www.whatsnewlaporte, LaPorte, Indiana

 

It would be no stretch to say that Staci Landis (now Staci Landis Otto) is the best female athlete ever produced by LaPorte High School. Though girls sports really didn’t sprout until the late 1970s, the 6-foot standout left her mark by lettering nine times in a total of four sports – three in volleyball, three in basketball, two in tennis and one in track. She is the first female to be inducted into the Hubner Hall of Fame.

 

Landis was the Duneland Conference MVP in volleyball as a junior. She missed most of her senior year in volleyball because she suffered a broken neck the previous summer when a girl was thrown into a swimming pool and landed on the Slicer star’s neck. Miraculously – after wearing a halo cast for three months and suffering a slight paralysis in her left arm — she returned to play in the last three regular-season matches, plus the sectional and regional.

 

In basketball, she set a LaPorte rebounding record as a junior while helping the Slicers notch their first-ever girls sectional title. She then broke her own rebounding record as a senior. In tennis, she teamed with Denise Cains to reach the state finals in doubles as a junior. As a senior she earned MVP honors while posting a 17-6 record at No. 1 singles. Landis then attended the University of Wyoming on a full volleyball scholarship. She was a four-year starter at middle blocker and served as team captain during her junior and senior years. She twice was named all-conference and winner of Wyoming’s mental attitude award.

 

Her love of sports made coaching an obvious occupational choice. She actually began coaching while attending Purdue University during her fifth year of college. She has been coaching for 25 years – mostly at New York private schools – and has coached at all levels.