February 2016
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MLB filled with Commodore connections beyond the field
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SPRING HILL
CONTENTS P.8
P.12
P.15
Undercover past
The Vanderbilt effect
Lessons learned as a former special agent with the FBI aid Vanderbilt sports psychologist Vickie Woosley.
Star V legacies
Major League Baseball has become filled with former Commodores—on the mound, at the plate, in the field, in the dugout and in the front office.
Commodores follow in footsteps of parents who also played sports at Vanderbilt.
P.2 Compliance Corner
P.3 National Commodore Club
P.10 Best buds Lacrosse senior Mallory Schonk has made a strong connection through the Best Buddies program.
P.7 Inside McGugin
P.19 Coach’s Handbook
P. 16 Living the American dream Samir Sehic’s family came over from Bosnia with barely anything in their pockets. Now, they beam as they watch their only son live his dream.
Vanderbilt assistant men’s golf coach Dusty Smith
P.21 VU From Here Tracy Peterson
P.23 It’s my turn
Rod Williamson’s monthly column
P.24 My Game Vanderbilt shooting guard Rachel Bell
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Inside McGugin
By The Numbers
Notes from the athletic department
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Preseason ranking for Vanderbilt baseball team in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 poll. The Commodores, national champion runners-up in 2015, return 23 lettermen and welcome the nation’s top recruiting class.
The Vanderbilt football team was one of two teams awarded the 2015 Academic Achievement Award.
l Vanderbilt linebacker Zach Cunningham was a unanimous All-SEC First Team selection, selected to both the SEC coaches’ and Associated Press teams. He is the first Commodore to earn All-SEC First Team accolades since Jordan Matthews and Wesley Johnson in 2013. He is the first linebacker to earn first team All-SEC honors from the SEC since Moses Osemwegie in 2005. He led the team with 16.5 tackles for loss—third-most in the SEC last year and most by a Vanderbilt player in 16 years. He also had a team-high 109 tackles and ranked third in the SEC with four forced fumbles. n
JOE HOWELL
l Four members of the Vanderbilt baseball team were tabbed as Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-Americans. Pitchers Ben Bowden and Kyle Wright along with outfielders Bryan Reynolds and Jeren Kendall were recognized. Wright and Kendall were consensus Freshman All-Americans in 2015. Bowden was named the co-MVP of the Cape Cod League finals after a torrid summer. Reynolds, a 2014 consensus Freshman All-American, was second on the team in hitting last year.
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The Vanderbilt football program was awarded the 2015 Academic Achievement Award for maintaining a perfect graduation success rate. Vanderbilt and Duke shared the award as the only programs to register a 100 percent graduation rate for members of its freshman football student-athlete class of 2008. The award, presented by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), is based on the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate, which measures student-athlete graduation rates over a sixyear window. This is the fourth time Vanderbilt has received the award (1996, 2001, 2008, 2015).
800
Milestone victory the Vanderbilt women’s basketball program reached with a win over East Tennessee State on Dec. 5. The Commodores have accumulated more than 800 victories for a program less than 40 years old.
Calendar
February Events Feb. 27
In-state rivalry renewed The women’s basketball team hosts Tennessee in what is always an anticipated matchup. The Commodores have won two of the last four at Memorial Gym against the Lady Vols.
Kentucky comes to town After a one-year hiatus, Vanderbilt men’s basketball will host Kentucky at Memorial Gymnasium. The Wildcats were picked to win the SEC, while the Commodores were tabbed to finish second.
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Feb. 11
JOE HOWELL
Lacrosse opens home schedule The Vanderbilt lacrosse team welcomes Furman for its home opener at the VU Lacrosse Complex. On the coaching staff of Furman, a fledgling program, is former VU assistant Amber McKenzie (Falcone).
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JOHN RUSSELL
Feb. 13
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Undercover life aids Woosley as sports psychologist By Jerome Boettcher
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ickie Woosley wasn’t a college athlete. She didn’t make a winning shot in front of 15,000 fans in a soldout gymnasium. She didn’t rally her team to a come-frombehind victory on the road in a hostile environment. She never played with a championship on the line. But as Vanderbilt’s sports psychologist, she can relate to Commodore student-athletes when they are faced with high-pressure situations. Trusting her training, preparation and instincts were vital when Woosley found herself in dire situations at her previous job. “I was searched one time while I was wearing a wire—that was a sobering situation,” she said. “They did not find the wire. I had to talk my way out of it.” Since 2006, Woosley has worked at Vanderbilt as a clinical psychologist. She started first at the Psychological and Counseling Center and has spent the last four as the athletic department’s resident sports psychologist in the McGugin Center. But, prior to that, she spent 21 years of distinguished service as a Special Agent for the FBI. A majority of her career was in covert operations in a variety of cases, from white collar to child pornography to terrorism, but primarily in narcotics. Her undercover work took her all over the country from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. After 16 years in investigative work, she ended back up in Quantico, Va., home of the FBI Academy. There she served as a Supervisory Special Agent, administering psych assessments for agents in covert operations—or the “checkup from the neck up,” as she calls it. At Quantico, she also taught new agents, large case management and instructed at the undercover certification schools. She even traveled to countries such as Budapest to teach agents at international covert operation schools. “I certainly feel I had been given the opportunity to live a life beyond my wildest imagination,” she said. “I had to find the courage to live it. I did find out a lot about myself. I think that you have to be very aware and you find out you are capable of doing more. You think you know what you can do and the training teaches you that you can do more.” Working for the FBI wasn’t a lifelong dream for Woosley. Contrarily, she stumbled upon the career. Woosley received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Louisiana Tech University. She was the coordinator of women’s housing at her alma mater, overseeing the residence halls
Since 2006, Vickie Woosley has been at Vanderbilt, serving the last five as the athletic department’s resident sports psychologist. Prior to that, though, she spent 21 years in the FBI as a special agent.
and programming. At Louisiana Tech, she became friends with a couple of FBI agents, who thought she would be a candidate for the bureau. Woosley had never fired a weapon before in her life. She didn’t have a military or investigative background. But she loved her country, and the chance to improve it while also delving into an exciting, undercover life intrigued her. “Never in a million years would I have thought that was what I was going to do,” she said. “But,
much like life, when an opportunity presents itself, walk through the door, take the risk. So that’s what I did. I’m a true patriot. I believe in this country and all that we have, and very thankful for it. I felt like it was my duty to do what I could to make it better. I think that is what kept me there for 21 years—the desire to make this a better world, a better place.” Looking back, Woosley feels a sense of satisfaction knowing she played a role in making her country safer.
