Girls basketball player of the year

By Chris Lang

Published: May 3, 2008

Joyous Tharrington established herself as Brookville’s all-time leading scorer (1,350 points) and rebounder (811) this season — statistics that gave her the slightest edge in selecting her over teammate and best friend Brittany Campbell as The News & Advance All-Area girls basketball player of the year.

A Richmond-bound senior forward, Tharrington was named Seminole District and Region III player of the year. But she shared Brookville’s team MVP honors with Campbell, who will take her game to Liberty University next fall.

Their games complemented each other, but were distinctly different.

“Brittany was a little more of a perimeter-oriented 3-point threat and Joy was more of a threat with her back to the basket,” Bees coach Warner Dyke said.

However, they were almost interchangeable when needed.

“Brit and Joy, primarily an outside threat and an inside threat, (respectively) could do the opposite,” Dyke said. “If Brittany had a smaller player guarding her on the perimeter, we’d put her on the post. If Joy had a bigger player guarding her inside, we could put her on the perimeter. They could go the other direction (and) had the ability to do both.”

Ironically, Tharrington, who specializes in basketball, may be a bit more versatile of a scorer than Campbell, a former three-sport athlete at Brookville who was named The News & Advance All-Area volleyball player of the year in the fall.

“She had multiple ways of scoring,” Dyke said of Tharrington. “She could play with her back to the basket, dropstep or spin to the middle, or catch, turn and face the basket. She also had the ability to shoot from the perimeter or even take people off the dribble, which made her even more of a threat.”

But clearly, she was most dominant in the post, working opposite Lindsey Sharman, Tharrington’s protégé who will take over her role next winter.

“She was hard to stop inside,” Dyke said of Tharrington. “I don’t care if she had somebody bigger on her or not. She was very tough.”

Dyke said both players have tremendous work ethics, which rubbed off on their teammates.

“That’s why they’re both getting college scholarships,” Dyke said. “God did give them some talent, but they took advantage of that talent (by working hard and) making themselves better athletes and basketball players. They both are great leaders (and) they both are going to be pretty hard to replace.”

Best friends off the court, they are extremely competitive players on it, which sharpened one another’s skills in practice.

Tharrington’s competitive nature made the way their season ended — with a state quarterfinals loss to defending Group AA state champion and rival Hidden Valley — so difficult to swallow.

“Losing in the (first) round (of the Group AA) tournament put a bad taste in my mouth and made me want to work harder than ever,” she said. “That’s what I’m working for (to get ready for Richmond).”

Inseparable at Brookville, the two players will soon go their separate ways. But undoubtedly, they’ll be friends forever.

“We’ll call or text each other and we’re going to come watch each other play when we can,” Tharrington said.

Dyke said the two are so close, they could be twins.

“Especially the last several years, they’ve worked out together year-round with their offseason programs,” he said. “I always pick on them by saying they’re sisters. When you see one of them, there’s the other one.”