Annika Corcoran, who started her collegiate career as Detroit Mercy women’s basketball player, is back with the program this season after a brief detour.
Corcoran graduated high school in Ohio in 2019. Shortly before, Annika committed to the University of Detroit Mercy to play women’s basketball during her junior year of high school. Once she graduated, she then came in the summer for post/preseason.
She decided to commit early to Detroit Mercy because she really liked the coaches she was recruited by and wanted to go somewhere she really felt wanted. She was also intrigued by the academic program that was offered.
“The criminal justice program was another big reason I came,” Corcoran said.
This is the focus of her studies and she will graduate with her bachelor’s in May 2024.
However, her first experience at Detroit Mercy did not go as smoothly as he hoped.
“My first year was very up and down, from a school perspective and being on the court,” Corcoran said.
Things started well. Corcoran started and played all the games as a freshman which. Everything was just great. She loved the school, coaches, students up until the last game of the season, when she tore her ACL.
Returning as a sophomore that very next year, Corcoran faced adversity and dealt with a lot of changes. She was recovering from her injury with no way to play, the coaching staff had left and then the world had shut down due to COVID-19.
“Overall, I think at that time things were just crazy in my life,” Corcoran said.
Fast-forward through the season and Annika ended up getting cleared to play a few games but things just weren’t connecting with the new coaches and returning players so the best option for her was to leave the program.
Corcoran had just enough film to land an offer by a nearby university but still kept her options open. The University of Akron is where she attended in 2021. There were also ups and downs there still, but it was very different, a bigger school and a lot closer to home.
She had no problems with being on the court. She started every game there and her team was ranked high in the conference. Academically, she explained it was really challenging to learn because professors weren’t as catering and the program itself just had no comparison to the University of Detroit Mercy.
Corcoran also struggled with not fitting in very well socially and had other personal issues that ultimately led to her departure from Akron. Later, she entered the transfer portal but wasn’t sure about continuing her college career, which she was 95% completely fine with accepting the fact.
Ultimately 5% of her was comfortable enough to reach out to Detroit Mercy requesting a spot on the team no matter the result of the outcome. She knew a bit about the new coach, had hope and sent the email as a last resort. The email wasn’t seen by the coaches till the beginning of the school year because it went into junk mail. Once read, they immediately called Corcoran up and got her a full-ride scholarship on campus.
Coach Kate Achter spoke highly of the new/returner addition to the team. Achter excitingly said her current role for the team is being a backup point guard, but she thinks Corcoran is emerging as a leader and works tremendously hard.
Achter said of the entire group, “Our team has put in a lot of good work, and I think we are going to see the fruits of our labor pay off.”
