Senior Kristian Eanes has earned her place on the West team of the East-West All-Star basketball game, a prestigious basketball championship held for the top high school athletes across North Carolina. Eanes will be the first female basketball player to represent Northwood.
The 2017 East-West All-Star Basketball Game will be held Monday, July 17, 2017 at the Greensboro Coliseum, and the women’s game will take place at 6:30 p.m.
According to Eanes, it feels good to break records, and it’s an honor to be able to play.
“I’m super excited about playing, representing for Northwood, for my my family, for my community,” Eanes said. “It’s an honor to be able to play and just represent all of you guys. I’m excited because when you see the fruits of your labor happening, then that’s really nice also.”
Competition is high in the All-Star game, and securing a spot on the roster is tough.
“I mean, you have to be a pretty good basketball player, and you also have to be a pretty good person,” girls’ basketball coach Cameron Vernon said. “It’s not easy…. It is hard to get to be selected for this team, so [they] doesn’t come around every day, those type of kids.”
Players from all counties in North Carolina are eligible to play, but individuals must be nominated by their high school coach and chosen by the East or West team coaches.
“It’s a big deal for [Eanes] to be selected,” Vernon said. “They don’t only take into consideration her athletic ability, they take in her as an all-around person, and if you know anything about Kristian, you know that there’s no one better to represent our school than her.”
Fellow teammate Jazanae Billings feels that Eanes’ spot on the All-Star team is a reflection of her hard work, as well as the team’s support.
“I think it’s such a big deal for our school and also the girls’ varsity basketball team, because not only did she accomplish it for herself, but I feel like we as a team helped her accomplish her goal,” Billings said. “Being that we had three of our main star players out this year, she really stepped up and she had team support throughout this entire year. She knew that we were going to have to have her step up, so it was really important for us, even though we didn’t end the season like we wanted to.”
Billings is proud of Eanes’ accomplishment and believes this opportunity will help her in the future.
“Kristian and I have played together since we were really young, and we started playing rec ball together,” Billings said. “Seeing her do this for the team and for herself, for her to get the experience and knowledge…is really important, and it looks good for the school because, again, she is the first and not second person to make it to the All-Star game, so it looks really good.”
It’s rare that players in the East-West All-Star game compete without having earned a college scholarship, and many players from the East-West game go onto play for other championships or Division I schools. In the fall, Eanes will attend Queen’s University as a scholarship recipient.
“It’s going to be an awesome experience for her,” Vernon said. “She’s going to go there and practice with all these girls from the West side of the state…. She’s going to be able to go to a dinner, really fancy, be honored, she’s going to get a jersey that she gets to keep. This whole experience is really an honor for her and she deserves it, because she’s worked really hard.”
While Eanes isn’t aiming to win, she hopes to make the best of the experience, play hard and make new connections.
“[I want] to be able to play my hardest when I’m out there against the good competition,” Eanes said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play against such high caliber players, and to meet new people and make new friends that could potentially turn into lifelong, lifetime connections that I might need, or even just lifetime friends.”
Vernon hopes Eanes becomes an inspiration to other Northwood students and athletes and motivates them to fulfill their own achievements.
“I hope that the other kids in the school seeing her achieve this look at that and say, ‘Why can’t that be me? Why can’t I do something like that?’” Vernon said. “I hope it motivates the other kids to strive to be the best that they can be, on and off the court. Maybe someday they can be selected for the basketball team, or football or soccer. I just hope it motivates other kids.”
– By Leah Kallam