She was instrumental working on the Unabomber case, which spanned 17 years. The FBI had an 800 number open for calling in tips, which ultimately led the bureau to Ted Kaczynski. Woosley would filter leads from the 800 number. “That meant I talked to every ex-wife in America because they all thought their ex-husband was the Unabomber,” she said. On April 3, 1996, Woosley was one of the numerous FBI agents who arrested Kaczynski at his cabin in Montana. “That was extremely satisfying,” she said. “He was very, very sick and certainly hurt some people. It had been a long, historical case. There is a lot of satisfaction in the culmination of a case like that, knowing you have been instrumental in putting someone like that away.” Most of Woosley’s FBI career, however, was spent undercover.
But the fear actually aided Woosley. Knowing the consequences of what would happen if she were caught actually heightened her senses. She was very aware of her surroundings and did not get complacent. She kept her story and background very seal-tight and solid, cautioning that criminals aren’t as dim witted as the public assumes. Her appearance also didn’t hurt her. At 5-foot-4 with blond hair and the sweet, innocent voice of a child, Woosley didn’t look or sound the part of someone trying to infiltrate a drug deal. “No one ever suspected I was an FBI agent,” she said. “I imagine it had something to do with my voice. I always knew this voice would come in handy and it did (laughs). I would keep as much of my own personality as I could and change very little.” It was during her time undercover where Woo-
“I certainly feel I had been given the opportunity to live a life beyond my wildest imagination.” Her first case after graduating from the FBI Academy was a narcotics or RICO (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations) case in Indianapolis. What was believed to be a short-term case actually lasted four years. She experienced the psychological effects of working covertly with criminals, becoming attached to them and finding her ethics challenged as the line blurred between right and wrong. “All of my time was spent with bad guys,” she said. “I was a part of their group. They had a birthday; I celebrated their birthday. The whole point of it is to establish a relationship knowing you are going to betray that relationship at some point. It is easy to say that, it is much more difficult to do… So I lived firsthand the psychological impact it takes on you. That is what people don’t see—you get very attached. “That’s the whole reason behind the checkup from the neck up. It is sort of like the Stockholm’s syndrome with the kidnap victim. You hear these guys, men and women, talking about illegal activity. You start to think, ‘You know what they are doing is really not so bad. That is not so terrible, is it?’ You have to have a lot of clarity about who you are, your value system. And you also have to have good support team, meaning a handler—the person you have contact with. They are tasked with, ‘How is she doing? Is she still with us?’” In her 16 years of investigative work, Woosley’s cover was never blown. Of course, there were moments where she feared for her life like when she was wearing a wire as a drug dealer searched her.
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sley began to think about her future. She wanted to give back to the academy, so she went back to teach new agents about the mental, physical and academic rigors of the academy and the bureau. And that’s where the parallels between working in the FBI and with Division I student-athletes begin for Woosley, who received her doctorate degree from the American School of Professional Psychology in Washington, D.C. Both jobs require trust. In working undercover, she had to gain trust from the criminals and she had to trust her superiors would be there if something went wrong. At Vanderbilt, she must earn the trust of student-athletes in order for them to open up. That is also where her interviewing skills in the FBI have come in handy. Obviously being physically fit as an athlete and special agent are musts. At the academy, Woosley went from a novice in shooting a gun to an expert in just 14 weeks. Similarly, she tries to instill in student-athletes that they can learn anything with time and effort—a new skill, a new position, a new subject in the classroom. The traits of being flexible, adaptable and coachable prove beneficial in both fields. “There are many parallels that make the work very similar, more similar than different,” she said. “I felt like now (working with the FBI) I had an added dimension—this performance piece. This is what anxiety does to you, where it comes from, how you can harness it, how you can be more than you think you are, how you can push yourself to the limit.” She correlates that to the everyday stress 18- to 22-year-olds endure on the field, in the classroom, with family matters, returning from injuries.
Woosley serves as an objective third party who Vanderbilt student-athletes can come to and talk without fear or reservation, knowing what they disclose is confidential. “I see my role here as an advocate,” she said. “I call it the care and feeding of the student-athlete in that I don’t have an agenda where their sport is concerned. I do have an agenda as far as them being well and ready for their sport, their academic life and life beyond Vanderbilt, which is a great mission that this department has.” Woosley also believes her presence—and the growth of more and more sports psychologists in college athletics—will help decrease the stigma of mental health. When freshmen arrive in the summer they are introduced to and screened by Woosley almost immediately. She comes to practice, cheers loudly at games. She is as valuable of a resource as the academic support team and athletic trainers. During the school year, and even on holiday and summer breaks, her door is barely open as she keeps a busy daily schedule meeting with student-athletes and staff. She doesn’t just dwell on athletic performance issues; student-athletes have turned to her when issues in their personal life arise, such as coping with the death of a family member or friend. An average day at work no longer means putting her life at risk. But Woosley says lessons learned at the FBI continue to leave a daily impact. “I do think it has made me the person I am today, the psychologist I am,” she said. “I think having the ability to listen, to sit in the room with somebody else’s pain is a gift. I think when people come in here they are doing the best they can in the moment, whatever that is… It is a place where I want them to feel safe, that they can say anything they want to and there is no judgment in here, hopefully creating that space. I’m really fortunate that Vanderbilt athletics sees the need and is willing to provide that resource to athletes.” n
Vanderbilt sports psychologist Vickie Woosley spent 16 years in covert operations with the FBI.
