AUBURN - Come to a Southern Cayuga girls basketball game and she will be the first one you notice. In the pre-game huddle, she leads the Chiefs in a chant that would excite even the most unenthusiastic of spectators. It surprises you at first - her resounding but short cheer is something more commonly heard in a football players' huddle, not necessarily at a high school girls basketball game.

As loud as she can be before the games, Colleen Lukas' play on the court speaks even greater volumes. When the senior is on the court, she is one player who always has to be accounted for on both sides of the ball. Weedsport and Union Springs learned that lesson most recently after she was named Most Valuable Player at the Cayuga County Holiday Basketball Tournament last week. She averaged 14 points a game, helping Southern Cayuga to climb back to .500.

“It's been all year, Colleen has been our most consistent player,” Southern Cayuga coach Will Schonfeld said. “She's playing hard defense first and scoring points for us second. It's hard to say how important she is to the team.”

Quick and athletic, Lukas has always been one of the most aggressive players on the court during any given game. She tallied seven steals and six blocks during the tournament, leading the team. Halfway through her final season on the court for Southern Cayuga, Schonfeld said it has been her best.

“The big difference from just last year to this year is her defense,” Schonfeld said. “She's always been capable of doing these things, but she hasn't always done it. But this year has been her consistent hard defensive effort.”

From her start on the varsity team to now, Schonfeld has seen Lukas get better.

“From a freshman to now, the difference is that she used to force a lot of shots and was much more of a one-on-one player,” Schonfeld said. “But now she has turned into a tremendous team player. She makes her teammates better. She knows when to attack and when not to and follows all the way through.”

For Lukas' play on the court, for the pre-game chants and the in-game talk, Schonfeld appointed her co-captain this season, a tradition that he has not elected to participate in in recent years.

“It's really big,” Schonfeld said. “I have coached for five years and I have never had captains. I appointed Molly (Osterhoudt) and Colleen for just those reasons and they've earned it. I really believe that captains aren't voted, captains are earned and that's why I don't put it out for a vote.”

As intimidating as she can be on the court, Lukas is really quite cordial. During the tournament championship game against Union Springs, the Chiefs biggest rival, pre-game and post game handshakes were replaced with hugs from the MVP.

“We used to play AAU with those guys,” Lukas said. “As we got older, we got on our own school teams and we went and played against them, but we still had that friendship. We're really close and when we play on the court against them, it's an even better game when you get kids that are close together on the same court.”

As the senior undoubtedly makes more ruckus for the Chiefs this season, she is only concerned with one thing, and the tournament title was just the first step.

“It was a good win and it was one of our goals to win this tournament,” Lukas said. “Now we just have to go from here and play strong and get better. We started off slow and we should have won some of the games that we lost, but I think this is going to help us propel ourselves for the rest of the season.”