NEW WASHINGTON — Buckeye Central’s Claudia Pifher briefly considered playing college basketball with her sister, Courtney, a junior at Rio Grande University.
“We’re different,” Claudia said of her sister. “We want different things.”
She added that, despite growing up in a rural area, she prefers playing in more of a city setting, while Courtney likes the rural area of Rio Grande.
So, the 2021 Northern 10 Athletic Conference player of the year as a junior, announced Monday that she will play her college basketball at Division II Ohio Dominican University.
Pifher can’t officially sign her letter of intent until Wednesday, but she had a signing night Monday in New Washington.
Still, even though she decided not to play with her sister, the two siblings are extremely close. And Pifher said her sister gave her some good advice when selecting a school.
“It means so much,” Pifher said. “I watched Courtney do it and she has always been an inspiration in my life, so to finally be able to fill her shoes, it’s a family tradition. It’s really special to me.
“This has been a goal of mine ever since I was little,” she added. “I fell in love with the game at such a young age. I’m excited to be able to pursue that passion at the next level.”
Pifher said that Ohio Dominican was always among her top choices, though she visited schools all over the Midwest.
“(ODU) came into play my sophomore year,” Pifher said. “They were one of the first ones that contacted me. They saw me at a high school game, it was against Cardington, and the coach contacted me out on a visit. From there on out, they were always a front-runner in my mind. They have a great mathematics program and insurance program and that’s what I’m going into, so I’m so lucky everything fell the way it did.”
She said that Olivet Nazarene in Illinois, Tiffin University, and Barry in Miami Shores were also interested. But ODU won out because of its academic programs.
“I plan to pursue the actuarial field,” Pifher said. “A lot of numbers and statistics, so they have a great program for that. It’s new and upcoming. And they have a lot of opportunities in Columbus, so it’s really exciting.”
Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said that Pifher has always meant a great deal to the BC program.
“Obviously, she means a ton,” Kaple said. “With the three district championships and the 66 games that she’s won. That alone speaks volumes. To have that type of winning success along with all the individual accolades that come with it, she’s a phenomenal kid who loves the game and continues to work her tail of in-season and off-season to get to the point where she is now.”
In her freshman year, she was a first-team All-Northern 10 Athletic Conference pick as the Buckettes made the regional tournament. As a sophomore, she was again a first team pick before having her best season a year ago, where she was the N10 player of the year. The Buckettes went 23-3 and Pifher averaged 18.8 points per game while shooting 43 percent from behind the arc.
“I expect her to be the same player that she is for us,” Kaple said. “She’s a volume scorer who plays basketball at a very high clip and she has become a better and more physical defender in her three seasons that she’s been here. So, I wouldn’t expect anything to change other than she will be wearing a different colored jersey.”
Pifher said that ODU coach Lynsey Warren told her that she would get an opportunity to contribute immediately.
“We talked a lot over the past two seasons about her options and visits and I had conversations with some of the coaches who recruited her, and we decided that was the best fit for her from both an academic and athletic standpoint,” Kaple said.
“I definitely thought about each and every one of them because it was such a big decision that impacts the rest of your life, so I wanted to make sure I got everything right,” Pifher said.