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Schonk, best buddy bond over special relationship by Jerome Boettcher
W
hen Mallory Schonk gets together with Patricia the pair often goes bowling, catches a movie or
DANIEL DUBOIS
grabs lunch. But even when they’re not able to meet up, Patricia makes sure to call her buddy—her Best Buddy—and update her on her life. Patricia, 36, lives in Nashville and met Schonk through the Vanderbilt chapter of Best Buddies, a non-profit organization that pairs volunteers with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Patricia can’t read or write and has a speech impediment. But her love of sports and gift of gab connects her with Schonk, who is a senior captain on the Vanderbilt lacrosse team and finds time once or twice a month to visit with Patricia. “The relationship we’ve built has been really beneficial for both of us,” she said. “She loves having someone to talk to and give updates on her life. That is nice for her to have me as an outlet. Then, in the same sense, for me, my schedule will be so crazy and all over the place that it is kind of nice to take a step back and realize that I am so lucky I have all these things going
on. There are some people who don’t have the opportunity to go to a great school like Vanderbilt and get to play Division I lacrosse. She kind of helps me keep things in perspective.” Schonk was matched with Patricia three years ago. Patricia is a fan of all sports—flag football, soccer, even bocce ball. But her favorite is swimming. She swims at the Centennial Sportsplex with the Nashville Dolphins, a club team for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Schonk was on hand when Patricia and the Dolphins held a joint meet with the Vanderbilt women’s swimming team. “She is awesome,” Schonk said. “She is so fun loving. She loves playing sports and talking about sports. We definitely have that in common. She is a good time.” The time with Patricia has also reassured Schonk about her career goals. She is an interdisciplinary studies major with a focus in cognitive and linguistic development. She is currently applying for graduate schools for speech pathology, including Vanderbilt’s Master of Science program in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP).
For the last three years, Vanderbilt lacrosse senior Mallory Schonk has volunteered at Best Buddies, a non-profit organization that pairs volunteers with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
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Spending a couple summers at a speech therapy clinic, Schonk has enjoyed helping children with autism develop friendly social skills. She sees a potential career in working with autistic children. “It was a great experience for me. I’m not 100 percent sure (if that is the tract she wants to take) but I’m keeping it on my radar,” she said. “I think (her experiences and Best Buddies) has just reassured that I want to pursue a career where I will feel fulfilled and I’m actually making an impact. Speech therapy is something where you can often see those results. I’ve never had the desire to be sitting behind a desk. It is an outlet that I can feel like I’m making an impact on other people.” Schonk and her older brother, Peter, were raised to be well rounded growing up in Perry Hall, Md. Along with playing lacrosse, soccer, basketball and swimming, she also picked up the saxophone and took guitar lessons. An exemplary student, she has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll all three years and earned a 4.0 GPA in the 2014 fall semester. Schonk thrives to meet every academic challenge thrown at her. That’s why in eighth grade she cringed when she got a B in art class. “It really was a dagger to my heart,” she said, laughing now. “I could have gone to lunch with my principal if I hadn’t gotten that B.” In addition to the academics and athletics elements, she puts focus on service in the community. Working with Special Olympics while she was in high school opened her eyes to a potential career in special education. She volunteers in the chapel at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt once a week. Last December, she jumped at the opportunity to join 12 other Vanderbilt student-athletes to travel to Costa Rica for a week with Soles4Souls and donate shoes to underprivileged children. This ambition, Schonk says, stems from values her parents, Edward and Teresa, injected. “I think they really did instill in me trying new things and not being afraid to put yourself out there,” she said. “They were always supporting us. But, in the same sense, they didn’t want to baby us or coddle us. In the college world, that has really served me well that I’m not afraid to put myself out there and go for things otherwise I might have been afraid to try.” n
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Major League Baseball full of Commo by Eric Jones
M
uch of the attention garnered by the Vanderbilt Baseball team these days centers around the Vandy Boys who typically appear in the box scores. You may have seen some of the recent headlines. From David Price’s $217 million, record-breaking contract with the Boston Red Sox to Dansby Swanson’s selection as the first overall pick in the 2015 amateur draft, it’s hard to ignore the impact of former Commodores in the major leagues. In actuality, the Commodore connection is even deeper than that. There are at least 13 former members of the Commodore program working at various jobs within Major League Baseball. Inside your favorite team is an organizational chart made up of a big league staff, a scouting department and a player development department with various offshoots. From David Schnabel who is working in film and video for the New York Yankees to Derek Johnson as the newly named pitching coach of the Milwaukee Brewers, there is an emerging trend of Vanderbilt’s black and gold colors working at all levels of professional baseball. “When I first was looking for an internship,
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the VU name had a ton of weight,” remembers Carter Hawkins, who is the Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Indians. “Everyone sees the GM (general manager) track as the ultimate goal, but the thing that attracted me was the (baseball) culture. Anyone that looks at my stats will say that I didn’t play a lot, but I did get to see a ton of good baseball. I learned about good leadership and improving day in, day out. That was part of the culture that Corbs (Tim Corbin), DJ (former pitching coach Derek Johnson) and Bakich (former assistant coach Erik Bakich) created and it still is with me today. And it resonates with major league teams.” Hawkins continues to pay forward what he learned while recruiting other talented people with Vanderbilt baseball ties to Cleveland. The Indians now have a total of five including Mike Calitri (scout), Larry Day (minor league hitting coach), Tony Mansolino (minor league hitting coach) and David Wallace (minor league manager) along with Hawkins. “Maybe we should call ourselves the Cleveland Commodores,” joked Mike Calitri, a former Vanderbilt Director of Operations and now a major league scout for the Indians. “It is
really interesting to see all of the talent that has come to Cleveland with Vanderbilt ties. That is Carter’s influence and why he is so good at such a young age. He was one of the smartest guys on Vanderbilt’s team and is a key to what the Indians are doing with all the young talent.” Calitri played for Clemson where he was signed by Corbin, who was the Tigers’ recruiting coordinator at the time before coming to Nashville. “He recruited me at age 17 to go to Clemson, then recruited me again to work for him at Vanderbilt, and he made it very easy to meet people in major league baseball,” Calitri said. “In 2007, I got to know the people in Tampa (Rays) as they wanted (David) Price with that top overall pick. I guess they saw me work, liked how Corbs had created a culture at Vanderbilt that I worked well in and offered me that first big league job.” Besides Calitri, there are five other Vanderbilt ties among the scouting community where a keen eye and perhaps clairvoyance help the pipeline of top talent project the next David Price from a skinny 17-year old kid with an 85-mph fastball. Alex Levitt, a former Vanderbilt media rela-
modore connections behind the scenes Anthony Aloisi is now an area scout for the Oakland A’s. The Vanderbilt connection already has two top level scouting leaders in Greg Smith (Director of Scouting—Pittsburgh Pirates) who was a standout for the Commodores on the dia-
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tions intern-turned-team manager, was the latest to be hired as an amateur scout by the Chicago Cubs this past season. Charlie Sullivan (1991) continues to be a long-time trusted amateur scout for the Brewers and former Vandy team manager
At least 13 former Vanderbilt baseball players, coaches and support staff are working in professional baseball in some capacity, either at the major or minor league level. Eleven of those were associated with the program in the last 11 years head coach Tim Corbin has been at the helm.
