By Andy Loigu

While watching one of Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes’ games on national television (Big Ten Network) last week, the name of Phillipsburg High graduate Jess Kovatch was shown on the screen, as one of the top five three-point shooters in the history of Division-I NCAA women’s basketball.

Clark is getting loads of media attention at Iowa, as she approaches the national record for total points in a four-year career.

In 2018, when Kovatch broke the national single-season record for three pointers with 141, playing for St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, not many people outside of the Lehigh Valley were aware of it. The Eagles’ Super Bowl win over Tom Brady and the despised Patriots (hated for their success) got most of the big headlines and sports attention that winter.

Clark has 126 made threes this season, with about half of the schedule yet to be played. Often, a run at a record brings great past performances back into the public awareness. For example, the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, with his recent 62 home run season, had people talking about the late Roger Maris for the first time in six decades.

As a senior at St, Francis in 2019, Kovatch was named North East Conference Player of the Year and she graduated as the program’s all-time scoring leader with 2,874 points. Four years earlier, she graduated from PHS as the Stateliners’ all-time scoring leader for girls basketball.

After her stellar college career, Kovatch went to play professionally in Germany for Inexio Roylas Saarlouis. In the European game, she found that the referees allowed a more physical brand of play. “You have to be mentally tough enough to get knocked down five times in a game and keep getting up,” she told The Express-Times that winter.

In America, the sport is more focused on speed, skill and agility.

Despite the rough stuff, Kovatch still managed to average 15 points per game in Germany. After that season she told the media that she enjoyed the opportunity to travel, that there is more to living life than basketball.

Now she is the assistant women’s basketball coach at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from St, Francis and puts her skills to saintly use, organizing various fundraising events to help cancer patients.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.