Maureen Craig '12 Recruiting Profile

     I can hardly remember not playing basketball - I am 17 and have been playing since I was 8, pretty much year round between AAU and school.   It just keeps getting better and better and I love it.  I have a new set of challenges this season being the only returning starter from last year's conference champion and regional finalist team - but I am enjoying it a great deal.  I have been most pleased that my coach has shown enough confidence in me to let me use my experience to help the younger players get better, and I feel like I have huge stake in our success this year. 
     Sports have been a really big deal in our family.  My Dad was a high school football coach for 28 years, and was also my first basketball coach. My mom was an all conference basketball player.   My oldest sister is now serving as an assistant basketball coach at Bethel College after her college career was cut short by injury.  I loved getting to play with her one school season when I was a freshman and she was a senior, and I am so proud that the coaches all say the same things about us - that we have extremely high court IQ's,  make the other players around us better, and can slow down the game and see several moves ahead.  She is bigger and stronger than me, but I'm a better shooter! My brother is a starter at D2 Tiffin University in football, and my little brother is a multi sport star who might be the best of all of us!  I think coming from a family like mine has had a big role in making me the player I am - the hard work and discipline just seems to be natural. I never get tired of it .  It is what we do.
     I lead a really busy life, and know how important it is to be organized.  I play basketball year round, play other sports in season, maintain a 3.6 gpa, am involved in just about every club and activity there is in school, and have jobs lifeguarding and working in a local bike shop. I am taking a 3 hour Professional Health Careers block of classes this year, which meets onsite at a local hospital.  This experience, along with my time volunteering at Ronald MacDonald Room Charities, has helped me clarify my desire to study health professions in college and enter this career.  On a completely different note, I recently was crowned Miss Niles - all of the towns in southwest Michigan have contests and select a queen who competes in a year-end pageant.  While I will take a charge, dive for the ball, hack a hard foul, and have broken my wrist, my fingers, and my nose playing basketball, it's a lot of fun to dress up and feel beautiful too.  I have a long list of activities and appearances that go with my title, and am also getting some nice scholarship money that will help with college!
     Although I will finish high school with 12 varsity letters, playing basketball in college is my goal.  I am just not ready for this to be over.  I am open about size, location and playing level at college - I want a place where I fit in and can get a great education.  I am a Christian and am open to a faith based school, although this is not a requirement.   I have never played on a losing team, and want to take my ability to help everyone be better to the next level.  I am often the smallest player on the court, but I will play with brains, play with desire, play with pain when I need to, and never, ever quit.  With the clock ticking down, and a point behind, I want the ball.  Its my shot.