Heather Marie Quella (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Burge; November 11, 1971) is a former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and is the

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

sister of Heidi (Burge) Horton.

Early life

Prior to starting high school, the Burge family moved to

Palos Verdes Estates, California Palos Verdes Estates (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The city was master-planned by the noted American landscape architect and pl ...

so that the sisters could attend

Palos Verdes High School Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) is one of three public high schools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Southern California, USA (the others being Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (formerly Rolling Hills High School) and Rancho ...

. Burge helped bring success to the team, transforming the Sea Kings into

Southern Section The California Interscholastic Federation-Southern Section (CIF-SS) is the governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California and is the largest of the ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF ...

3-A champions in 1987 and concluding her high school career atop the school's all-time list of girls' scorers with 1,345 points. Burge played inside against the opposing teams' centers and was the go-to scorer in the paint Heidi and Heather Burge helped the Cavaliers to 3 consecutive Atlantic Coast Championships and 3 consecutive Final Four appearances in 1990, '91 and '92. During the summers, both played for USA Basketball: Heather, making the Women's National Team (1993 Champions of The World Cup Qualifying Tourney in Sao Paolo, Brazil). Heidi played with the Women's Select team (1993 representing the US in Bremen, Germany).

Basketball star

UVA would win right away with Burge averaging 12.2 points and 6.7 rebounds a game her freshman year and the pair playing a big part in leading the team to the school's first three, and to date only,

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

championships (in 1990, 1992 and 1993) and Women's NCAA Final Four appearances (1990–1992). Following the school year in 1989 and 1990, Burge was asked to play for

USA Basketball USA Basketball (USAB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States Olympi ...

U18 and U19 basketball teams and won a gold medal at the 1990 US Olympic Festival.Things did not always go smoothly for the Burges in their freshman and sophomore seasons as the pair were frequently in foul trouble, rarely played at the same time on the court (due to their foul situation), fought with teammates and each other, and were considered by their teammates to be both "soft" and prone to mistakes and turnovers. However, during their time with UVA, the pair averaged 24 points and seven rebounds per game and teamed with NCAA All-Americans

Dawn Staley Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach, who is currently the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head co ...

and Tammi Reiss to lead the Cavaliers to three consecutive Final Fours and a 1991 overtime loss to

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

in the

championship game In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. In all three trips to the Final Four, the Cavaliers lost to the eventual NCAA Champion (losing to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in 1990 and 1992). Virginia's 1992 campaign ended with a school-record 32 wins (32-2, 15-1 in the ACC) and the team was ranked #1 in the

Associated Press Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

and second in the

USA Today Coaches Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

at the end of the regular season.{{cite web, last=, first=, date=, title=Virginia in the National Polls, url=http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/national-polls.html, work=University of Virginia, publisher=, accessdate=15 Oct 2013 In 1993, Virginia lost in the East Region Championship to NCAA runner-up

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. The Lady Cavs lost all four tournament games by a total of only 15 points with the biggest score differential being their 9-point loss to Stanford in 1990. While at UVA, Burge was the ACC Player of the Year and a

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

District All-American in 1993 and was also a two-time Academic All-American (1992 & 1993), a two-time ACC All-Conference selectee (1992 & 1993), a two-time selectee to the NCAA All-Tournament team (1992 & 1993), and a three-year member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll (1991–1993).{{cite web, last=, first=, date=, title=Virginia to Celebrate National Girls & Women in Sports Day on Sunday, url=http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/020807aah.html, work=University of Virginia, publisher=, accessdate=15 Oct 2013 As of May 2011, Burge is first all-time for the Lady Cavs in career blocked shots with 152, in free throw attempts with 640, and in games played with 135, second in career rebounds with 955, third in career scoring with 2,058 points, sixth in career

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

's with 30, and 10th in free throws made with 326.{{cite web, last=, first=, date=, title=Virginia Women's Basketball: Blocked Shots Records, url=http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/080410aak.html, work=University of Virginia, publisher=, accessdate=15 Oct 2013{{cite web, url=http://virginiasports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/092502aaa.html , title=Eight Cavaliers Named to ACC 50th Anniversary Women's Basketball Team - VIRGINIASPORTS.COM - The University of Virginia Official Athletic Site , publisher=Virginiasports.cstv.com , date=2002-09-25 , accessdate=2012-12-12 She is also 13th all-time in the ACC in scoring. After graduating with a bachelor's degree with a dual major in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

and

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

, Burge first played on the 1993 USA National Team and then played professionally for eight years overseas. Following her time overseas, Burge accepted an offer to play in the infant

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA) for the

Sacramento Monarchs The Sacramento Monarchs were a basketball team based in Sacramento, California. They played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 until folding on November 20, 2009. They played their home games at ARCO Arena. The Mona ...

in 1999 (one year after Heidi had ended her two-year WNBA career). In her season with the team, she played little and was only on the court for a total of 28 min spread over 13 games. However, the team played well, finishing the season 19-13 and in third place in the Western Conference, but lost a one-game first round playoff game to the

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

. After a single year playing with the Monarchs, she chose to return overseas and accepted an offer to play for the ESBVA team in

Lille, France Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

.{{cite web, last=, first=, date=, title=Virginia Women's Basketball: Alumnae Bios, url=http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/080510aac.html, work=University of Virginia, publisher=, accessdate=15 Oct 2013 However, she retired after the 2001 season due to lingering injuries. Upon retirement, one of Burge's biggest professional disappointments was that she was never able to either play with or against Heidi.

