Sports

Brackenbury benefitting from quick transition

By Matthew Semisch

11/25/2014

In college athletics, first-year players often find themselves in a transition period. Every sport played in college is set at a faster and tougher pace than it is in high school, and freshmen have to adjust to that.

Shania Brackenbury, a freshman guard on the Dakota College at Bottiineau (DCB) women’s basketball team, wasn’t allowed a whole lot of time to get settled.

Through the Ladyjacks’ first 10 games of this season, however, she hasn’t made that look like such a bad thing.

The DCB newcomer from Mohall slotted almost immediately into a key role on her new team. She has started in each of the Ladyjacks’ 10 games thus far, including their two losses last weekend in the Cobblestone Classic in Bottineau.

When she’s gone onto the court, she’s normally stayed there. Brackenbury currently is averaging a team-high 37.5 minutes per game.

 “She’s quickly made herself essential to our team,” DCB head coach Wayne Johnson said. “Already she’s become the heart and soul of our team defensively, and she’s done a really good job there and also of handling the ball on offense for us. 

“She plays with a pretty good pace and gets us into our offense pretty quickly. She’s not a big productive scorer for us yet, although I’m confident that she’ll score more than she has, but she’s quickly slotted into a big role on our team in terms of applying pressure on our opponents.”

At press time, DCB was down to seven available players on its roster. It would’ve been eight, but freshman Indeira Foye left the team two weeks ago to return home to Baltimore, Md.

It would’ve been at least nine, in fact, if Johnson would have his way. Last spring, he signed Bottineau High alumna Danielle McDonald, but while she played this season for DCB’s volleyball team, she hasn’t yet suited up with the Ladyjacks hoopsters.

Such a glaring lack of depth would prove problematic for any basketball team, and DCB is no exception. The Ladyjacks fell to Minnesota schools Northland and Concordia last weekend at home, and tired legs were on show.

DCB is making the best of what it has, though, and that’s an ethos the Ladyjacks appear to have bought into. Brackenbury feels that the team has gelled together more quickly than her Mohall-Lansford-Sherwood (M-L-S) high school team did a year ago.

“It’s been a little bit of a change from high school to college, but so far it’s been going really well,” she said. “Where the team’s concerned, we’ve quickly bonded together as a family right away, so that side of fitting in and getting settled was made pretty easy pretty quickly.

“We’re a lot closer than most teams are, especially considering how early in the season it is. I feel like we’re closer than my high school team ever was. 

“We had 22 girls that came out for basketball in my senior year, and seven is much different,” Brackenbury continued. “It’s nice, though, because coaches and your teammates can help you more that way, and you can do the same for them more easily on a smaller team.”

Brackenbury has yet to make a big offensive impact, having only averaged 3.5 points per game. Johnson is pleased thus far, however, with the freshman’s overall development.

“Her confidence is getting better and better as we go along here, and I see that in her,” Johnson said. “It’s clear that she feels confident that she’s going to be able to contain whoever she’s guarding that has the ball, and she’s starting to do more and more things for us offensively, too. 

“She’s quickly growing into a very solid all-around college basketball player.”