Meet Kiah HicksQ: Who is your favorite basketball player and how has that player inspired you?A: My favorite player is definitely a tie between Letricia Castillo and Alecia Steele. Both of them played for the Air Force Academy, Castillo from ’02-’06 and Steele from ’03-’07. I think that Castillo always just stood out to me as someone who was hard working and knew the game of basketball. I first saw her play when I was about 10 and she was just immediately my favorite player. Even though she played point guard, her game was just so natural and I wanted to be able to play as calm, fundamental and as good as she did. Steele just graduated recently, so I was a little older when I watched her play; she was a post but she could dribble and shoot as well as (and quite frankly better than) anybody on the floor. She chose AFA because she wanted to serve her country; to me, that says a lot. She understands that basketball is brilliant, fun and important, but that there are things more important than a game.Q: How long have you been playing basketball? And do you play any other sports?A: I started in the school league in fourth grade and year round in fifth grade, so seven years now. My spring sport is throwing in track which I’ve been doing since 8th grade and I’m pretty solid in that sport. Fall sports haven’t been as solid. In 5th-8th grade I played football, I tried volleyball as a freshman, which just wasn’t a good substitute for football so I switched to cross country as a sophomore. This fall, I didn’t do any fall school sport and instead did team handball and ended up going to Germany to play for the US U18 team and was invited to Poland (but I didn’t go because it was during the first 2 weeks of basketball.)Q: The Falcon girls’ team plays awesome together; how do you help lead the team?A: We all just keep each other in check during practice and always try to keep up the intensity. We always try to talk to each other when we are mad at each other to keep the drama off our team. We’ve all seen in the past years how drama has killed teams from Falcon as well as other teams so we are learning from their mistakes and making ourselves better from it. I always try to listen to everyone’s opinions and even though most of the time I can’t make everyone happy, I can try and do something that helps our team in general.Q: What is your favorite basketball team?A: I don’t really have a favorite basketball team. I root in a game by game basis. It keeps me from being biased and I like to root for underdogs and against my friends. It’s fun to watch people get so pumped when they defend their favorite team. The team I always root for though is AFA. I’ve grown up going to tailgates and their basketball games so it’s not even just a team anymore, it’s a culture. I know that their good seasons come and go or for some sports few and far between, but they are my team through thick and thin.Meet Shelby GonieaQ: Have you always played basketball? Do you play other sports as well?A: I started playing basketball in second grade at Falcon Elementary! I also play volleyball and track. Freshman year until now I have played volleyball on JV. Freshman year I played varsity track but couldn’t sophomore year because I dislocated my SI joint last year during basketball.Q: You all seem to play well together as a team. How do you help lead the team? A: I am only a junior! Kristin and Leah are our only two seniors. They are great assets to our team. As for that leader part I try to keep everyone pumped up and be positive even if I get down on myself. I also try to cheer everyone on even if they miss a basket and try to talk to guards about passing to the post. I was a post from 7th to 10th grade and now I’m a guard so I know how it feels to post up and not get the ball so now as a guard I try to get them the ball.Q: Who is your favorite basketball player and how does that player inspire you?A: My favorite basketball player is Chris Anderson the “BirdMan”! (from Denver Nuggets). He inspires me because he is a great player. In my eyes I don’t think he plays for himself but for his team, he isn’t out there to score the most points but to hustle his butt off and make opportunities for his teammates. No matter what happens he always tries to hustle back and get on D and try to stop the other team from scoring with his amazing blocks.Responses from Kiah Hicks and Shelby Goniea in this Q & A portion of the article are unedited.