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mond from 1985-88 and Gil Kim (Senior Director of International Scouting—Texas Rangers), who suited up for the Dores from 2003-05. “I played on Tim Corbin’s first team back in 2003,” remembers Kim. “We weren’t as talented as the most recent teams, but we bonded together and were very close-knit because we worked every day to get better. It wasn’t just about baseball, it became a way to live life. Corbin, Derek Johnson, Erik Bakich, and (assistant coach) Mike Holder were mentors to us all and taught us about chemistry, teamwork and building something based on our individual talents to achieve a common goal. Those are all things that everyone is looking for in baseball.” The Seattle Mariners came looking for David Macias this past fall after hearing about his work as the Commodores volunteer assistant coach. Macias served as the Commodores starting centerfielder and leadoff hitter from 2006-2008, before getting drafted by the Chicago Cubs. He gained the reputation of doing whatever task was required, which came in handy on the Commodores’ 2014 exhibition trip to the Dominican Republic. Macias’ fluency in Spanish allowed him to serve as the team’s interpreter
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throughout the trip and paved the way for his new job with the Mariners as Coordinator of International Player Programs. The most interesting example of how Vanderbilt baseball continues as a training ground for all aspects of MLB operations almost didn’t happen at all. David Schnabel arrived on campus as a freshman enrolled in the Blair School of Music in 2007 as a diehard Yankees fan. He answered an email to be a manager for the men’s basketball team, but found that the schedule overlapped too much with his commitment to the Vanderbilt Spirit of Gold Marching Band where he played trombone. It turned out to be a lucky break for Vanderbilt baseball and opened a door for “Schnabs” that has led him to a spot as a videographer for the New York Yankees. “I was in the right place, at the right time,” says Schnabel who works on special digital projects used by the team’s baseball operations. “Mike Calitri answered an email from me when basketball didn’t work out and hired me to run a brand-new, state-of-the-art video system that was putting six camera angles in at Hawkins Field. I didn’t know much about anything as video was more of a hobby, but I learned by working in the Vanderbilt Athletics video production department and started to get more confident. I helped the coaches with scouting other teams and breaking down video to help our own players. Eventually, I was asked by Erik Bakich to create a highlight
Carter Hawkins is one of several former Commodores to be working on major league and minor league teams. Hawkins serves as the Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Indians.
video that would motivate the team down the stretch in 2010 and it took me a long time to get it right. Actually, the whole season. I showed it to the team for the first game of the 2010 SEC Tournament and it went over really well. I applied for a summer internship with the Yankees, one I hadn’t gotten a year before and finally got it. Coach Corbin helped me get an interview by talking to ESPN’s Buster Olney (another Vanderbilt alumni). It’s funny to look back now, but it all started with that one returned email from Mike Calitri.”
With so many layers within most major league franchises, the thousands of people who work to put a team on the field are largely anonymous to fans. Unless you wear a uniform, sit in the dugout dodging a myriad of flavored sunflower seeds and occasionally watch him make a pitching change, you won’t hear much from Derek Johnson. DJ (as he is known to Vanderbilt fans) was hired this past November after serving for two years as the Chicago Cubs minor league pitching instructor. Considered a guru as Vanderbilt’s pitching coach from 2003-2012, DJ will be a mentor to some of the promising talent in hopes of teaching the next David Price or Sonny Gray. The question now becomes who will be the first former Commodore to be a big league manager or general manager as the CEO of a MLB team near you? Head coach Tim Corbin believes that it may not be too far away at all. “Absolutely. I believe that you have to look at the experience those kids have had with baseball previous to their professional employment. Typically, if a person has been exposed to a positive environment while doing something they love, it inspires their passion for that skill to a greater extent. I’m proud that these individuals have taken on a leadership role in baseball beyond the playing field. Every single one of them is passionate about the game and sees it as a lifestyle… I am glad that Vanderbilt provided that foundation for them and helps to influence their career path.” n
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Commodores continue Vanderbilt family legacy by Jerome Boettcher
JOE HOWELL
Senior Maggie Leavell is following in the footsteps of her mother, Janet, who also played tennis at Vanderbilt.
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JOE HOWELL
T
ennis was an added perk. For Maggie Leavell, her ideal college would be a great academic institution that would offer an excellent education and provide her with the tools and open doors to excel in the workplace. Vanderbilt fit the bill for the Memphis native. Plus, she could walk on to the tennis team. This was a chance she couldn’t pass up, especially considering her mother, Janet (Wepfer) Leavell, played tennis for the Commodores in the 1980s. “For as long as I can remember, Vanderbilt has always been my dream school,” said Leavell, now in her senior year with the Commodores. “Being from Tennessee, and Vanderbilt being the best school in Tennessee, that definitely made it appealing. But because my mom went and played tennis at Vanderbilt, that always been a dream of mine to follow in her footsteps. My cousins and my aunt and uncle went to Vanderbilt, too. It has just become a family tradition.” Leavell isn’t the only Commodore donning the same black and gold colors their parents wore. At least five current student-athletes have parents who also played sports at Vanderbilt. The fathers of football teammates Caleb Scott and Donovan Sheffield both played on the gridiron for the Commodores. Chuck Scott was an All-American tight end in 1983, tied the then-NCAA record for touchdowns in a season by a tight end (nine) and was a part of the 1982 Hall of Fame Bowl season. Robert Sheffield was a cornerback at Vanderbilt from 1993-96, and Donovan is actually a third-generation college football player. Redshirt sophomore Penn Murfee lettered in
Vanderbilt wide receiver Caleb Scott is the son of former Commodore All-American tight end Chuck Scott, who played in the early 1980s.
