Molly Coleman signs with USC Upstate
When Molly Coleman left Australia, having chosen Gillette as the place to start her college basketball career, she never had a goal of making it to the Division I level.
GILLETTE, WY-
When Molly Coleman left Australia, having chosen Gillette as the place to start her college basketball career, she never had a goal of making it to the Division I level.
"I'm not much of, like, a goals person or anything. I just kind of wanted to play basketball because I love it and just have a really good experience," Coleman said. "I was just kind of going to go along with whatever happened, so I was really taken away when (a Division I school) was looking at me."
The love of the game was enough, and Coleman will be playing at the highest level of college competition next season.
Coleman, a 6-foot-2 Gillette College sophomore from Adelaide, Australia, recently signed to play NCAA Division I basketball at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Coleman, a forward/post, averaged 12.3 points per game and led the team with a 60.7 field goal percentage in her final year with the Pronghorns. She also led the team in blocks, averaging 1.3 per game, and also notched an average of 6.1 rebounds per game this season.
"I'm just going to make the most of it and try my best and see what happens from it," Coleman said. "There's hardly anyone that even gets to play a college sport, and the fact that I've been able to for two years, and I get to go on to DI is so special."
As a freshman, she led Gillette College in scoring (12 points per game), rebounds (7.5) and blocks (1.3).
It was just from talking to coaches and a player from the Spartans' program that made up Coleman's mind.
"Their whole philosophy and the game they play, everything about them. They seem (like) really really good, caring people as well," she said.
The University of South Carolina Upstate finished 10-20 overall and 4-16 in the Big South Conference in the 2019-20 season.
Coleman said she plans to study exercise science at the university.
She said that she will miss Gillette when she begins her next basketball chapter in the summer.
"I loved the school, and I loved everyone that I met. Everyone in Gillette is just, like, so, so kind." Coleman said. "I loved my teammates, and I loved my coaches, and I'm really sad to leave, actually."