USA Basketball

Burge was named to the USA team competing in the 1992

William Jones Cup The R. William Jones Cup (), also known as the Jones Cup, is an international basketball tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) held annually since 1977 in Taiwan. It was named in honor of basketball promoter ...

competition in

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. The team won all eight games and won the gold medal. Burge averaged 4.5 points per game.{{cite web, date=June 10, 2010, title=1992 Women's R. William Jones Cup, url=http://www.usab.com/history/additional-usa-basketball-history/r-williams-jones-cup-team/1992-womens-r-william-jones-cup.aspx, publisher=USA Basketball, accessdate=17 October 2015, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907151845/http://www.usab.com/history/additional-usa-basketball-history/r-williams-jones-cup-team/1992-womens-r-william-jones-cup.aspx, archive-date=7 September 2015, url-status=live In the summer of 1993, made the final cut for the USA Women's National team, competing down in Brazil to win the World Cup Qualifier. In the fall, began her pro career overseas in Clermont-Ferrand, France on the Stade Clermontois Assoc du Basquet club which placed 5th in the championship. The next 4 years before the WNBA was formed, she played in : France, Hungary, Australia, Spain and all over Europe in the Euroleague Championship.

Post-retirement

After retiring from basketball on June 1, 2001, Burge stayed in California and taught 8th grade Spanish at

Miraleste Intermediate School Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) is a school district headquartered in Palos Verdes Estates, California with facilities in all four cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. History The Palos Verdes School District (PVSD) form ...

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...

, CA. She later received a master's degree in Multi-Lingual Education. She then stayed-at-home mom with her husband, Darren Quella, to raise their three children in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. During that time, she also teamed up with

San Pedro High School San Pedro High School is a public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is located in the San Pedro portion of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school serves the entirety of San Pedro as well as most of the Eastvie ...

boys basketball coach John Bobich to run a youth basketball camps in

San Pedro, CA San Pedro ( ; Spanish: " St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located w ...

. H In 2017, she resumed teaching and they put the three boys in private school for parochial education. She developed a Spanish PE curriculum rooted in music and motion, and continues to teach 4-14 year olds at Christ Lutheran School in Rancho Palos Verdes, while running basketball camps with Integrity Hoops Academy. At 6 feet 5 inches each, the pair were recognized in 1991 by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the world's tallest female twins. This record was broken in 2004 by Ann and Claire Recht. The Disney television movie, ''

Double Teamed ''Double Teamed'' is a 2002 Disney Channel Original Movie based on the life stories of professional identical twin basketball players Heather and Heidi Burge. The film premiered on January 18, 2002. Plot In 1985, fourteen-year-old identical twi ...

'', which was released in 2002, is based on their life stories and achievements in high school basketball. In the movie, Burge is played by actress Poppi Monroe. Burge has a small part in the 2002 film ''

Juwanna Mann ''Juwanna Mann'' is a 2002 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jesse Vaughan, written by Bradley Allenstein, produced by Bill Gerber, and starring Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Kevin Pollak, Tommy Davidson, Kim Wayans, Gi ...

'' starring

Vivica A. Fox Vivica Anjanetta Fox (born July 30, 1964) is an American actress, producer, and television host. Fox began her career on ''Soul Train'' (19821983). She eventually continued her career with roles on the daytime television soap operas ''Days of O ...

. She plays the character "Magda Rowonowitch" and is credited as Heather Quella.{{Cite web, url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247444/, title = Juwanna Mann (2002) - IMDb In September 2002, Burge was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference 50th Anniversary Women's Basketball Team. Included in the team were seven other members who played for the University of Virginia:

Val Ackerman Valerie B. Ackerman (born November 7, 1959) is an American sports executive, former lawyer, and former basketball player. She is the current commissioner of the Big East Conference. She is best known for being the first president of the Women's Na ...

(who played for Virginia from 1978–81), Tonya Cardoza (1987–91), Dena Evans (1990–93), Donna Holt (1985–88),

Wendy Palmer Wendy Palmer (born August 12, 1974) is a former professional basketball player in the WNBA, and former head coach of the UNCG women's basketball team. Her primary position was forward. High school Born in Timberlake, North Carolina, Palmer at ...

(1993–96), Tammi Reiss (1989–92), and Dawn Staley (1989–92).

WNBA career statistics

{, class="wikitable sortable" text-align:right;" , - ! Season ! Age ! Team ! GP !! GS !! MIN !! FG% !! 3P% !! FT% !! OFF !! DEF !! REB !! AST !! STL !! BLK !! TOV !! PF !! PTS , - , style="text-align:center;", 1999 , style="text-align:center;", 28 , style="text-align:left;",

Monarchs A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in ...

, 13 , , 0 , , 2.2 , , .429 , , .000 , , .200 , , 0.0 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.7 , , 0.0 , , 0.2 , , 0.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.5

References

{{Reflist

External links

Gball Online: Talent Times Two
{{Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year navbox {{DEFAULTSORT:Burge, Heather 1971 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Hungary American expatriate basketball people in Spain American women's basketball players Basketball players from California Centers (basketball) Identical twins People from Palos Verdes Estates, California Sacramento Monarchs players American twins Twin sportspeople Virginia Cavaliers women's basketball players