swimming and diving and finished fifth at the Tennessee state swimming meet in 2013. The Nashville native and Montgomery Bell Academy graduate ultimately chose the baseball diamond but he comes from a family of swimmers. His brother, Jack, swam at Virginia, and his father, John, swam at Vanderbilt when the school had a men’s swimming team. John owns the school records in the men’s 50- and 100yard freestyle events. Perhaps the most notable current Vanderbilt legacy is junior forward Luke Kornet on the men’s basketball team. Both of his parents went to Vanderbilt and his father, Frank, was an AllSEC standout who played for the Commodores from 1986-89. He was drafted in the second round by the Milwaukee Bucks and played two seasons in the NBA. Luke has made a name for himself in three years as the 7-foot-1 forward has provided a spark on defense and a lift with his accurate 3-point shooting. But he still has fans come up to him to let him know they watched his dad play in college, too. “It is funny when people come up and they are talking about my dad playing,” Luke said. “I think our times are definitely separated. That we have this school in common is definitely a cool thing. I still don’t think I really realize it now and I probably will (think about it more) when I’m gone that it was really cool that I got to play here.” With parents who played sports collegiately, or even professionally, there is a tendency to believe they directed their children toward that specific sport. Luke Kornet said that wasn’t the case with his father. Though he coached both Luke and his sister,
Nicole, who plays at UCLA, Frank Kornet encouraged his children to play many sports. And they did, as Luke and Nicole also played baseball and golf in addition to basketball. “People like to think since he played he might have pushed us,” Luke said. “If we asked him to, he would help us out. But if not, he just let us play. He likes to sit back and enjoys watching as opposed to having to coach. I think he likes it a lot better (now) because he doesn’t have to worry about that whole dynamic of still being a coach and a dad.” Maggie Leavell doesn’t feel any pressure being a second-generation Vanderbilt tennis players. Quite the opposite, actually. She sees it as a special bond she shares with her mother. And she knows her mom is a proud Commodore parent. When she was 12 years old, Maggie and her twin sister, Neely, played in a national tournament in Nashville. While they were there they swung by Vanderbilt, stopped at the tennis courts, showed them around and even snapped a picture of her daughters under an awning that read “Home of the Vanderbilt Commodores.” “I think it is really unique because not a lot of people can say, ‘Oh yeah, my mom went to Vanderbilt and also played tennis here,” Maggie said. “I haven’t come across that many people (who can say that). It is just cool that we get to share that experience.” n
Frank Kornet was an All-SEC forward who played at Vanderbilt from 1986-89. He now watches closely as a fan and proud father as his son, Luke, is a junior forward for the Commodores.
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Father’s drive helps Sehic pursue his dream
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DANIEL DUBOIS
he Bosnian War ended Jasmin Sehic’s dream of competing in the Olympics. But the four-year conflict took something more precious—his best friend’s life. “I was in the war for two years and lost my best friend next to me,” Jasmin said. “When that happened to me, my life and my vision on life completely changed. We were hungry. We were refugees. We slept on the ground. “This showed the other side of life.” Missing the chance to throw the javelin for Bosnia in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona no longer mattered to Jasmin. For 20-year-old Jasmin, fighting in the Bosnian War, along with the struggles as a refugee afterwards, opened his eyes to the brevity of life and served as a catalyst to how he would raise his future family. Sure, he wants to help his children fulfill their dreams. And he is watching his oldest child, Samir, accomplish his as a freshman forward on the Vanderbilt men’s basketball team. But, more than anything, he and his wife, Amra, stressed to their children, Samir, 19, and Melissa, 11, to treat others with respect. “What I try to teach my kids,” Jasmin says, “is believe in God, and trust in people and be careful. Because my message and how my wife and I try to raise our kids is God created us to love each other and support each other. It was very, very important we put that as a foundation for
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our family. When I lost my best friend in the war, that vision of what life actually is… it’s short.” Months after the Bosnian War ended in 1995, Jasmin and Amra went to the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia and applied for refugee status. After a three-month process, they were approved and the young couple left their home in Zavidovići, which is located 100 miles north of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. They were armed with education. Both were college graduates and teachers - Jasmin taught physical education at a high school and Amra was an elementary school teacher. They were leaving their home behind for unchartered territory. But they knew the rebuilding process in Bosnia after the split of Yugoslavia might take 10-15 years to return to normalcy. “My wife and I decided to get out and chase American dream when we applied to come to the United States,” Jasmin said. “I can tell you, at this moment, me and my wife, with the kids we have and the lives we have, we live the American dream.” They arrived at Atlanta International Airport, ironically just miles from the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics. They had just two suitcases, $20 in their pockets, without a car, a job, a place to live and only speaking 10 words in English. Plus, Amra was six months pregnant with Samir.
