ORONO, Maine -- Sigi Koizar prefers to fly under the radar. That's why, coming off a great year as an exchange student at Stearns High School in Millinocket, the native of Vienna, Austria, wasn't sure she wanted to attend the University of Maine.
A year later, Koizar arrived in Orono. The 5-foot-8 guard didn't seek the spotlight, but her tremendous skills often made her the focus of attention.
Koizar's scoring prowess, defensive intensity and unselfishness were trademarks of her career in Orono and her accomplishments have carried her to the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame.
"Part of me just wanted to go somewhere else and just start from zero and not have anybody around me that knows me," Koizar said. "But at the end of the day, I went to UMaine, and I'm happy I did."
Koizar arrived for the second season of former head coach Richard Barron's tenure with the Black Bears, a year after a large group of eight freshmen had joined the program.
She played sparingly her first season, but rose to stardom as UMaine re-emerged as a consistent winner in America East. The Black Bears went 84-59 during Koizar's career, which included back-to-back 20-win seasons and share of the America East regular-season title in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Koizar sparkled, earning three consecutive all-conference, first-team honors and two league all-tournament nods. She was named to the Academic All-America Team in 2016 and 2017.
"That kid would be in the gym all the time working out," said UMaine coach Amy Vachon. "She put in so much time and worked so hard and wasn't doing it for any attention or any limelight. She was doing it because she just wanted to be the best."
Koizar led the team in scoring for three straight seasons, averaging 12.9 points per game on her way to 1,671 career points, which ranks ninth on UMaine's career list.
The single-season 3-pointers record (85) belongs to Koizar, whose 184 triples are sixth in program history. She also ranks eighth in assists (368) and 10th in steals (179) and she played in 130 games, third most all time.
"She found ways to score, whether it was attacking the rim or from her pull-up or shooting the threes," Vachon said. "She did it at a really high level."
While she displayed a quiet confidence, Koizar often seemed comfortable being a facilitator as well as a scorer. Her unassuming demeanor was appreciated — most of the time.
"I don't know if she really knows how good she is, or could be," Vachon said. "There are some times where she'd just take over games, and she could have done that all the time. She just was so humble and so willing to let other people be the one."
Koizar, who was named the team captain as a senior, was grateful to have teammates who helped support her.
"We were really close as a group, and we all got along, and I think that was a big part of my success," Koizar said.
Sheraton Jones, her roommate for four years, had a special knack both for providing constructive criticism and being an advocate.
"Sometimes my confidence is low, and I always had somebody pick me up," Koizar said, "and a lot of times it was Sheraton, my dear roommate."
For Koizar, playing college basketball was a huge upgrade from club ball in Europe.
"We had a lot of people in practice and we had a practice structure," she said of UMaine. "We had people working with us, also individually. So I had a lot of opportunities to improve, and also to work on my own."
She also thrived in the classroom and was twice the recipient of the "M" Club's prestigious Dean Smith Award, presented annually to the top male and female student-athletes at UMaine.
Among her UMaine highlights were playing well during a Thanksgiving tournament in Florida against top-notch competition and competing in front of the energized crowds at the Cross Insurance Center.
"The games at the Cross Center, we had a whole crowd behind us. It was always a lot of fun to play there," Koizar said.
She has enjoyed seven seasons as a professional, including two years in Hungary and one apiece in Russia, France, Spain, Italy and Romania. The challenges of making the adjustment to a different league and a new team each year are many.
"Depending on the team you're on, you might have a different role every year," Koizar said. Last year, I was the best defender on the team, so that was my main job. And some years before, I was one of the main scorers."
Koizar is grateful for the love and support of her parents, Astrid and Manfred, her brother Hubert and her Millinocket host parents, Mark and Tracy Jandreau.
Once she does retire from basketball, she is considering a career in bioinformatics or possibly working with kids and coaching basketball.
The 2024 UMaine Sports Hall of Fame class will be officially inducted at a banquet held at Jeff's Catering on Friday, Oct. 4. For more details on this year's induction class, please click here.
