Alli Harness’ goal for the summer of 2024 took shape in the summer of 2018.
“I went to an All-Star game with one of my friends and I remember watching them and watching the girls play and wished I was out there playing too,” Harness said. “That’s been a goal of mine ever since. I worked in the gym hours and hours and tried to reach that goal.
“I remember watching them and thinking, ‘I really hope I can be there some day.’”
“Some day” has arrived.
Now a senior star on the Carroll girls basketball team, Harness got the call last Wednesday that she had been selected as a member of the Indiana All-Stars.
“I was actually hanging out with my mom and I got the phone call from the All-Star director saying that I’d made the Indiana All Stars, and I just couldn’t believe it because I was so excited. It’s been a goal of mine and a dream of mine since I was a little girl. I couldn’t believe it. I was confident that I had made it, but I was so excited,” she said.
She had to keep some of that excitement under wraps because the team was held close to the vest until the Indianapolis Star, the team’s presenting sponsor, announced the full squad on Monday.
“They said you can tell your family but you can’t tell anybody else,” Harness said. “I told my dad and he was so excited. We were just so stoked and excited. And I told my grandparents and they were really happy for me.”
The Indiana boys and girls All-Stars will kick into action in June. On June 5 the All-Stars will square off with the Junior All-Stars at Memorial Gym in Kokomo. On June 7, the All-Stars play at Kentucky at a site to be announced. And the following day June 8, the All-Stars host Kentucky at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The rest of the Indiana All-Stars girls squad includes Center Grove’s Audrey Annee and Rachel Wirts, Zionsville’s Emma Haan, Fishers’ Talia Harris, Mt. Vernon of Fortville’s Ellery Minch, Fort Wayne Snider’s Jordyn Poole, Hamilton Heights’ Camryn Runner, Bedford North Lawrence’s Chloe Spreen, Penn’s Laureen Walsh, Noblesville’s Reagan Wilson, Indiana Creek’s Faith Wiseman, and Jennings County’s Juliann Woodard.
“I’m really excited. I’ve played with all of them before,” said Harness, who was a Junior All-Star last season and was familiar with the players before that. “At the Junior All-Stars last year, we all gelled together really well so I’m excited to be playing with them again because I think we have a really good chance of beating Kentucky. The girls on there are really good, so I think we’ll do really good this year.”
Harness scored a game-high 19 points last year as the Junior squad blew past the 2023 Senior Indiana All-Stars 102-75. She hit five 3-pointers in that game and also had six boards. The Junior team hit 18 3-pointers against the Seniors last year.
“I think last year, we all shot the ball really well and we all connected really well on and off the court,” Harness said. “It’s like we were playing together forever. We all just gelled so well together. We’re really strong shooting and we have some really good guards and really good posts, so I’m really excited to see what we can do against Kentucky and the [Junior All-Stars].”
Harness, a Western Michigan recruit, averaged 20.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 3.6 steals this past season as a senior at Carroll, helping the Cougars go 20-4. The 5-foot-8 guard hit 47% from the field and 90% from the line. She’s Carroll’s second girls All-Star, after Darlene Zinn made the squad in 1977.
Asked what she contributes to the All-Stars, Harness said “I’m confident that I’ll play really hard, and I hope that I’ll shoot the ball really well because that’s what I do best. I also pass the ball really well obviously. I hope we win and I just want to have fun with all the girls.”
