BELLMEAD, Texas - At the front of the darkened auditorium at La Vega High, in front of four rows cordoned off for Katrina Pric

BELLMEAD, Texas - At the front of the darkened auditorium at La Vega High, in front of four rows cordoned off for Katrina Price's mourning relatives, was a table of trophies and mementos. Behind the table were four of her old basketball jerseys on wooden coat hangers.

On the left was a white jersey, trimmed in purple, from when she played at Stephen F. Austin. Flanking a framed action photo of her were gold-and-blue jerseys from her glorious days as a La Vega Lady Pirate. On the right was a red jersey from the Philadelphia Rage, of the bankrupt women's American Basketball League.

Four jerseys, part of a shrine. Four jerseys, representing a beginning, middle and an end to Katrina Price's tragic story.

Before she apparently committed suicide six days ago, Katrina Price seemed to want to prove she was still one of the very best to play the women's game, worthy of another jersey. She was the type of person who seemed to be incapable of quitting anything, especially basketball. Her nickname was "Sugar," in part, because friends and relatives say she was so upbeat, so sweet and charming, such a comfort.

"When she walked into a room or a gymnasium, the attitude changed," said Josh Belson, a friend who had known Price since she was a freshman at Stephen F. Austin in 1994.

She had suffered a setback with the dissolution of the ABL, but she seemed to be ready to move on. She had hired Belson, a personal trainer, to prepare her for another tryout with the Women's National Basketball Association. If that would not work, she could play professionally in Europe.

She had returned to Nacogdoches to pursue a Master's degree at SFA that would help her get a coaching job, but that was to be a mere fallback, an insurance policy. Katrina Price was, had always been, a basketball player.

Price and Belson had even set a time to meet Monday to put together a workout plan. When 7 a.m. came and went, Belson said he was ready to call Price - "kind of give her a little heck about being late," he said.

No more than a half-hour later, Belson received a phone call. Police said Katrina Rosha Price, 23, had been found dead in her younger sister Lucy's Nacogdoches apartment, atop a shotgun.

Price's death has not been ruled as a suicide, though Lt. Ralph Erwin of the Nacogdoches Police Department on Friday said Price died of "an apparent self-inflicted wound."

He said the department hopes to have all evidence by Monday. Lucy Price and other relatives have been questioned, and the police department is working with federal authorities to find out where, or from whom, Price got the shotgun. These are standard procedures, he said.

Price was to be laid to rest in an Oakwood, Texas, cemetery Saturday, following a funeral at the Christian Life Center nearby.

"We should have some closure by Monday or Tuesday," Lt. Price said.

Everyone who knew Price is grappling with a simpler question. The Rev. Ken Shultz stood at a podium at Price's memorial service at La Vega High on Thursday night and put it this way:

"How can a bright, attractive, loved young woman come to an end like this?"

By almost any standard, Katrina Price was a success. She made the Dean's List in every semester at SFA while starting four years for the basketball team and scoring a school-record 2,278 points. She was, say those who knew her well, a good kid. Always had been.

"She always had a playful smile," said the Rev. Elton C. Hall, a family friend who arranged a memorial service Thursday night. "She was always well-liked. She was also good in the classroom. She was a young lady who had herself together."

But something, it turned out, was terribly amiss, and those who loved her said they noticed the signs too late.

"I see some people with blank looks on their faces trying to make sense of it all," said SFA coach Royce Chadwick. "And it makes no sense."

Some longtime friends of Price's have said, or have heard, that Price was depressed. Her mother, Daisy, died from cancer when Katrina was a senior at La Vega. Her father, Leo, died after a heart attack during her senior year at SFA. Family - she was one of nine girls - was always important.

"My family has always been my biggest motivation," she wrote in a guest column for the Kansas City Star in January 1998. "I've always wanted them to be proud of me, and in return, they've always wanted me to succeed.

"I come from a big and extremely close family. If I ever needed them, they were always there for me. Whenever I succeed, they feel as if it is their accomplishment as well. I'm blessed with such a special family."

Price had tried out for the WNBA last April and went undrafted. Then she was drafted by the Philadelphia Rage of the American Basketball League and averaged just 2.7 points as a reserve before the league folded.

One of her older sisters, Deshanda , told the Philadelphia Inquirer she had talked to Price in the hour before the shooting. She said Katrina was downcast.

"Why are you so depressed?" Deshanda asked her sister. "You're 23. You've got everything, done everything."

But, as Belson said, Katrina also knew that competition for a WNBA roster spot would be tough. With the folding of the ABL, that competition would become fierce.

"She was always the best, and she always had had basketball to turn to," said Roxanne White, an assistant coach at SFA who worked with Price. "I think she was searching for something."

Belson also said Price had told him that she was concerned that it would be even harder to play professionally in Europe, far away from her eight sisters. But Belson said she also seemed to want - really want - to try it again.

After they had arranged Sunday night to meet the next morning, Belson said he got off the phone excited, ready to roll. Had she shown up for the appointment, he said, he never would have given her concerns a second thought.

"It was really more of an upbeat type of thing," he said of the telephone conversation.

