Mount Rushmore of Washington County: Meet the four females who top the list

It started with a simple (though very difficult) question:

Who would be on the Mount Rushmore of Washington County sports? We decided to tackle that question for both males and females.

We sent the question to a panel of current and former Washington County athletes, coaches, administrators and Herald-Mail media members. Over two weeks, we received and tabulated their responses. Those responses count for 50% of the final results.

Mount Rushmore of Washington County: Here are the four males that stand above the rest

Then we took the panel's top 10 males and top 10 females (plus ties) and put them up for an online fan vote, which took place June 3-7. Those votes count for the other 50% of the final results.

With that, here are the final results for our Washington County Sports Female Mount Rushmore:

Rachel (Bachtell) Miller

22 points (10 panel, 12 online vote)

Miller was a volleyball and basketball star for Smithsburg in the late 1990s. She helped the Leopards win the 1998 Class 1A state volleyball title as an outside hitter and scored 1,053 career points for the basketball team. After playing college volleyball at Hagerstown Community College and Salisbury University, Miller coached the Smithsburg varsity volleyball team for 19 seasons. She compiled a 259-75 record (.775 winning percentage) and led the Leopards to nine Class 1A state titles in an 11-year span from 2009-2019, setting the state record for volleyball coaching titles.

Cathy Parson

21 points (12 panel, 9 online vote)

Parson was a three-time Washington County Girls Basketball Player of the Year at North Hagerstown. She was named a high school all-American in her junior and senior seasons. At West Virginia University from 1980-83, she scored a then-career record 2,113 points (17.5 per game) and led the Mountaineers to their first 20-win season (20-11 in 1981-82), averaging 20.7 points. She was the first woman inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame. She has coached at Providence, Christopher Newport, Richmond, Howard, Frostburg State and in the WNBA with the Washington Mystics. She currently is the head coach at Central State University.

Heather Aleshire

21 points (8 panel, 13 online vote)

Aleshire, a 1995 Clear Spring graduate, was a basketball star for the Blazers and Hagerstown Junior College. At Clear Spring, Aleshire averaged 32.3 points and 12.2 rebounds per game, at the time setting a county record with 2,418 career points (which remains the WCPS record). As a senior, she earned Maryland all-state honors. She went on to become the first woman at HJC to reach 1,000 career points, finishing with 1,216. Aleshire was a two-time All-America second-team honoree with the Hawks, and finished her playing career at the University of Richmond.

Marlys Palmer

20 points (13 panel, 7 online vote)

Palmer was the women's volleyball and basketball head coach at Hagerstown Community College for 33 years. She had a 632-150 volleyball record with nine Region XX championships and nine national tournament appearances. She was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association East Coast Coach of the Year in 1996 and 1997 and was a nine-time District XIV coach of the year. Her basketball record was 346-232, with two Region XX championships and two national tournament appearances. She was a two-time Region XX coach of the year.

Results of the online poll

Other Mount Rushmore candidates

The other candidates included Selena Wilkes (15 points), Helen (Jessie) Mency (13.5 points), Becky (Walter) Ward (13 points), Rosemarie Williams (12.5 points), Lisa Shives (12 points), Cindy Neugebauer (11 points), Ashley Grier (10.5 points), Maria Spinnler (seven points) and Belinda Pearman (3.5 points).

Twenty other individuals were nominated by members of the panel for the Male Mount Rushmore of Washington County sports, but they didn't receive enough votes to make the online poll. They included Donna Aycoth, Teresa Bachtell, Carey Brennan, Susan Brownell, Vicki Bullett, Emily Crabtree, Kristi (Hart) Gee, Meggan Grams, Gabby Grantham-Medley, Zoe Hunt, Susan Lowery, Kelli Myers, Marcia Nissel, Sylvia Parson, Lindsey Plotner, Carolyn Showalter, Cheryl Wilkes, Cindy Young, Sarah Schlosser Ward and Staci Winters.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Mount Rushmore of Washington County: Meet the four females who top the list