1.What is your favorite food?
Hot Wings
2. What music do you like to listen to?
A little bit of everything, but definitely hip hop or rap when warming up or working out.
3. Other than your parents, who has been the most influential person in your life?
Sports related would definitely be my high school basketball coach, Stacia Parsell. In everyday life, I would say my best friend, Crista Westhoff. These two have been with me through thick and thin, on and off the court.
4. Were there any other sports you played growing up/high school?
Growing up I played softball in addition to volleyball and basketball, and in high school I also ran two years of track.
5. Why did you decide to attend Missouri S&T?
I just felt really comfortable here on my visit and really liked the strong academic identity of the school. I also had some familiarity with the campus because of Licking camps and liked how close it was to home.
6. What are you majoring in and why?
My major is History and Secondary Education. I have always enjoyed history and some of my favorite teachers in high school taught history. I really like the high school environment and look forward to working with teenagers in the classroom and on the court.
7. What are your plans after you graduate?
Hopefully I will find a History position with a coaching opening in basketball. Otherwise I plan on going to graduate school to study Secondary Administration at a University where I can be a graduate assistant. Down the road I hope to be an athletic director.
8. What has been your best non-sports memory during your time at Rolla so far?
Playing church basketball with teammates Chelsea Stangel, Courtney Kemp and Katelyn Heil. I live in a remodeled church and we used a bottomless milk crate hung on an eight foot high nail as a basket. We had a lot of fun but broke a few lights leading to the removal of the basket.
9. What has been your best sports memory so far here?
We had many great games and accomplishments throughout last year’s season, but I would have to say my favorite was our victory against Drury, which snapped a thirteen game losing streak to them. Winning this game also gave us a share of the GLVC West Division Championship. Drury is always a much anticipated game and it was fun to come out and play well and come away with a win.
10. What are your personal goals for the 2011-12 basketball season?
This past season I had some difficulty adjusting to how teams were defending myself and the team so I want to be able to take what defenses give me whether its open shots or passing to an open teammate. Another important role for me next year is as a leader in keeping the team focused and together throughout the long season.
11. What are some of the things you would like to see this year’s team accomplish?
I really believe that the sky is the limit this team. I think a year like last year or even better is expected by everyone on the team. With the new players coach brought in and our returners we should be in a position to win game in and game out. I know my big goal is to improve on our postseason play of the last two years with our early exits in the past two GLVC tournaments and our first round exit at the regional tournament last year.
12. You started out your career at S&T as a two-sport athlete. How difficult was that for you along with being a full-time student at a school like Missouri S&T?
Those two years were very demanding not only because of time constraints but also physically. Over those two years I probably had two or three weeks during those school years where I wasn’t practicing with one of the two sports. This combined with school really required me to be disciplined with my time. Ultimately my decision to go to one sport was just from exhaustion mentally and physically due to the non-stop practice and competition combined with school work. Basketball has always been my favorite sport so even though I had a lot of close friendships on the volleyball team it was an easy decision to focus on basketball.
13. How much fun was last season for you on the court with the achievements that team accomplished? (school record 11 straight wins, GLVC West Division Co-Champs, NCAA Tournament).
Last season was probably my most enjoyable and accomplished sports season of my life. It was fulfilling to set out goals before the season like Division champs and NCAA tournament berth and actually go out and accomplish them. During our eleven game winning streak, our team had a lot of fun and it really brought us together. The streak really gave us added motivation to come to practice and get better so we could continue winning. The game came so easy and all of us just knew what our role was and what we had to do to win. As it was happening it was exciting but looking back now it is even more special.
14. With the way last season ended how much has that inspired you for next season?
The losses in both the conference and regional tournament last year were big disappointments to our team. With the disappointing feeling left at the end of a great season it took away from some of the things that we did accomplish during the regular season and definitely left us eager to get back on the court next year to prove that we are a better team than what we displayed in our final two games. We know that ultimately the games at the end of the season are when it really counts and will look to increase our focus at the end of the season to advance further in both the conference and national tournaments.