STEVE GREEN
By Jerome Boettcher
“We don’t have nothing but two suitcases, pregnant woman and lots of enthusiasm and hungriness for life,” Jasmin recalls. The family moved to Denton, Texas, just outside of Dallas right before Samir started kindergarten. An active child, he played a multitude of instruments—the violin, viola, bassoon—and tried karate and gymnastics. He even dabbled in the field events of shot put and discus on the track team in middle school. In second grade, he started playing basketball. Three years later, in the fifth grade, as he traveled around the country with the AAU giant Texas Titans from Dallas (who he would win four straight national championships with) he had a sudden realization. He wanted to play basketball for the rest of his life, as long as he could, through high school, college and at the highest level with dreams of the NBA. “It is crazy to tell people that,” he said. “I have always been a big guy. Always been a big body. (Basketball) just fascinated me. I loved the athleticism, the skill level. Everything I felt a lot of sports (offered) combined into one. I was just a little kid who fell in love with the game.” Jasmin and Amra quickly jumped on board to help their son in every way they could. They were staples at his games and continues to be. He now does business and training at least once a month in Nashville, which has allowed him to see several games already at
lish then 10 words rattled off in Bosnian before quickly switching back to English. He has visited his grandparents and extended family back in Bosnia four or five times, last doing so before his freshman year of high school. Each of the last four years he has been invited to try out with the Bosnian National Team. Due to a heavy load of AAU basketball and enrolling early at Vanderbilt last summer, he has not been able to attend. He is hopeful he’ll receive an invite again this summer and get a chance to play with the U-20 Bosnian national team. And, though he admits it’s not at the forefront of his mind as he currently tries to make impact for the Commodores, he would love to represent Bosnia in the Olympics—maybe as soon as the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. “That is the highest level of basketball that you can play in across the whole world,” Samir said. “I would be able to represent myself, the country and even give something back to my dad. That wasn’t something he was able to do. I know that would be a big dream of mine and, of course, would also be a big dream of his.” Not only was Jasmin close to achieving his dream, but he had in fact actually already qualified for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. When he talks about it more than two decades, there is no sense of regret in his voice. Instead, he feels blessed to be living in the
JASMIN SEHIC
Memorial Gym. He was his most vocal supporter at games, encouraged him not to worry about distance when looking at possible colleges and he even started a Facebook page for Samir, called “Big Boz,” after his nickname. But even as Samir moved up the ladder and received more attention from college coaches, Jasmin and Amra were quick to remind him that basketball was a privilege. “Priority No. 1 was academics, always,” Jasmin said. “We made a deal—you bring home 100s (on tests and papers), we are going to bring you support on the basketball side.” Samir made to hold up his end of the bargain, earning academic all-state honors twice while at Cy Woods High School. Though raised in America, Samir proudly talks about his Bosnian heritage and understands the sacrifice his parents made in leaving their native country for a new life in the states. The 6-foot-9, 247-pounder goes by the nickname of Big Boz, holds dual citizenship and speaks fluent Bosnian. “You got to take pride of who you are,” Samir said. “My nickname kind of represents it. People always joke around about it and my dad always jokes about it. But just something like that it something I take a great pride in.” He says it’s not uncommon in the Sehic household to hear a conversation start in Eng-
Jasmin Sehic poses for a photo with his son, Samir, before a Vanderbilt men’s basketball game this season. Jasmin and his wife, Amra, immigrated from Bosnia in 1996 shortly after the end of the Bosnian War.
United States with a roof over his head and food on the table. And he couldn’t be happier to see his son shooting for his dreams. “I feel like he had a lot of motivation to help me achieve my goal,” Samir said. “Not to try to achieve his goal through me. That’s not the case. But to definitely help me achieve mine. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have accomplished half of what I have right now. Just because of the drive he taught me early on, the motivation he gave me. He taught me early on you have to work to achieve things. (My parents) were the driving force behind the train.” n
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Coach’s Handbook: Assistant men’s golf coach Dusty Smith Dusty Smith knows about working his way into the fold. He didn’t make his varsity team at Woodlands High School in Texas until his junior year. In college at Lamar, on a team with three future PGA Tour professionals, he earned Ping All-American honors as a junior and helped the Cardinals to a program-best third place at the NCAA Championships as a senior in 2007. He spent three seasons at his alma mater, Lamar, as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s golf teams before coming to Vanderbilt in 2011. Is golf a sport you’ve been around your whole life? I grew up from as long as I can remember with a club in my hand. My dad introduced me to the game. I grew up playing it. I played other sports— I swam and played baseball. About seventh grade… it got to the point where I wanted to play golf all the time. That’s when I really started. My dad joined the local country club. There were a bunch of young kids my age. I started hanging out there all day long in the summer time. That’s when I really started getting into it. Started playing competitively, just like local tournaments, the Houston Golf Association. Got into high school, I actually was on the freshman team my freshman year and JV squad my sophomore year. I didn’t make varsity until my junior year. I was a bit of a late bloomer. I got in my starting five my junior year and we won a state championship.
Were you surprised when you earned All-American honors? It was very surprising, to be honest with you. My teammate, (current PGA Tour member) Dawie van der Walt, he was an All-American his sophomore year. We were the same class and there is a tournament out in El Paso that all the All-Americans from the previous year play in. Dawie was like, ‘You have to get there because it is the coolest tournament in the world.’ Not that was my only motivation; I obviously had personal motivation. But that was kind of like I wonder if I could ever get there? I was taught by my coaches just put your head down and go to work. The biggest thing for me was I never was this stud so I wasn’t afraid to ask, ‘Hey, Chris Stroud (now on the PGA Tour), how do you hit this shot? Shawn Stefani (also on the PGA Tour), how do you do this? What do you feel in these situations?’ I was always trying to learn because I always felt like I was a step behind. That ended up helping me become an All-American. Have you instilled this same belief of working hard and trusting the process when you coach? Absolutely. Especially for the guys like (senior) Carson Jacobs. He came in here and he wasn’t a high recruit but he put his head down a lot like I did. It gives guys who are on the team, who are young, who may not be in that starting five, it gives them a little bit of hope of, ‘Hey, if I put my head down and do my job and come out with a plan to get better every single day there is no telling where I can be.’ Kind of like (senior) Zack Jaworski did this past semester. He didn’t play well in the fall and then all of a sudden you’d see him in the offseason. It would be 20 degrees and him and Carson would be out there just working. You look at those guys, they have a plan and they are on a mission. It is really cool to see it play out and unfold.
