Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

When Coach Carolyn Thompson recruited Margo Hinton to play basketball at IUP in 1985, she said, "Margo can run, jump, shoot, pass, rebound and play defense.  She also has an excellent court awareness and feel for the total game."
Four years later, Hinton had  scored 1205 points (the fourth highest player career total then and still ninth best), pulled down 475 rebounds (remarkable for a player 5-6 tall), set the Indian team record for steals with 319 and passed for 314 assists, sixth most on the current chart.  Her points had come by scoring 494 field goals (ranks seventh today) and converting 77.8% of her foul shots, third best all-time.
In a campaign that brought coach Jan Kiger's team IUP's only Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship and its first advance to the NCAA Division IT East regional title tournament, Hinton stole the ball a season-team-record 100 times, scored 454 points (thanks to 185 field goals, 42 of them three pointers, and 81.7% foul-line accuracy) and passed for 87 assists. All of these totals remain on the Indians' all-time leader charts.
While that followed South Hills High play that established Hinton as the Pittsburgh City League high scorer (21.4 points) and an Indian freshman year that saw her play in all 26 varsity games, it prefaced a professional career that has seen her become a highly respected educator, youth leader and coach in the Pittsburgh area.
First teaching socially and emotionally disturbed children at the Pace School in Churchill for two years after graduating from IUP, she has been a physical education teacher at Ingomar Middle School in the North Allegheny school district since 1992.
Three-time Teacher of the Year nominee and a Disney Teacher of the Nominee in 2001, Hinton has coordinated Ingomar's Benefit Run and American Heart Association Hoops for Heart events, raising thousands of dollars for the organization. She is also a peer mediation facilitator.
Assistant girls' basketball coach at North Allegheny and Penn Hills high schools for a total of nine years, she coaches Pittsburgh's Central Baptist Church boys' hoop team as well and has coordinated a women's basketball league at the Homewood-Brushton YWCA.
Given a tryout as a player by the WNBA's New York Liberty team prior to the league's inaugural season, Hinton has played point guard for the past 10 years with the Sudden Impact team, winner of six Citiparks crowns and undefeated the past three years running.  She has played in winter and summer leagues, three-on-three tourneys and on Pittsburgh Women's Basketball traveling teams for 12 years.
In between all of these commitments and activities, Hinton writes poetry and essays, is known as a motivational speaker, and is currently writing a book telling about her basketball experiences.