Reaching 1,000 points is an accomplishment for any basketball player. For a high school athlete, however, it’s a massive feat.
Seniors Riley Corcoran and Laney Beale hit this milestone on January 25, 2022, during a game against Jordan High School. They are the first players at Chapel Hill High School to reach this goal since 2017, when then-senior Elijah Hayes scored 1,000 points during a game against Cedar Ridge High School.
Both Corcoran and Beale have been playing basketball since elementary school and have been teammates and friends since middle school.
As co-captains of the women’s basketball team this year, Beale and Corcoran helped lead the Tigers to a 10-11 record. The team went 7-5 in the 4A Conference 30, finishing fourth and notching a win against crosstown rivals East Chapel Hill High School 53-23 on February 8.
Beale finished the season averaging 19 points per game while contributing 5.5 assists, while Corcoran averaged 18 points per game and 4.5 steals per game.
The co-captains’ effort helped the team qualify for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 4A playoffs, though the Tigers fell to Garner High School 79-55 on February 22, subsequently ending their season.
Despite playing on the varsity team all four years, Beale and Corcoran said they never prioritized their individual statistics or paid too much attention to how many points they scored each game.
“Coming to high school, my goal was never, ‘I’m going to get 1000 points,’” Beale said. “It’s a big thing that not a lot of people do.”
Corcoran said the Tigers’ assistant coach Jamella Smith had a large influence on the girls’ accomplishments.
“This whole season she’s been like, ‘Y’all are gonna be the next. You gotta keep working for this,’” Corcoran said. “We kind of had it in the back of our minds while we were playing—she incentivized us.”
The girls were also met with praise and recognition from their teammates, who made “posters and stuff like that,” Beale said, to honor their achievement.
“[Laney and Riley] were great role models to all of us,” junior Brooklyn Harker said.
Beale’s and Corcoran’s accomplishments are all the more impressive given the limited amount of time the team was able to play during the 2020-2021 school year.
“Because of COVID last year, we played a very limited amount of games, but starting this year and seeing the totals we were at, I knew it was possible,” Beale said.
Both Beale and Corcoran plan to continue playing basketball in college.
Beale announced her commitment to Wingate University via Instagram on October 12, 2021, while Corcoran announced her commitment to Bridgewater College a few weeks later on November 12, 2021.
While Beale plans on majoring in sports administration and Corcoran plans to study biology, both have left a legacy at Chapel Hill High School that will forever be etched in history.
