Even as the school year begins to draw closer with each passing day, summer is still on the minds of many students who will once again head to class, study in the library or hang out with their friends at the UC.
Summer brings with it travels, work and fun. This summer, several of the women's basketball players from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga share what their summer is like.
Many of the players took some time off for vacation, while others got right to work. Summer basketball camps kept several busy. The Lady Mocs worked the UTC Girl's Basketball Camp and then several stuck around to work the Boy's Team Camp. The student-athletes taught ball handling and shooting through drills as well as defensive moves and monitored contests between teams and individuals. In the boy's camp, the players duties focused on work as the table crew.
As well as working UTC camps, Tenisha Townsend also spent time at home working with schools in her area at their own camps.
Capriee Tucker and Kiara Smith each took jobs with the YMCA. Smith works as a camp counselor with the 5-12 year olds. She is with the kids as they head out for field trips to places like Chattanooga Ducks, the Tennessee Aquarium and Coolidge Park. When they are not on field trips, the kids work on academics or group activities. In the gym she puts her basketball and other skills to work with games, jump ropes and obstacle courses in their free time.
Tucker started working at the Hamilton YMCA in May and "absolutely love it." She is the coordinator of swim lessons and as an added bonus, gets to utilize the facility for her summer work outs. She has trips planned to visit family and friends she doesn't get to see during the school year and, as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, she attended the Student-Athlete Leadership Institute put on by the Southern Conference at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, N.C.
Freshman phenom Kayla Christopher worked on her basketball skills in the three-week long Rocky Top summer league in Knoxville in June. She was drafted to play for Team Hustle along with players from Tennessee, Tennessee Tech, Youngstown, Bethune-Cookman and a couple of recent high school graduates. Along with playing basketball and working summer basketball camps, she is traveling with her family on vacation and then heading to Costa Rica for a mission trip with Score International.
Graduates Shanara Hollinquest and Jenaya Wade-Fray continue with their basketball careers with each playing overseas. Wade-Fray, a Bermuda native, set out for England to play for Great Britain in hopes of qualifying for EuroBasket 2011 in Poland.
She has shown flashes of her brilliant career at UTC with a team-high 19 points in Great Britain's 66-59 loss to Belgium and earlier led the team with five assists and seven rebounds in the team's win over Bulgaria. She will work toward her Masters degree in Sports Exercise Psychology at Sheffield University and try to earn a spot with the Sheffield Hatters professional team while she trains for the 2012 Olympics.
Hollinquest, a two-time Southern Conference Player of the Year and three-time All-Conference performer, will head to Germany on August 15 to play for the Saalarouis Royals. She is "still rocking #50!"
Injuries brought the careers of Tagan Hatchett and Megan Rollins to an end sooner than expected. For Hatchett, it meant sitting out more than half the season after injuring her knee in December while Rollins missed the Southern Conference Tournament finals and the first round of the NCAA. Hatchett, who had to put student teaching on hold until after the basketball season, is completing her course work this summer with UTC's Youth University. She worked with students in grades 1-6 teaching them basketball, tennis and soccer. She will graduate in August and has applied to graduate school. Rollins made probably the biggest life change of all when she got married after moving back to Monteagle following graduation in May.
Classes begin at UTC on Monday, August 23 and the countdown to the Lady Mocs' season opener against East Tennessee State on November 12 at home begins. For now, however, the Lady Mocs will spend a few more weeks enjoying the freedom of summer.
