SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: TIERA STEPHEN
every college player, was a moment that she will
cherish forever. ���That one is going to the grave
with me,������ she said.
But it wasn���t playing out like she wanted at Louisville, so she made the decision to transfer. ���Off
the court, it was different,������ she said. ���You have to
find your niche, and that wasn���t the program for
me.������
Stephen re-opened recruiting. ���It was very draining, but something had to be done,������ she said. ���The
girls welcomed me here, Coach Stone was cool and
it made it very easy for me.������
Kelsey, in turn, became her third head coach in
as many years.
���Last year was a little rough for me and Coach
Bobbie; she was my third coach and it was a new
program,������ Stephen reiterated. ���But, man, I wish
I had more years; I wish she had been my coach
from the start.������
What she will take out of her senior year with
Kelsey is the memory of making the game-winning
shot against No. 7 Penn State with six seconds left
and handing the Nittany Lions their only loss in
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the Big Ten.
That bodes well for the foundation of Kelsey���s
program.
���I���m excited with what���s to come,������ Stephen said.
That goes for the Badgers and her pursuits outside of basketball, too.
���That���s the million dollar question,������ Stephen said.
���What are you going to do next after being a student-athlete all your life? Now there���s a transition
to being a grown woman. But it���s time.������
Time well spent, according to Kelsey, who wants
to send Stephen out the right way.
���I told the young ones, the underclassmen, that
you���re going to be there (a senior) one day and
you���re going to know how Tiera feels,��� Kelsey said.
���I told them, ���If you don���t want it for yourself, at
least play hard (against Nebraska) for her because
she doesn���t have another opportunity to play in the
Kohl Center.������
Kelsey can now relate to Stephen, and Stephen to
Kelsey. And both can relate to the old clich��: it���s not
how you start, but how you finish. ���I���m very proud
of how far Tiera has come,������ Kelsey said.
