Imagine your team is in a tight game and has been fighting against of the top-ranked teams in the Horizon League.
After a hard-fought, back-and-forth game, the clock hits zero and the score is still tied, so you go to overtime. The only problem is that your team only has eight eligible players and three of them have fouled out. The remaining players include three freshmen and a player with four fouls.
You’ve practiced and trained with these girls every single day and, against all odds, the team pulls together and wins by two.
Now imagine having to watch that from your television at home.
That is what it feels like to be a redshirt player.
Due to NCAA transfer rules, if a student-athlete transfers from one Division I school to another, they are ineligible to compete in games and cannot travel with the team. I practiced everyday with the team and often played on the scout team to prepare them for games.
Although I could not play during the 2015-2106 season, I had the opportunity to witness the resilience our Detroit Titans had with only eight players. At times some players had to play a full forty minutes, such as Haleigh Ristovski, named the team’s “Most Valuable Player.”
Finishing last season with an overall record of 15-15, the first winning record the Titans have had in 3 years, with a limited number of players shows the strength, fight and grit of what it takes to be a successful team.
With all of the players returning for 2016-2017 season including Brianne Cohen, named the conference’s “Sixth Player of The Year,” and new players joining the program including additions like Detroit native, Zoey Otis, and fifth year transfer from the University of Michigan, Kelsey Mitchell, the sky is the limit of what our team can do.
With our new motto “We Not Me” this season we put less emphasis on individual achievement and focus on the betterment of the team as a whole.
As we prepare endlessly for our upcoming season and our first game against Delaware State November 11th, we keep our new motto in mind. With this new motto and mindset, there is no way we can be stopped.