That was keeping in character.

"She always seemed like such a level-headed person, always had a lot of things going for her," said Joni James, an assistant media relations director for the Big 12 Conference and former women's sports information director at SFA.

"You always felt that, even if her basketball career had ended, she could have gotten a job anywhere. She didn't appear to me to be one of those athletes who came to school just to play basketball."

Katrina Price moved after the fifth grade from Oakwood to Bellmead, a quiet, friendly town of 10,000 hunched next to Waco. She graduated second in her class. As a senior, she helped her basketball team earn a berth in the UIL Class 3A state championship game. She was also a very good volleyball player.

"When I think of Katrina, I saw a dedicated, well-mannered, well-disciplined hard worker," Robbie Williams, who coached Price for her first three years at La Vega, said at Price's memorial service. "She was always giving 100 percent of her efforts."

Price, for example, never allowed her teammates to take the floor before they said the Lady Pirate Creed, which stressed togetherness and unselfishness.

Slowly and softly at Price's memorial service, her former La Vega teammates said it:

"I am a Lady Pirate. I'm proud to be a Lady Pirate. We are a family that can depend on each other. I respect my coaches, my teammates and myself. This team is as solid as I am, and I will do everything to keep it that way."

"She got along well with people, was so much fun to be around," said Jeffrey Jefferson, who coached Price as a high school senior and is now at Marlin High School. "When I heard about [her death], I was just amazed."

Shocked is the word many of them used last week to talk about Price's death. Jefferson saw her for the last time about a year ago, in the middle of her senior season at SFA. He said she appeared to be in top shape, slimmed down and preparing for a professional career.

"That was one of the goals she had - was to play professional ball," Jefferson said. "I thought she would have made the league in time. She had the skills. And she was real determined."

She was also part of sports folklore in the Piney Woods. Price, a guard, started 120 of the 123 games she played at SFA. She was the Southland Conference player of the year twice. She became a celebrity in Nacogdoches, an East Texas city of 30,000 that has grown to love its Ladyjacks.

"If you stood the mayor of Nacogdoches and Katrina side-by-side, I'd think more people would recognize Katrina," said Royce Chadwick, who became the women's coach at SFA when Price was a freshman.

She was twice an honorable mention All-America and also made the GTE Academic All-America team as a senior. She was fearless, tenacious, and yet never seemed to rankle anyone. Several times at the memorial service, Price was called "a role model."

"The truth about Katrina was that she was the best in a classroom setting," Chadwick said. "And you'd put her out there on the floor with nine other basketball players, and she'd try to be the best player on the floor."

But she went undrafted by the WNBA following a tryout camp near Chicago last April. Rather than accept an offer to try out again at a WNBA team's individual camp, she opted to try the rival ABL. The Long Beach StingRays made her the seventh overall pick in May, but the team soon folded, and she was sent to the Philadelphia Rage.

Price played sparingly. Starting ahead of her at guard was Teresa Edwards, one of the best women's players ever, and Price had to watch while she learned the pro game.

But Josh Belson, for one, got the impression that Price was content to pay her dues. ABL players such as Price did not earn much, between $50,000 and $60,000, but she was making enough. And even after the league filed for bankruptcy in December, she appeared to be the same old Katrina Price.

Roxanne White saw her for the last time last Saturday night. SFA had just lost a tough game by one point to Northwestern State at home. The old star and her former coach exchanged hugs. Then Price, fittingly, offered a pep talk.

"I remember her saying to me, "Coach, it's going to be all right. You'll be fine,' " White said. "It's so ironic in my mind. She was positive with me."

And that is the most baffling part of her death.

"From everything I could see, she was gearing into some kind of shape, getting ready to try again," White said. "There was a lot of disappointment [with the ABL's demise], but I think she had come to grips with it. She was a religious person. I think she thought there was a reason things would happen.

"She was just such an extremely special person," White said. "She always had a smile, always was such a great kid. I don't think she realized how many lives she touched."

PHOTO(S): 1. Former Stephen F. Austin basketball star

Katrina Price died in an apparent suicide Monday in

Nacogdoches, Texas (Associated Press: Pat Sullivan) 2.

Chadwick 3. At Stephen F. Austin, Price made the Dean's List

every semester while scoring a school-record 2,278 points in

basketball (Special to The Dallas Morning News: Dave Rossman)

4. The Rev. Elton C. Hall speaks at Thursday's memorial

service for Katrina Price in Bellmead, Texas. On the table in

front of him are mementos from Price's basketball career in

high school, college and the pros (Waco Tribune Herald: Rod

Aydelotte) 5. At La Vega High, Price led the basketball team

to the 3A title game and finished second in her class

academically (Waco Tribute Herald: Rod Aydelotte) 6. Price,

'always had had basketball to turn to,' one of her college

coaches said (Waco Tribune Herald: Rod Aydelotte) ; LOCATION

NOTE: Photo #3 was not sent to the library for archiving.

Dave Caldwell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News, 'IT MAKES NO SENSE': Ex-SFA star Katrina Price's death baffles those who knew her, The Dallas Morning News, 24 Jan 1999, pp. 1B.