Into the Hall: Candace John
Candace John helped the Laurel Highlands girls basketball team reach heights it had never achieved before and wound up as the Fillies’ all-time leading scorer with 1,734 points.
The 1999 LH graduate is a member of the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 and isn’t shy when it comes to talking about her roots.
“As soon as I found out I felt so honored and proud,” John said about her reaction to being chosen for induction while talking on Hall of Fame co-founder George Von Benko’s Sports Line Talk Show on WMBS recently.
“If anyone knows me they know I’m proud to be from Fayette County, and to be inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame is not only an honor for me but for my family and for my coaches along the way. I have tremendous gratitude. There are so many great athletes that come out of Fayette County so to be a part of this class and be a part of that history just means everything.”
John went on to score over 1,000 points at NCAA Division-I Robert Morris as well.
John was a versatile player who could rebound, pass and drive to the basket as well as consistently hit 3-pointers which made her a challenge to defend. She averaged 17.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists in her high school career.
Laurel Highlands had a record of 79-21 in John’s time there which included three section championships and the Fillies’ first and only appearance in the WPIAL semifinals when it fell to North Allegheny in the Class 4A final four in 1998.
The section championships came in the 1995-96, 1997-98 and the 1998-99 seasons, all under head coach Rick Hauger.
“I had great teammates from my freshman class all the way to my senior class,” John said. “They just supported not only my talent but their talents also to make the team what we were and such a successful team.
“It was such a crazy caliber of teams we played. We played against Division-I athletes from McKeesport and other different high schools. To be able to have that record against that kind of caliber of talent is a tremendous accomplishment not only for me but all the teammates that played with me those years at Laurel Highlands.”
A highlight came when the Fillies hosted McKeesport, which featured one of the most heavily recruited players in the country in Swin Cash, in a game attended by legendary Connecticut coach Geno Aurriemma. Cash would go on to play for Aurriemma.
“I always remember Geno Auriemma, the coach of UConn basketball, was at Laurel Highlands to see Swin Cash on the McKeesport team we were playing. We ended up beating them right in front of him,” John recalled. “That was always an honor. He was the best coach in America and to have him at your high school, it was such a great game, such a great atmosphere. That’s what’s great about Fayette County, you have a game and everybody shows up for it whether it be women, boys basketball, high school sports is such a thing in Fayette County. It was just a sense of pride with how many people showed up for that.”
McKeesport would go on to defeat North Allegheny in the WPIAL final that season.
John has much respect for Hauger.
“Rick is great. He has a unique sense of coaching, a unique style,” John said. “He knows how to get the best out of his athletes whether it be women, men, whoever. He’s hard. He yells, he screams but that’s what makes you work better and work harder. I think that’s how he got it out of all the athletes he coached.”
John was a fan favorite, so much so that Mustangs coach Mark John recalled a boys game she was attending where the crowd noticed her and began calling for her to be inserted into the game.
“Mark John loves to always tell that story of the fans saying my name,” John said.
John reflected on her upbringing and those who helped mold her to be the basketball player she became.
“I had an older brother, Jimmy, he played football at Bucknell, he was playing basketball,” John said. “He was a great athlete. He was always going to practice and I would just follow him. My dad was coaching them and I would follow them and go on the sidelines and start playing.”
John sometimes got tough love from her brother but admitted it made her strive to improve.
“He actually helped me so much along the way and pushed me,” John said. “Sometimes it was telling me I was bad and it made me work harder.
“I was like a little tomboy, I wanted my hair short. I just loved playing basketball. My mom had me in dance and I never wanted to go. I was like I want to play basketball, I want a basketball. I’d be out on the driveway until about 10 or 11 o’clock at night, just shooting, playing, learning. That’s really what shaped my whole career, just that early age where you just love the game.”
John has fond memories of her younger days and playing under Ann Capozzi.
“I played at St. John’s in Uniontown until seventh grade,” John said. “I had a great coach there that really started to shape me and teach me the game and that’s why I give so much credit to Ann Capozzi.
“She was amazing. It was a great blessing for me to have her those early years.”
John garnered many accolades and awards throughout her scholastic career, including being named to the all-section team, to the All-WPIAL team in 1999 when she averaged 25.3 points per game and to the Big School all-state team.
John recalled how her local teams always held their own against bigger schools.
“There was so much talent when we were playing back then,” John said. “This Fayette County school was playing up against North Allegheny and coming this close to being in the finals of the WPIAL is such an accomplishment.
“Also when I played AAU basketball I played under Rob Kezmarsky and Chris Cluss and being from such a small county and playing up against these Pittsburgh teams, that just showed the talent we had coming out of Fayette County. These bigger AAU teams that were from all of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh … we were just as competitive as them.”
John had several college options to consider.
“I had a couple other offers,” she said. “Obviously my brother went to Bucknell and I was offered to go play at Bucknell. But I kind of wanted to create my own path. I had a couple Division-II offers.
“But there was something about Robert Morris, it was a great fit for me.”
The women’s basketball team struggled in John’s time there but she rose up to be one of the Colonials’ top players.
“The people I met and the way it shaped me for life … I couldn’t have asked for a better college, better teammates, and then friends for life,” John said. “Everybody I’ve met there that I’m still friends with are part of my everyday life now. I loved Robert Morris.”
At the time of her graduation John was the program’s 11th all-time leading scorer with 1,133 points.
“The accomplishments I had there were amazing also,” John said. “And it was all from my upbringing in Fayette County, everybody that helped me along the way, supported me, my family taking me to practices and games.”
John delved into coaching briefly before time constraints forced her to give it up.
“A couple years ago I did dabble in helping coach high school sports,” John said. “I helped coach Thomas Jefferson High School as a volunteer. It’s such a sense of pride, a rewarding feeling to help those girls out.
“Right now I work for a government contractor. I’m a manager of about 13 people. Everything I’ve learned along the way from my basketball days has shaped me to be this leader that these people look for in my accounting position.”
Hall of Fame festivities will be held on June 20 beginning with the annual golf outing at 8:30 a.m. followed by the luncheon and inductions at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Connellsville. Golfers can register and luncheon tickets can be purchased by contacting Katie Propes by phone (724-415-2211) or email (kpropes@occluss.com).