The Pointer UW-Stevens Point Student Newspaper
Sport: Basketball
Year: Senior
Major: Social Work and Sociology
Hometown: De Pere, WI
When did you start playing basketball? Competitively, I started playing when I was five or six in a YMCA league but my dad always shot hoops with me, probably from when I could throw a ball.
Why did you start playing basketball? My parents were athletes when they were younger and they put me in everything. They put me in basketball, soccer, volleyball, swim, dance, piano. They put me in a broad list of things and then from there they let me pick and choose what I liked. I think that I really excelled in basketball, volleyball, and softball and then from there I just grew up playing with our school travel team, AU, and then college.
What made you chose basketball over the other sports? Well, when I first came here I played volleyball, so I didn’t even play basketball when I first got here. I played volleyball and then after my freshman year I really missed basketball and so I walked into Coach Egner’s office and I asked if I could try out and try to walk it out and she gave me the opportunity which I am extremely thankful for.
What would you consider a successful season? A successful season for me would include our team putting up a fight every single game, whether that ends up being a win or a loss. I think if we compete every game and we gave our best effort and put our best foot forward then I think that would be a successful season. In practice and games, all the time give 100% of our effort.
How does it feel being the only senior on the team? It’s kind of sad, it is a running joke that I scare people out of my class because I’ve had several walk on’s come on in my four years here and every one of them has left the team. I am extremely close with my younger teammates so from that perspective it isn’t that different. Senior day will be weird though for me.
Where do you see yourself in five years? I am currently applying for graduate school and that is only a one-year program and I am going for school social work. So hopefully, in five years I will be a school social worker and coaching somewhere as well. Hopefully within the same district as well, but I am not opposed to coaching in other districts as well. Either volleyball or basketball, softball would be okay as well honestly I just want to coach and be in the schools.
What is your favorite memory from playing at Stevens Point? My favorite memory from playing at Point would be my sophomore year. We went to Oshkosh and we had not beaten Oshkosh at Oshkosh in a really long time for sure -not since I had been here- and we beat them on their home floor at Oshkosh and it was one of the funnest games. It was so much fun, everyone played super well together and there was really good energy and a really good finish.
What is your favorite part about playing basketball? My favorite part about playing basketball would definitely be my teammates and my coaches. The relationships that I have built with other people, past and present- that is my favorite part. I still talk to people that I met 10 years ago, my high school teammates talk about our high school experience. We had a really good team in high school. My teammates now, I am extremely close with and I don’t expect to lose contact with them in the future. That is probably my favorite part is building relationships with other people and working towards a common goal, and even when things get tough, it’s working through adversity and working towards something that everyone wants to accomplish -and you don’t have to find that in many places.
If you could give one piece of advice to incoming freshmen athletes what would it be? My advice would be that it goes really, really fast. This is my fifth year here and it was the fastest five years and the best five years of my life so far. I have had so much fun and I would tell freshmen to work hard in-season, out of season, and just have fun with your teammates and you will make memories that will last forever.
If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? Right now, I really want to go to Hawaii. I’ve been to Europe three times so I’ve been to countries over there. But I’ve never really been to Hawaii, so that sounds really nice right now.
What is your favorite movie? I love the “Hunger Games,” all of the movies
What was your favorite class that you have taken? Probably my Intro to Social Work class. I had known that I wanted to do social work but that class talks about social work in a broad sense, and that really sparked my passion for doing it, and I learned a lot from that class that opened my eyes to all of the different things that I can do with social work.
