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May 29th, 2015
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, is what I am told. Beauty is something different to each and every person, but beauty to me can be won down in Charleston, West Virginia. It’s every athlete’s dream to hold the conference tournament trophy at the end of the season, and it is no different in the Mountain East Conference for Division II women’s basketball. I played for West Liberty University for three seasons under Coach Lynn Ullom.
When I arrived to West Liberty, the women’s basketball team had not won a tournament championship since 2004. After being unsuccessful my sophomore and junior year, I laced up my shoes on my first day of pre-season my senior year with one goal in mind: to win the 2015 MEC tournament. We were ranked first in the pre-season poll for the conference and ninth in the country for NCAA Division II, so I knew the pressure was on to win it all. I can’t lie and say I do not get nervous and I usually can push nerves aside, but the opening night at West Liberty was a different story. I must say that the only thing that got me through my nerves on opening night were the loyal fans of West Liberty.
Over those three years, the people of West liberty became family to me. Some fans knew just about everything about me. In fact, they even knew my parents. I have played basketball a lot of places in my career, but there are no fans like West Liberty fans. Maybe, that’s why the championship was so important to me. I realized the trophy wasn’t just for my teammates and coaches, but for everyone that calls West Liberty home.
On March 8, 2015, I looked at the scoreboard as the final buzzer went off and it read 76-55 in favor of us, the Hilltoppers. The feeling I had in that moment was something that will never be duplicated. After escaping the dog pile of my teammates, I looked up at the hundreds of people cheering in the stand and thought to myself, “I should be clapping for the people that got me here.” The first person my eyes looked to were my parents. My parents are my biggest fans. I felt as if my dad had worked just as hard for that trophy as I had, which is why my championship trophy hangs in his office. In that moment, I was the happiest I have ever been and realized that West Liberty is a magical place.
