majors, Adult Degree Programs with fully online and campus-based options, and high-demand advanced graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. U.S. News & World Report ranks Geneva as a Top 10 Best Value with one of the Top 100 engineering programs in the nation. Adhering to the inerrancy of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God’s word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today’s world.

 

Jan 26, 2015