If Better is Possible, Good is Not Enough Karen Noll talks with Jennifer Rizzotti ’92 about her long career playing and coaching women's basketball and her role on Team USA at next year's Tokyo Olympics On a winter night in a broom-closet-of-a-gym, Jennifer Rizzotti ‘92 showed up in black and gold to play hoops. She was a fourteen-yearold Mustang in ninth grade. Her teammate, senior Carol Williams ’89, was a fellow point guard. Together they scored 30 points in the first quarter. With three fouls each in the first eight minutes, they were playing at the outer edge of their competitive fire. Dave Ornauer’s eyes sparkle when he remembers how these two athletes elevated the level of play of everyone on the court. ASIJ emerged with a 96-25 victory over CAJ.
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THE AMERICAN SCHOOL IN JAPAN
As a journalist for the Depar tment of Defense newspaper Stars and Stripes, Ornauer has watched hundreds of high school athletes every year for the past 38 years. He makes it clear that Jennifer Rizzotti was a rare star. Sitting at well-worn wooden table in the Mustang’s book locker room, Ornauer begins with the date and the weather—March 18, 1989. Tokyo was in the midst of a cold snap, and a bad flu was going around. Varsity girls’ basketball coach Dennis Staples was tucked in bed at home with a high fever. JV Coach