JOHN RUSSELL
What has attributed to the program’s recent success, especially in the last couple years as the team reached match play of the NCAA Championships and finished fifth? If you’re around coach (Scott) Limbaugh, you just know his personality and his energy is contagious. I just remember meeting him for the first time (four years ago) and talking to him on the phone and being like, ‘This guy is about to bring it. These guys don’t know what is about to happen.’ He just came in here and changed the culture. We didn’t go in and get in the hitting bays with the guys and change their golf swings. We just tried to change their mentalities. All the credit goes to Coach Limbaugh. He was able to come in here and do that. We are not where we need to be it but we’ve certainly made steps in the right direction. Our deal is we don’t talk about results or championships. We just talk about going out every single day and doing your job and getting better every single day. Then, when you look up, you might be holding a trophy. That’s how we look at it.
Assistant men’s golf coach Dusty Smith talks to senior golfer Carson Jacobs.
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What has been biggest the highlight for you in your five years at Vanderbilt? Obviously, (Limbaugh) hiring me back (after a head coaching change in 2012) was a huge highlight for myself and my wife. But as far as golf goes, the first time we made it to the NCAA Championships in 2014… that team was really special. Our best player, Matthias (Schwab) was out with an injury. Everybody had written us off. That team was really tight. You could just feel it was a true team, family environment. For that team to get out of the NCAA Regional in San Antonio, it wasn’t easy. Because we had a big cushion but we made it through. Just to see those guys get to the NCAA Championship was a highlight. n
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THE VU From Here
Tracy Peterson
by Jerome Boettcher The location just didn’t feel right to Tracy Peterson. Sitting in the upper deck of TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., for the 2015 College World Series, Peterson felt out of place. And her favorite team, the Vanderbilt Commodores, were having a rough go, falling behind early to Cal State Fullerton in the opening game of the CWS. That’s when she decided to move to a spot that felt more like home—right field. That’s where Tracy and her husband, Kyle, were when the game resumed the next day after inclement weather intervened. And perhaps not coincidentally, with the Petersons in right field, the Commodores rallied to defeat the Titans 4-3 on a walk-off home run by Jeren Kendall. “I was like, ‘See, I told you. There is a whole different feel out here when we’re in right field,’” she recalls telling her husband. “So the whole rest of the series we set beyond (right fielder) Rhett (Wiseman) in the first row.” It was a familiar place for Tracy and Kyle Peterson (pictured). For the last eight years they’ve had season tickets to Vanderbilt baseball games at Hawkins Field. They sit in Section Q, the farthest right section in the outfield. “We really like the outfield,” she says. “We have made so many friends out there. There are many times in the outfield, we are the only ones sitting out there in the cold weather. So I really want these guys to have support out here. These kids are such great kids that I want them to have the support.”
Korner,” assuming sophomore Jeren Kendall ends up in right field. Either way, Wiseman will have a presence in the outfield as “Rhett Fielders” will be printed on the back of the new shirts. Both Kyle and Tracy hail from Indiana and went to Purdue. Kyle, in fact, played basketball at Purdue with Vanderbilt men’s basketball coach Kevin Stallings. Tracy grew up a big baseball fan. She rooted for her grandmother’s team, the Chicago Cubs. She listened to the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s on the radio when she lived in Ohio. So when they moved to Nashville they immediately looked for a baseball team they could get behind. “Tim Corbin runs such an awesome program,” said Tracy, whose daughters Sarah and Elizabeth swam collegiately. “I always said, ‘Gosh, if I had a son I’d really want him to play baseball and play for Tim Corbin. It is not just that he makes great baseball players; he makes great guys. Every one of those guys, they could not be more courteous and kinder to everybody… That impresses me even more than the baseball skills.” ■
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Through the years they’ve gained many friends in the outfield as the Petersons attend all 30-plus home games. Starting with the Mike Yastrzemski years (2010-13) the right field group became more vocal and boisterous. Then, last year, Tracy got an idea for what began to form into a club of more than 40 fans. With Rhett Wiseman just feet away as the team’s right fielder, Tracy made bright yellow shirts made donning the club’s defacto nickname: “The Rhett Fielders.” To earn a shirt, each member of the Rhett Fielders had to attend at least 10 games in the right field. “People were like, ‘We tried to Google those shirts. Where did you get those shirts?’” Tracy says, laughing. “It was great with (Rhett) because he was such a great guy and he was so charismatic. He appreciated it. He made so many friends (in the right field)… We really have a good time and the guest services people that work out there are really awesome, too.” With Wiseman having been drafted in June in the third round by the Washington Nationals, Tracy and her crew will have to come up with a new club nickname. As of right now the frontrunner is “Kendall’s
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Februar y 2016
’Dores, Balcomb collect multiple milestones By Jerome Boettcher
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STEVE GREEN
n less than a week, coach Melanie Balcomb guided the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team to a pair of milestone victories. The first came on Dec. 5, 2015 when the Commodores defeated East Tennessee State to notch the 800th win in program history. Vanderbilt has accumulated more than 800 victories since the program’s inception less than 40 years ago in 1977. “That means a lot to me,” Balcomb said. “I came to Vanderbilt because it was a winning program and it had a history of tradition, success, and fan support, and it was really just a quality program. I wanted to continue that as head coach.” More than a third of those victories have come with Balcomb at the helm. Five days after securing win No. 800 for the program, Balcomb picked up her 300 th victory at Vanderbilt. The Commodores rolled past Troy on Dec. 10 to lock up the milestone. Heading into the winter break, Balcomb was 301-137 in her 14 years at Vanderbilt. “It honestly just means that I get another (commemorative) ball,” said Balcomb, with a smile. “I’m probably just going to take the ball home or something. Because, really, what means the most to me, is that I’ve got to experience so many great players and coaches. I mean, nobody does this by themselves.” Balcomb was recognized with a commemorative basketball, presented to her by senior administrator Candice Lee, who played under Balcomb, before the next game at Memorial Gymnasium on Dec. 21. ■
Deputy Athletic Director Candice Lee, left, presents Vanderbilt women’s basketball coach Melanie Balcomb with a commemorative basketball to celebrate her 300th victory at Vanderbilt on Dec. 10, 2015.
