Hiland's Hilary Weaver has wanted to be the Lady Hawks starting point guard since eighth grade.  Now, as a senior, she is one of the best in program history.

The 5-foot-7 Weaver last Saturday tied a state record with 21 assists as Hiland rolled to its third win of the season, an 86-15 win over Central Catholic.

In the process, Weaver tied a single-game program assist record shared by Julie Weaver.  The original mark was set against Strasburg in the 1994-95 season.

Hilary Weaver had five points and five rebounds to accompany her 21 assists.

"At the end of her eighth grade year, she told me that she was going to be my starting point guard as a freshman,"  Hiland coach Dave Schlabach said.  "That's the ability to have long-term focus.  Most eighth graders are more concerned about what they are going to do this weekend.  On that day, I knew I had a really good player coming."

Schlabach said Weaver is the "ultimate point guard."

"She takes care of the ball - it took her three games to get her first turnover," the Hiland coach said.  "She makes possessions count.  She is one of those kids who has worked hard for everything she has received.  She takes a lot of pride and ownership in how she runs her team."

Against Central Catholic, Weaver's task was to get Hiland's underclassmen offensive looks.  She took that job one step further.

"We really need our underclassmen to start to score.  And we talked to [Weaver] a lot about that this last week," Schlabach said.  "We told her she would have to trust those kids.  She took it one step further and made sure those underclassmen had great games."

Sophomore McKenzie Miller scored 17 points, including 3 of 4 shooting from 3-point range, and classmate Meagan Hall had 11.

Hiland has had numerous legendary point guards in its storied history.  And Weaver certainly is one of them.

"When you talk about Julie Weaver, Launa [Hochstetler] and Jena [Stutzman], they all were different, but all were extremely skilled and extremely competitive," Schlabach said.  "Good point guards can't become great without being leaders first.  The great ones lead their teams, and are always in control.  And the group I just mentioned were all phenomenal leaders."

When "special" players like Weaver come around, Schlabach said its nice to just sit back and be a fan.

"Someday I'll just sit-back, enjoy and watch, because their senior years go by so fast," the 19-year coach said.  "So one thing I have learned to do when good kids like this come by is, at some point in each game, just sit back and be a fan, too."

Weaver is averaging 12.3 apg, as well as 17.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg for Hiland.