Jessica Dickson’s goal was to break her girls’ high school basketball scoring record. Somewhere along the way, Dickson realized there might be more prestige to own.

‘She just outplayed everyone,’ Vanguard High School coach Annette Powell said. ‘Probably because she was several inches taller than some of them. She outplayed them. She out-hustled them.’

She also had a drive like nobody else. The Vanguard scoring record still belonged to Powell from her playing days, but as a freshman, Dickson decided it would one day be hers.

‘I told her that that was one of my goals,’ Dickson said. ‘I pointed up to that picture and said I’m gonna break your record. It was just a lot of hard work … putting in the extra time shooting and things like that after practice and after games.’

Dickson finished high school with 2,634 points, good enough for not only the girls’ record, but also the boys’ record as well. And elevate the program she did. The year before the forward made it to Vanguard, the girls team was 4-21. Her freshman year, the Ocala, Fla., school went 22-4. In her four-year career, the Knights went to the state playoffs four times, were district champions twice and reached Florida’s final four twice.

Fast forward. Dickson’s now a senior at the University of South Florida, a school whose women’s team hadn’t been more than a game over .500 since 1977-78. As a freshman, Dickson led the Bulls to their first postseason berth and into the WNIT. The next year the school got its first WNIT win, and last season, USF made it to the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

Finally, earlier this season against Stetson, Dickson broke the South Florida women’s scoring record, and is now 181 points away from USF’s all-time men’s mark. Dj vu?

‘I wanted to come to a school where I could help build the program,’ Dickson said. ‘Coach (Jose) Fernandez shared the same thing. I wanted a place to help build a program and help put the program on the map.’

Out of high school, Powell said Dickson was the fourth-ranked prospect in Florida and wanted to stay close to home. Powell said her star was looking at the state’s big schools, but Florida and Florida State ‘just dropped the ball when it came to recruiting.’

Dickson sought to make a difference, and to do it she needed to play.

‘The other schools were not able to promise her that she’d be able to play,’ explained Powell. ‘As a matter of fact, one of the schools told her that as a freshman she would basically be a practice player.’ Fernandez and the Bulls were ready to give Dickson that chance and it immediately paid off. As a rookie, she was a freshman All-American and led all first-year hoopsters in scoring at 18.6 points a game. And of course there was that WNIT bid. ‘Great players help coaches become very good coaches,’ Fernandez said in an interview on the USF Web site. ‘Talent solves a lot of problems … same thing when Geno (Auriemma) had Diana (Taurasi), when Vivian (Stringer) had Cappie (Pondexter). We have Jessica.’

As preseason Big East Player of the Year, Dickson has earned some pretty impressive comparisons. Like both Taurasi and Pondexter, after college Dickson wants to play professionally in the WNBA, something no South Florida women’s player has ever done.

All the accolades haven’t gone unnoticed. The senior’s a legitimate All-America candidate and gets a public relations boost from her own website – www.JD25.com – set up by the USF athletic department.

‘I think it’s very neat,’ Dickson said. ‘When they told me about it I was kinda shocked. It’s fun. I have fun with it, make jokes about my coach, use it to relay how I’m feeling and what’s going on with the team.’

The site comes equipped with media clips, photos, stats and a blog, where Dickson can communicate with Bulls faithful, during what she hopes will be a Sweet 16 run for the 14-5 squad. ‘It’s my last year,’ Dickson said. ‘I definitely want to go out with a bang, and this will show how far this program has grown.’

Published on January 23, 2007 at 12:00 pm