The accomplishment only grows more impressive each year.

Thirty years after Salamanca took down Wyandanch, 53-50, for the New York State public school title, then knocked out St. Saviour, 68-57, in the Federation Class C Championship, no team from the Big 30 has matched the Warriors’ state championship in girls basketball. Other schools can claim state titles in other sports, most recently Portville in volleyball and Allegany-Limestone in girls soccer, and Olean High holds two New York public school boys hoops championships (2016, 2008), Cuba another (1979). But the 1987-88 Salamanca Warriors remain the Big 30’s lone girls basketball state champions. So it’s no surprise that team’s star player, Kathy Carroll, just a sophomore in ‘88, would be the school’s first inductee to the Big 30 Basketball Hall of Fame, which held its fourth induction ceremony coinciding with the fourth Big 30 Basketball Senior Classic Sunday at Portville Central School.

“WHEN JIM (Melaro, former Olean Times Herald sportswriter and Big 30 Athletic Fund founder) first reached out to me, I was completely blown away at the honor,” Kathy Carroll Beals said at a pre-game luncheon Sunday at the St. Stephen’s Club in Olean. “It’s just so awesome to represent Salamanca and the amazing teams I played on and the amazing players that I played with at Salamanca, so to be the first inductee for our school is just a great honor.”

In a speech, Carroll Beals thanked her high school coach, Colleen (O’Neil) Wiedman, who attended the luncheon with her husband Bill, and noted some of her fondest memories have more to do with locker room camaraderie and bus rides than particular victories.

But the state championship causes occasional reflection, like when former radio announcer Gary Livingstone, who covered the team, released a book in 2016, “Beyond the Dream,” detailing the title run.

“I remember (we did) more at the 25th than I did at the 30th,” Carroll Beals said of commemorating the victory. “My sister (Lynn) being on the team and I’m really good friends with Sherri Ervin, who was a big part of that team, all three of us were together a couple weeks ago in Florida celebrating my mom’s 80th birthday. So we talk about it and the book that was printed really brought back a lot of… I think when the book came out last year, it really brought back more of the memories. I was going back and looking at articles and Colleen and I were talking about some of the articles. Some of the amazing rivalries we had in the area with Randolph and Olean and Allegany, we reminisce about that.”

CARROLL BEALS finished with the school’s all-time scoring record, 1,484 points, including a single-game record of 44, and became the first female basketball player to have her number (No. 11) retired. She continued her hoops career at Kent State, where she still ranks 16th all-time in scoring (1,254) and second in three-pointers (160) and tied for the most threes in a game (seven, at Pittsburgh on Dec. 18, 1990). In college, Carroll Beals gained some perspective on the 1988 team’s accomplishment.

“We’re super proud of the accomplishment and we all know, especially now that we’re older, what a huge accomplishment it was to win states and how hard it is to do,” she said. “I remember when I was in college, there was a sporting class I was in. The professor asked everybody if you’ve won a state championship to stand up, and I think there was like 200 or 300 people in the seminarI was in and I think it was like five or six people (who stood up). It just gave me more perspective of how awesome that accomplishment is and how rare it is.”

These days, the sport Carroll Beals most closely follows is baseball. Her husband, Greg Beals, coaches the Ohio State University baseball team and the family lives in Columbus, Ohio.

“That keeps me busy,” Carroll Beals said of the Buckeyes. “I have three daughters, 19, 17 and 14, so right now I’m just busy with the kids and busy supporting baseball.”

Carroll Beals admitted she doesn’t get back home as often as she’d like, but said she still follows SHS athletics as well as she can through Facebook, recalling the Salamanca boys team’s recent playoff upset over Silver Creek. And she’s thrilled to see further opportunities for girls and women’s sports after the groundwork teams like hers made some 30 years ago.

“We kind of carried our own on the court, so we got the attention that we deserved because of our success,” she said. “Women’s sports in general have come such a long way and women athletes in general with the training and all the additional opportunities for them have come a long, long way. I love seeing that. I love seeing the energy and enthusiasm around women’s sports.”

(Salamanca Press sports editor Sam Wilson may be contacted at samwilsonsp@gmail.com)