Athlete of the Week: Bella Cherry, Tri-County North

Cherry is a senior guard for Tri-County North basketball. In her team’s two games against National Trail and Middletown Christian, she averaged 25 points, 4 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 9 steals. She became the second player in school history to eclipse 1,000-career points in the process.

For her efforts, Cherry was named the Dayton Daily News Athlete of the Week for Dec. 1 through Dec. 6, earning the honor through reader voting at DaytonDailyNews.com.

“My family and friends reach out to my mom and text her saying, ‘we voted for Bella.’ And we’re like, what for?” Cherry said. “Once we found out about, it got put out there that I was up for it and I have a great community behind me that voted for me.”

Cherry has been working toward her senior season since she can remember back to being in fifth grade. She said she knew she was capable of reaching the four-digit milestone from the work and time she has been putting into improving her basketball skills.

An added bonus was the venue she played in to reach the achievement. TCN got to play in the historic Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, which was used as the home for the fictional Hickory Huskers in the movie “Hoosiers”.

Much like Jimmy Chitwood coming around the picket fence, Cherry hit a three in the fourth quarter to reach 1,000 career points.

“It definitely had a bigger impact to feel like it was more like history hitting it there. It’s definitely a memory I’ll always remember,” Cherry said.

Through the first three weeks of the season, Cherry is the Western Ohio Athletic Conference scoring leader at 20.2 points per game, and in steals (7.4), while also ranking second in assists (3.6). She is the school record holder in the latter two categories and after the Middletown Christian game she was 74 points from the all-time scoring record.

Cherry has styled her play to be a creator on the floor while setting up her teammates for success. She said she understands her role as the main player on the floor for the Panthers’ means leading and being a role model for others.

She gets some of that from her background being around a basketball family. That includes her mother, Jessica Spitler, who doubles as the head coach at TCN for the past 12 seasons.

“It definitely feels like there’s a strong connection. I feel like she’s a lot harder on me because I’m her kid. We don’t always see eye to eye, but it works out and we figure it out together,” Cherry said.

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