The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

Tiffany Gooden might mean more to girls basketball in Fort Wayne than any other athlete before or after her. And she knows what girls basketball means to the city.

The former All-American and 1994 Miss Basketball at Snider was involved in bringing the IHSAA state finals to Memorial Coliseum next year as a member of the Fort Wayne Sports Corp.

“It is a phenomenal opportunity,” she said. “A lot of times, a student-athletes’ immediate family will travel to Indianapolis for the state finals and maybe some extended family and friends don’t get an opportunity, for whatever reason. Just to have the opportunity to reward those schools, who have been consistently good year in and year out, is special.”

Gooden scored 2,198 points while at Snider, which as of a couple years ago was the most in the city for a female player until Canterbury’s Megan King eclipsed it. She is the lone girls basketball player from the city to be named an All-American and has an award named after her, which goes to the best basketball player – male or female – during the season in the SAC.

“As a former high school, college and professional athlete, I think I have a pretty credible perspective on how important it is for female student-athletes to be embraced by the community,” she said.

A lawyer, Gooden is a partner in Hall & Gooden LLP and recently became vice president for the Fort Wayne Sports Corp., meaning she could be next in line to be in charge of the organization when they rotate leaders.

Fort Wayne jumped into the mix to host the girls basketball state finals when all the venues for Indianapolis were booked for that weekend in March. Summit City officials from the Sports Corp., Fort Wayne/Allen County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Spiece Fieldhouse and the Coliseum wooed the IHSAA and made the high school governing body forget all about the distance up Interstate 69.

A financial consideration didn’t hurt the process.

Gooden, who also starred at Iowa and played professionally with the now-defunct American Basketball League’s Colorado Xplosion, has been part of these processes before.

She also helped bring the Big Ten men’s and women’s basketball tournaments to Indianapolis.

“We were in the underdog role there, and we were competing against the city of Chicago, and Indianapolis, as the underdog, was successful in that bid,” she said. “And to have the opportunity to help my home city now host an event like this means a lot.”

Through the hard work of all the organizations involved in bringing the state finals to Fort Wayne, city teams like two-time defending Class A state champion Canterbury and defending 3A state champ Elmhurst could benefit the most in their quests for another title.

“It will be a full house,” Elmhurst junior guard Lacia Gorman said if the Trojans make it to state at the Coliseum. “Everybody would come. The people who couldn’t come down to state because of financial reasons or whatever, they can come because it is just right around the corner. It would be great to sleep in your own bed the night before.”