just something I was born to do. I don’t think basketball is hard for me, but when it comes to being a better person, (Gilbert) has to coach me on that.” After graduating six seniors
from a team that played into the third round of the Women’s Post-season NIT, these young Eagles have—much to just about everyone’s surprise— already beaten Michigan and taken Michigan State into overtime. They have talent and grit. What they needed from James is something she’s never had to give before. “She’ll be the fi rst to tell
you, ‘I didn’t want to be the example,’” Gilbert said. “It was kind of like, ‘I’m giving you 20 points a game, what more do you want?’ But leadership is so much more than just points. When you’re a leader, you’re going to have to sacrifi ce.”
ilbert was asking for those little off -court things— setting aside social plans to host a recruit, pushing hard in the off -season when it seems like no one is looking. Then one day last August—a few weeks after that conditioning run— the coach walked into her offi ce and found a note on her desk. It was from James, and it said, “I think I’m ready. I think you know what I’m talking about.” “I just felt like I knew this
G
Tavelyn James is the first player from a Mid-American Conference school to earn a spot on a USA basketball team roster.
team would follow me,” James said. “I realized everything I do, they’re watching, and I came to the conclusion that it was my time, and I was ready. I was ready for the pressure
and everything else.” Not long afterward, USA Basketball called and James
spent two weeks representing the U.S. in Guadalajara, Mexico - a well-timed bit of positive reinforcement. The USA coaches played James—a 5-foot-7 off - guard in EMU’s lineup—at point guard. She started every game. James is working on a
degree in health administration, a choice driven by her family’s struggles to get help for her older sister Tawana Edwards, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 25. But she also has a real shot at a professional basketball career. “It feels like this is a dream,”
she says. “I would never ever have thought that me being the size I am and coming from where I came from, I might have the opportunity to play professionally.”
James picked up a basketball for the fi rst time when she was nine years old. She stood out right away, Edwards says, even though at fi rst she was playing with boys. The game was so much fun when she was younger, James says. Only when she got to EMU did she fi nd out it could also be so much work. Long practices, intense
workouts. This obligation to help teammates rise to the challenge. At fi rst, she didn’t really understand what Gilbert was asking of her. Now she gets it. “Tavelyn has come a long
way since her freshman year,” Gilbert said. “She wasn’t coming from a program where she had to learn to be part of a system. She had to learn how to be part of something larger than
herself.” 3 —Amy Whitesall
Eastern | WINTER 2012 9
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