On Wednesday, December 27, Talia Zurinskas received a late holiday gift. Her Parkland High School girls basketball team won the opening game of its holiday tournament at Pine Grove over Blue Mountain and during the game the senior achieved a career milestone, netting her 1,000th point.

“The shot that I took to hit my 1,000th was one to remember,” said Zurinskas. “There were six seconds left on the clock in the third quarter and my teammate, Delaney Chilcote, had a great transition pass to me for the deep three. My teammates and family were so supportive and made me feel so special. I will never forget that feeling during the game.”

This achievement was something that she knew she wanted since she joined the Trojans program four years ago.

“This was a goal that I wanted to achieve since I was a freshman in high school,” Zurinskas said. “I never really thought about how close or far I was. I just played the game, but once I hit it in that game, I felt appreciative of teammates helping me hit this milestone and also, I was proud of myself for accomplishing this goal. My whole family was there, and it was great to share the experience with them.”

Parkland has had a great start to its regular season, boasting an 11-1 overall record and an unblemished 7-0 mark in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, to date. Zurinskas, a team captain, has been a big reason for the success.

“So far, I think that the season is going well,” said Zurinskas. “I love how each girl on our team understands the goals we are trying to accomplish for the season. We really try to block out the noise and the rankings and focus on ourselves and focus on getting better one percent every day. I love playing with this group of girls. It’s a lot of fun. I think that we just need to keep competing and keep playing with passion and enthusiasm. This is my second year being a captain on the team. I think my leadership this year has improved from last year. I’m doing a better job of holding others accountable, trying to lift others up, and making others better on and off the court.”

In a few months, Zurinskas will enter the collegiate world of being a student-athlete, and will do it as a Leopard at Lafayette College.

“When looking for a school I made sure first I loved the campus, second was that the connection with the people was strong,” said Zurinskas. “The relationship I had made with the players on the team and the coaches made me feel at home and made me want to be a part of their program and school.”