Story originally appeared: April 25th, 2018
By: Nate Calvin
On May 5th, 2018, Evergreen staff member Jackie (Motckya) Mossing will be inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus. A 1985 graduate of Convoy Crestview High School and a 1990 graduate of Bowling Green State University, she currently holds a 5th grade elementary position at Evergreen.
Mossing stated how much receiving this honor means to her, “I am extremely honored to be inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. To me this award doesn’t represent the individual accolades, but more importantly represents all my exceptional teammates at Crestview and BGSU, the outstanding and distinguished coaches, the faithful fans, and my supporting family and their sacrifices that made success possible for me. Without all of them I wouldn’t be being receiving such an esteemed honor. So, I would like to dedicate this award to all of them.”
Mossing rewrote the record books while at Crestview, where she is the girls’ basketball all-time leading scorer (1,742 points), holds the record for points in a season with 501 during her senior season in 1984-85.
Among the other records she holds there include career rebounds, rebounds in a season, career field goals, field goals in a season, field goal percentage in a season, career free throws, and free throws in a season. Her teams also enjoyed great success while she was a member of the Lady Knights highlighted by a trip to the State Final Four during her senior season, which is something she recalls vividly.
“A memory that stands out for me from high school is the tournament road to the state tournament in 1985. The gyms were packed during our tournament run. Fans swarmed us after each game with congratulations and hugs. It was a sea of Crestview “Knight Train” t-shirts in red and blue that filled the gyms from the floor to the rafters.”
“I swear that every person from school and the Village of Convoy went to our games. Convoy business windows were decorated for weeks. People decorated their cars. Our lockers and the school had signs and decorations everywhere.”
“Even the highways that we drove on to the tournament games were decorated with huge signs that people put up for us along the way with words of encouragement and support. As we boarded the bus to go to the tournament games, we always had a “convoy” of people in the school parking lot ready to follow our bus. People honked the entire way and honked as they passed.”
“At the games I remember the cheering, the chanting, and the roars of the crowd during the games. At times it was deafening. It was extraordinary how the people of Convoy supported our entire team and rallied behind us. It was about as a magical experience that an athlete can ever imagine. I am so, so grateful for such a remarkable experience”, she fondly recalled.
Mossing went on to attend Bowling Green State University where she had an outstanding career under head coach Fran Voll, whom she knew from his time as the head coach at Delphos St. John’s. Mossing credits Voll, along with her other coaches in her career as well, for helping her attain the success she enjoyed sharing some examples of what Voll meant to her as a player.
“Coach Voll was a great recruiter and recruited not only outstanding athletes, but outstanding people. He was able to combine players that were recruited from the previous BGSU coach with his own recruits. Some coaches may find that an overwhelming task…but not him.”
“There was no difference in how he treated team members. It didn’t make a difference to him if he recruited you or not. This was our team and again the lesson: No one is more important than anyone else. He cared about all the players and always did whatever he could to help them.”
“I admire how he handled all of us, not an easy job! We grew together and we considered each other family and it showed in how we played. Fran Voll was an outstanding coach, but more importantly a caring person who always put his players first.”
“Fran Voll was considerate and thoughtful of all of us at BGSU. These are qualities in college coaches that we always do not see today. I knew I was pretty lucky back then, but today looking back I cannot thank him enough for the exceptional experience that he allowed me to have playing for him.”
Mossing herself as been involved in coaching for 25 years and knows the impact coaches make on their athletes lives. “Coaches are such impactful people in the lives of student-athletes. They can make kids feel like they can conquer anything, or they can demoralize them and make them feel like nothing they do is good enough”, she said.
“When you work with kids, you can see the impact positive words and actions make. Cindy Owens Perkins and Fran Voll are the most distinguished and principled people and coaches that I have had the honor of knowing. They are tremendous role models and mentors.”
“I definitely learned from the best! Together they have helped me to be a successful athlete but more importantly a good person that truly cares about others”, added Mossing.
Mossing had a stellar career at BGSU where she scored the second-most points in the history of basketball (both men’s and women’s) at Bowling Green. She scored 2,122 career points to become the most prolific scorer in school history, and held the BG scoring record for over two decades.
Motycka, who left BGSU holding 21 school season and career records, remains one of only two players in league history to earn All-MAC First-Team honors four times. A two-time MAC Player of the Year (1986-87 and 1987-88), she led the league with a 20.2 points-per-game average in ’87-88.
She led the Falcons to three consecutive MAC regular-season titles and three-straight league tournament crowns to conclude her career and also helped BG become the first MAC women’s team to win a NCAA Tournament game, with a 69-59 triumph over Cincinnati in 1989 at Anderson Arena.
She started 115 games during her career, playing in 117 of a possible 119 contests. In those 117 games, Mossing scored in double figures 107 times, and had 20 or more points on 43 occasions.
The Falcons compiled a 96-23 record during her career, including a 78-13 mark her final three seasons. BGSU went 46-2 in MAC play over those last three years. For her career, she averaged 18.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and shot .517 from the floor and .808 from the foul line.
She remains first in BGSU history in scoring average along with field goals made (846) and attempted (1,637; T-1st), and still ranks second in career points scored, fourth in free throws made, fifth in games started, sixth in free throws attempted, eighth in both rebounds and field-goal pct. and 10th in free-throw percentage.
Mossing was inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994 and was named to the All-Anderson Team in 2011. She still sits in ninth place on the Mid-American Conference scoring list and is ranked fifth in MAC history in career scoring average and also has her name and number on the wall of the Stroh Center at BGSU.
Mossing and her husband Matt, who have been married for almost 28 years, currently reside in the Evergreen Local School District where they moved in 1998 following eight years in Pettisville. The couple has three children Chad, Cory and Haili.
Chad, the oldest, currently lives in Columbus while Cory, their middle son scheduled to graduate from The Ohio State University this May and their youngest Haili will graduate from Owens Community College next May.
Nate can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com