by by Darren DeLaune, MNN Sports Reporter
WINFIELD, Kansas — Raquel Grant was taught to play basketball by watching her family play. She looked up to her cousins to learn about this great sport and practiced every day to be better. Now she is at the age where there are children younger than her that are looking up to her to learn how to get better and what to do to succeed.
And with her signing to Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, Grant is only going to gain a bigger fan base and have even more kids looking up to her as she takes her basketball game to the next level.
Grant will be a “Moundbuilder” in the fall when she reports to the NAIA Division II school. Her new team is known for their fast breaks
(run and gun) style of basketball. A type of basketball that Grant feels she will fit in perfectly. “It is not too big, and it is not to small,” Grant said. “The style of basketball that Southwestern plays is a style that best fits me. There were other schools that were wanting me
here in Oklahoma, but Southwestern gave me the best opportunity with what I want to do with basketball and what I want to go into for my major.”
Wewoka will be missing this great talent for the next basketball season. Grant was the rock as well as the floor general for the Wewoka Tigers in all the years that she played.“I felt it was my job to set the tone for my team,” Grant said. “I kept my team motivated to play their best and to give no less than 100 percent.”
Coach Wesley Wood knows what Southwestern will be getting and he is very happy for her and her next chapter in her life.“Raquel started a new and great tradition for us here at Wewoka,” Wood said. “She knew what to do to make our team better, and did what it
takes to win. She was really good at getting everyone motivated. She was our leader and captain, a very humble person and deserves everything that she gets. Southwestern is getting a great basketball player, but overall, a great person when Raquel suits up with them next season.”
Grant wishes nothing but the best for her former team in the years to come. She also wants to be remembered for her hard work and
striving to get to where she is at.“Hard work is what helped me to get here,” Grant said. “I believed in myself and strived to make myself better. I want to be remembered for doing that. I am going to show everyone that you can come from a little school and still go to college. Anybody can go anywhere they want to and succeed. It all depends on how much heart you have and how much you can
push yourself.” “I am going to continue to push myself not only for basketball, but for my degree. This is a new experience for me and
goals to be reached.”
Grant will study science and business while at Southwestern. Grant (Creek) parents are Lori Proctor and Mandrill Grant. Her clan is Wind and her tribal town is Muskogee.
(Story provided by the Muscogee Nation News department, this and others can be read @ http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov/images/stories/pdf/MNN/mnnjul12.pdf)
