Registered fishermen still waiting by the phone for BP
June 22, 2010
Helen LeBoeuf
June 24, 2010
For the past two seasons, Vandebilt Catholic center Theresa Plaisance has represented the Tri-parish area with her dominant basketball arsenal.
That basketball success enabled her to move on and represent Louisiana. She helped Vandebilt win the Class 4A state championship and is committed to continue her playing career at LSU.
But this summer, the 6-foot-5-inch center will reach even higher and will trade in the purple and gold for America’s red, white and blue.
Plaisance was announced last week as a member of this summer’s USA Women’s U18 National Team, a team that will compete this summer for a spot in the 2011 World Championships.
“To have a chance to represent your country and play for your country, that’s just such a huge honor,” Plaisance said. “It will be an honor to be able to play with the caliber of athletes they have up here playing with us. It’s really exciting.”
Plaisance was one of several dozen players to try out for the squad. From the large group, she was one of 16 players to make Team USA’s preliminary roster.
The Vandebilt standout then made the final 12-player roster, after tryouts at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Co.
“Honestly, I was relieved. Competing for that spot, not knowing that you have it, it just gets to you, and it’s really nerve wracking,” she said. “Every time you make a bad pass or something, you’re just thinking in the back of your mind that, ‘Oh, that’s going to be the pass that gets me cut.’ But it’s just a great feeling to actually be on this team now.”
With a spot now secure, Plaisance will help Team USA at the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championships, which begin today when Team USA locks horns with Puerto Rico.
The Americans are coached by University of Hartford coach Jen Rizzotti. Florida State coach Sue Semrau, and Central Florida coach Joi Williams will serve as assistants on Rizzotti’s staff.
The Americans are heavily favored to earn their spot at the World Championships in Chile.
But despite being the favorites, Plaisance said practices have been brutal from Day 1 in Colorado.
“These practices are really intense. They want you to bring out every part of yourself that you can. … You never get a break,” she said. “We practice like that for two and a half hours, twice a day, so you’re going pretty hard almost all day. You’re absolutely exhausted at night. You definitely look forward to that night’s sleep.”
When Plaisance’s summer with the national team comes to a close, she will embark on her collegiate career at LSU.
She said playing with the best of the best in Colorado Springs would make her move to the college game much easier.
Several of her former McDonald’s All-American teammates also made the team with the Vandebilt standout.
“Just playing against this competition is going to better everyone in our transitions from the high school to the college game,” she said. “It’s just a lot easier than how it would have been without us being here playing against each other with the best of the best.”
Throughout the qualifying process, Plaisance said the team’s coaching staff gave players a detailing sheet, grading each aspect of their games.
She said the feedback she has received is that she needs to build her upper body strength to be able to better handle the physical post players in the Southeastern Conference.
“I just want to get stronger and basically just get better all-around,” she said. “You can never be too good at anything, so you have to keep working at everything to make yourself better.”
If the Americans make it to the World Championships, Plaisance will have to qualify for the team again to be able to play in that event.
But regardless of what the future holds, she said wearing red, white and blue for one summer will yield memories that will last a lifetime.
“This is what you dream of as a kid,” she said.
“We all play basketball because we love the game … To be able to play for your country. That’s something that is a dream of not only me, but probably of every person who falls in love with this game.”
Former VCHS and soon to be LSU Center Theresa Plaisance poses in front of the storied Olympic rings at the USA Basketball headquarters in Colorado Springs, Co. Plaisance has been named to the United States’ U18 National Team. * COURTESY PHOTO
