Willingboro High names gymnasium in honor of native daughter, star hoopster

WILLINGBORO - Crystal Langhorne fondly remembers growing up in Willingboro, where the high school gymnasium was her stage.

Along with a journey to a state title and numerous scoring records, Langhorne said there was something else about the setting that always shined.

“It was the place to be,” Langhorne, now 37, said of the venue. “I remember our games being completely packed with fans. It was such a great feeling to play there.”

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The gym has recently undergone renovations with its new, polished hardwood floor and championship banners, but the biggest change came Wednesday night when Willingboro High honored Langhorne by naming the facility after the hoops superstar.

“It just doesn’t seem real, but it means everything to me,” Langhorne said a few hours before the ceremony. “I don’t know how many gyms are named after women, but what that symbolizes is incredible for me too."

Her hometown came out to celebrate the honor,  including many of her former coaches from the AAU level all the way to her coach at the University of Maryland, Brenda Frese.

“It’s a very special night,” said Dennis Tunstall, who coached Langhorne in AAU basketball in the sixth grade. “It’s great to see that we get the opportunity to honor someone who is homegrown and helped to accelerate basketball, especially women’s basketball, in Willingboro.”

Her high school coach Guy Fowler added, “She was the hardest working player I coached. She was missing layups in eighth grade, but she never stopped working on her skills. She practiced, practiced and practiced. She worked to become the athlete that played at the highest level."

Fowler called Langhorne one of the best athletes to attend Willingboro, which is saying something when you consider the school graduated Olympians Carl and Carol Lewis, football standouts Shaun Phillips, Kareem McKenzie and Marvin Hargrove and wrestler James Green, just to name a few.

“She could play anything and be very good at it, everything except maybe gymnastics because she was too tall,” said Fowler who also coached her in tennis. “I told her you’re a good athlete, you’re going to play tennis. It will help with your footwork and you can play for fun. Basketball was business for her.”

And business was always booming for Langhorne.

Langhorne led the Chimeras to the state Group 3 title in 2002 and two more state final appearances the next two seasons, scoring 2,776 career points, which ranked third on South Jersey’s all-time scoring list.

She went on to win a NCAA championship at the University of Maryland in 2006 (the only female Terrapin to score 2,000 and grab 1,000 rebounds in a career) and a WNBA title with the Seattle Storm during a 13-year career. She also played 10 years overseas, traveling the world to play in Lithuania, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Slovakia, Hungary and China.

Langhorne said she was looking forward to her first trip to her hometown in many years, and was hoping to get a Gaetano’s cheesesteak, a staple for her during her high school days.

Langhorne lives in the District of Columbia where she works remotely for the Seattle Storm for the club’s Force4Change as director of the social justice platform.

Willingboro will always hold a special spot in her heart.

“It was a great place for me to grow up,” said Langhorne, who is planning to start some basketball clinics in town in the near future. “You don’t think about that when you’re young, but there were so many people who impacted my life during that time. They were the positive influences in my life. They saw my potential and helped put me on the path for what I was able to achieve.”

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Willingboro High names gymnasium after WNBA star Crystal Langhorne