Marni is the daughter of David and Pam Quist. The Quist family moved to Trigg County from Omaha, Nebraska in the mid 1980’s. David was a civilian air traffic controller at Ft. Campbell and Pam went to work at the health department. I still remember the day the guidance counselor brought Marni to my classroom. The counselor introduced Marni and said she was interested in playing girls’ basketball. Three things struck me immediately about Marni. First, I thought the name Marni was very unique. Second, I could not help but notice that the young lady was around six feet tall. Third, there was a certain mystique about her, something I just could not explain.
Marni was a freshman that first year at Trigg. She played mostly freshman and junior varsity ball that season. There were several veteran seniors on the varsity. Despite her lack of varsity play, she improved by leaps and bounds during practice. While watching Marni perform a drill one day, I told my assistant Rick Larson that she could be a great player. Sure enough, she started her sophomore year with a bang. The third and fourth games of the year she scored 26 and 27 points against Crittenden County and Livingston Central respectively. Then during practice over Christmas break, she was doing a simple pivot and tore ligaments in her left knee. She had surgery on the knee and was out for the year. It was a devastating blow to our team.
Marni was really down from the injury but she didn’t stay down long. She embarked on a rehabilitation program like none I had ever seen before. Marni starting shooting basketball again long before she could actually stand on her injured leg. I visited her at her home on Oakland Church Road and she was in her driveway sitting on a bucket doing ball-handling drills. She then graduated to standing on her good leg, leaning back on a table and shooting the ball. I rebounded a countless number of shots for her when she became able to get down the steps to the gym floor. When the weather got warm, she put herself through strenuous workouts in her backyard pool. I have never seen anybody work as hard at rehabilitation as Marni Quist did. She was preparing for a great junior year of basketball.
Winter finally turned to spring, spring to summer and summer to fall. This meant that basketball season was next. Marni was ready. She looked great in practice and was ready for the games to begin. The first game of the season was at Livingston Central. Marni got off to a good start but then it happened. As a matter of fact, before even the first quarter was over it happened. She was sliding her feet on defense and she went down. She tore ligaments in her right knee this time. There wasn’t even any contact with another player. Her career was over. Marni stated, “I immediately thought, this time I am done.”
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