Setting Records: Senior Abigail Long has broken the girls school record for most points scored in a high school career

Coming off the court after defeating Shawnee Mission North with 16 games remaining in the season, senior Abigail Long was met by the cheer team with a huge banner spanning the width of six cheerleaders, reading, “1,000, Congrats Abigail Long” and Lancer blue balloons. 

Long had scored her one-thousandth career point midway through her senior season, becoming the third East girls basketball player to do so.

After hitting a personal milestone with her 1000 points, Long also broke the girls basketball school record for the most points scored in a career on Feb. 12 while playing against Olathe West.

The previous record of 1,328 points, set by Rebecca Parker in 2003, remained until this season when Long broke it with 1,382 points at the team’s final regular season game.

A month later, Long was told that she’d broken the school record of most points scored in a career for girls. She was shocked because of multiple setbacks she faced throughout her career, from missing most of her freshman year due to COVID and most of her junior year due to tearing ligaments in her ankle.

“I was honestly really surprised,” Long said. “It was a 20 year record. It’s a really big number and I never thought I was ever going to be anywhere near it.”

Long played on recreational teams throughout elementary school, joined her first traveling club team — KC Gold — in seventh grade and then made her current traveling club team — Missouri Phenom — her freshman year.

Long attributes her success in basketball to her determination in both team practices and out-of-school practices with a separate personal coach since sixth grade and having a positive outlook throughout the season not dependent on the results of games.

She jumped into a leadership role the minute she made the team. She was the only freshman on varsity with nine seniors as her teammates.

Girls Basketball Head Coach Douglas Archer has been coaching Long since her freshman year and says that her best qualities are her ability to make other players on the team see her strategy when passing and making plays.

“She definitely got more comfortable taking on that role, taking charge and knowing what I expected on the floor and being able to communicate that to the other girls as well,” Archer said.  

Archer knew Long had a chance at breaking the record, but was still surprised when he was notified that she had set a new record.

“[The record being broken] just goes to her work ethic,” Archer said. “In the offseason and in her time alone she puts in so many hours of hard work to get herself to the level that she’s at, so it’s just great to see.”

Long is committed to play basketball at Yale University in the fall and aspires to make an impact on and off the court as a younger player on the team.

“I’ll obviously be a freshman,” Long said. “I’m not expecting to go in there and be the best player on the team. I’m hoping to go there and be able to make some-what of an impact whether it’s just from playing a minute a game or more.”