Over the last 20 years, a lot of the memories have faded. The members of Glasgow’s 1A state champion basketball team can’t remember every play from the final game. They don’t remember every steal or every shot, but they all remember the feeling of taking the court in front of that sea of black and gold.

Looking up into the seats of the Hearnes Center, the Lady Jackets saw the faces of practically every person they knew. And more.

“I still get chills when I think about the amount of people that were there cheering for us,” said Stacey (Meyer) Kottman, who was a junior in 2000.

“Our community and our town, but then so many other area schools and people that were there cheering us on. Just the thought that you have so many people supporting you and wanting the best for you, it’s still to this day… it’s just an awesome feeling, it’s very hard to describe.”

There were signs everywhere as the bus pulled out of Glasgow and headed toward Columbia.

“I remember one sign in particular,” said Molly (Thompson) Monnig. “It said, last one out of town, turn off the lights.”

The Lady Jackets were not the favorites to win the championship for the 1999-2000 season. In fact, they hadn’t won a tournament all season long. They had played for first place in all of them, but still hadn’t won a final when they faced New Franklin in the district championship at CMU.

“I think it just made us better and more determined,” said Kottman of the losses.

Amy Monnig converted a critical 3-point play in the closing minutes as Glasgow overcame that hurdle and advanced to the sectional round with a 38-30 win.

After a 56-47 win over Silex in Jefferson City, the Lady Jackets faced their toughest challenge of the tournament against Atlanta (27-3). Glasgow shot just 17-44 from the field, but found a way to get a 55-51 win in overtime after Holly (Wright) Forbis made the game-tying 3-pointer with 15 seconds left.

“What I remember the most was that Holly really struggled to shoot the ball throughout the game, but she was one of those people… she was a shooter, so she was going to shoot,” Molly Monnig said. “She had great confidence to take that three and tie it at the end of the game.”

Glasgow’s defense dominated the semifinal, a 43-33 win over Newburg, who was making its second straight appearance in the final four. The Lady Jackets did not allow a point in the first quarter and led 26-6 at the half.

Glasgow carried that momentum into the final against Climax Springs (29-3).

“We kind of had one of those feelings... we just almost felt unstoppable,” Monnig recalled.

“We were just clicking on all cylinders offensively and defensively. We were just very unselfish, we just kind of felt like we were unstoppable at that point.”

The Lady Jackets were ahead by just one point with under five minutes left when Molly Monnig came up with a critical steal and layup. It started an 11-2 run that put Glasgow up by double digits late in the fourth. The Lady Jackets hung on for a 53-46 win and the state title.

Monnig was 3-3 from the 3-point line and scored 20 points as Glasgow finished the season with 15 straight wins and a record of 28-5. Kottman had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Forbis had eight points and Alexis Stockhorst had seven.

Kristen Freese had four points. Lin Hart wrote in the Fayette Advertiser that Freese, “did an outstanding job of handling the ball, which helped Glasgow get into good offensive sets. That led to quality shot opportunities for Thompson and Meyer.”

Contributing to the success of the 2000 Lady Jackets was fantastic team chemistry and a great coaching staff of Mike Reynolds, Greg Buescher, and Benji Dorson.

“Our coaches were three tremendous coaches,” Monnig said. “Not very often do you have a group of three coaches who have been to the final four as head coaches also. I think they really had personalities that fit well with each other.

“It was just evident that we had really good team chemistry,” Monnig said about the practices leading up to the championship season.

“We were very disciplined, but we also took the time to make sure that we recognize that it was a special moment, to enjoy it, have fun. Practices were definitely intense, but there were a lot of laughs and smiles during those practices.”

The Lady Jackets had quality depth, and gave teams trouble on each end of the floor.

“The thing was, we were a team.,” Kottman recalled.

“I know Molly was very dominant, but people knew even if they shut her down, that someone else was going to step up. We passed so well. We had a very tough defense. We would press, we trapped. We all knew our parts and we worked together really well.

“We had girls that didn’t play, but they challenged us every day in practice, and they were there cheering us on from the bench. If they needed to come in for a few seconds, they came in and held their own.

“Just realize that no matter what part of the team you might be, you’re still a very important part of the team. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It’s not going to come easy, you’re going to fail and lose games, but that only made us better.”