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It’s My Turn By Rod Williamson
S
hoppers wear college sweat shirts as they push their carts through the aisles. School flags hang in many neighborhoods. Weddings are set around ball game schedules. Why? We live in a society where feelings about one’s favorite ball team run deep, sometimes so deep they become difficult to explain. Sport often adds a zest to one’s otherwise humdrum life. The workday might be a grind but there’s that big game coming up. Sports give some the chance to associate with a winner; personal dreams may fall short but come Saturday folks can pull on that replica jersey and become a part of something big, grand and exciting. With this deep passion comes loyalty, an old-fashioned intangible emotion that at times feels as though it’s disappearing from our culture much the way buffalo vanished from the plains. It is hard to remain true in today’s quick-paced world where loyalty can be tested and even ridiculed on a regular basis. The loyalist can feel lonely. We’ve been at Vanderbilt long enough to know that we have a very loyal core fan base. As a donor to the National Commodore Club, you are. There are perpetual We seldom outnumber the opposition but our spirit forces in motion that test can’t be measured. our loyalty. One of the reasons we love the Commodores is that in my view, we understand and believe in what this university represents in intercollegiate athletics. We want to be as successful as anyone—win the game, raise the trophy, bask in glory’s sunshine. But Vanderbilt fans also have an equal respect for fair play and the true student-athlete that might not run as true elsewhere. We take pride in knowing that our athletic success puts us among the top national percentiles while 58 percent of our student-athletes earned 3.0 GPAs or better during last fall’s semester, that every member of our national champion women’s tennis team achieved a 3.0 or higher. Loyalty is a very becoming trait. Peel away the fence-setters and the cynics and we are a nation that admires and respects loyalty. Yes, there are times when that loyalty can seem taken for granted but I can assure you that is not the case with Vanderbilt athletics, where our student-athletes, coaches and staff appreciate the support they receive. There are perpetual forces in motion that test our loyalty. A team fails to achieve on the field of play, economics dictate higher prices than anyone would prefer, a high-profile individual fails to live up to our high standards. Aren’t these similar to challenges we experience in our daily lives? Show me someone that has never dealt with disappointment, that hasn’t taken her share of hard knocks along life’s path. We remain appealing to the high achievers that don’t take the easy road, where the basketball star is also an engineering major with shining grades or the prep baseball flash who chooses education over an early professional contract. We proudly stand for important, old-fashioned values that produce Leaders and Champions in life and we are deeply appreciative that you stand with us. Thank you so much for supporting worthy young men and women, for being loyal, for being a Commodore. ■
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My Game
Rachel Bell By Jerome Boettcher
T
hough she doesn’t hear the twang in her voice, Vanderbilt sophomore Rachel Bell beams proudly when talking about her “country girl” upbringing. She grew up an hour west of Nashville in the small town of Cumberland Furnace, Tenn., in Dickson County. Now draining 3-pointers for the Commodores, Bell’s family had 125 acres with chickens and pigs and she spent her childhood riding horses and dirt bikes. What was it like living in Cumberland Furnace? It is a small town. We have a community center but it is a super small building. Across from the little community center is a dump with a quote baseball field. But it is a field connected to the dump. There is a little playground behind the community center and really that is as big as it gets. It is one little area. It is really fun, though. There is not a lot of around. It is mainly woods. People don’t see other’s houses because it is so wooded. It is really nice and peaceful. I really enjoy it. Your family owned horses? Yes. I got my first horse, a pony, when I was five. I’m a country girl. We always went on horse trips in Illinois. That is where my (dad’s side of the) family is. It was really fun. I miss it. We had horses, chickens and hogs. We don’t have anything now but dogs. We kind of got rid of everything when we all got busy. That had to be a lot of fun growing up with that much land and all those animals.
Februar y 2016
Was Vanderbilt always the school you wanted to go to? Growing up, I didn’t think how far basketball would go. I was just a little kid playing. But my first college that I wanted to go to was actually Tennessee. But that wasn’t like a dream. I looked up to (former UT star and current WNBA standout) Candace Parker because I was No. 3 and she was No. 3. I broke out of that in middle school and high school because that is when I started to get mail from colleges. That is when it became serious and I actually weighed my options and thought what would be best. Vanderbilt just so happened to be an hour down the road. Great education and it is the SEC, which I would say is the best women’s basketball conference. It was just the perfect, one big package right down the road.
Yes, and I’m really close with my family as well. I didn’t know how it would be if I went further. My parents really enjoy going to every one of my (home) games. I enjoy on my off days going home. Even if it is just a day, it is really nice. Definitely how close it was, the education and the SEC and I really enjoyed the coaches and players when I went on my visit, too.
Where does your family go on your motorcycle trips?
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I was nine and the first sport I ever played was soccer. I loved soccer but one day my mom came into my room and was like, ‘Hey, I saw this junior pro basketball league in the newspaper. I think you should try it out.’ I was like, ‘Mom, you’re crazy. No. Soccer is my sport.’ Ten minutes later, I went out there and said, ‘Yeah, I think I want to try this.’ At that point I was (10 years old and) in soccer and basketball so when soccer season ended I had to pick a sport. My sister was in stuff, too, so we couldn’t do it all. So I ended up picking basketball and I think I made the right choice.
So you just felt at home coming to Vanderbilt?
It was awesome. We also had dirt bikes. That is something I love. I started riding my first dirt bike when I was five years old. We’re a dirt bike and motorcycle family, too. We take motorcycle trips. I have my own bike. That is one thing I’m really interested in and that I love.
How much fun has it been to be on this team? I enjoy it. We all get along. We’re one big family. We bust it out at practice and make each other better. When it all comes down to it, we go back into the locker room and we’re a family again. n JOE HOWELL
We go to the Gatlinburg area and rent out cabins and we ride around those curvy roads up there. We talked about this year but we might move it back until I graduate, going to the Grand Canyon. That will be quite a haul. We definitely have to get ready for that. I may get a new bike because it is obviously going to be a lot of riding and I may need a bigger bike and more comfortable bike. We would make it a week trip. I’ve never been so it would be amazing.
Did you play other sports besides basketball growing up?
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Look to a U.S. Bank Home Equity Line of Credit for your next major project. You’ll be greeted with competitive rates, flexible payment options and people who genuinely care.
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