Suffolk

Katie (LiBrandi) Spear stood tall on the court and still stands tall among Suffolk’s basketball greats, thanks to her ninth–place ranking on the scoring charts with 1,129 career points. That statistic is just one of the achievements that place her in the top 10 or (in most cases) higher, in six different Rams’ statistical categories.

 

A few of them: third all–time in rebounds (769), fourth all–time in field goals made (493), seventh all–time in rebounds per game (7.3), eighth all–time in field goal percentage (.464), and a share of eighth in all–time blocks (55).

 

Additionally, over her four years on the hardwood wearing blue–and–gold, Spear not only competed, but appeared in the starting line–up of 100 games. More notably, she was the first Ram to ever do so. Since her tenure, just three others have accomplished the feat future Hall of Famers Jacqueline Vienneau ’13, Iliana Quadri ’15 and Kelsey Schiebel ’17.

 

Spear’s contributions started from the get–go. She helped history as the freshman aided Suffolk to reach its first–ever Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) title tilt behind a 253–point, 173–rebound rookie season.

 

A year later, the 6–0 sophomore helped another first in the Rams’ record books, the conference’s regular–season crown behind an 11–1 league ledger, a feat that has yet to be accomplished again by the blue and gold.

 

Her conference counterparts took notice when she reached her junior year with her first All–GNAC honor, a spot on the second team, after providing 12.3 ppg and 190 total rebounds.

 

Spear’s farewell tour ended with an exclamation point, a first-team all-league nod. The recognition came on the heels of the tri–captain’s 326–point, 237–rebound campaign, career numbers in the forward’s books. Along the way, she joined the Rams’ elite, 1,000–point club, just the seventh Ram to do so at the time. For her efforts on and off the court head coach Ed Leyden named her the team’s Most Valuable Player.

 

As a senior, Spear was awarded for academic and athletic success with the Charles Law Student–Athlete award, given out annually since 1968 in honor of the late Charles Law, Suffolk’s long–time men’s basketball coach and the first–ever Director of Athletics, recognizing excellence in academics abd athletics.