Jessie Shetters let her thoughts flow softly.
The 6-foot-6-inch Oregon center stands out on the basketball court.
She sat in a chair last Wednesday in McArthur Court. Dressed comfortably in a loose-fitting sweatshirt and sweatpants, Oregon’s tallest player has seen the highs and lows the last four years.
She’s been on a team devastated by an injury to Cathrine Kraayeveld as a freshman, requiring her to start 11 times. She watched her minutes diminish her sophomore season as Kraayeveld returned and Oregon reached the NCAA Tournament. She had a mini-breakthrough her junior year, but remained in the shadow of starter Gabrielle Richards. This season, Shetters emerged with the best season of her four-year Oregon career.
She is putting up career-high averages of 5 points and 7.5 rebounds a game.
But as playing careers go, few ever go perfectly. Injuries, losing streaks and missed shots in the postseason always seem to interfere. Shetters suffered a stress fracture in her back in the first half of Pacific-10 Conference play, an injury that’s caused her to miss 10 games and have smaller roles in two others.
Shetters could have been a distraction, sulking in her misfortune. She decided instead on a more positive outlook.
“For as hard as it was on her, she just took on the attitude, ‘How can I help this team in the situation I’m in?’ and I think that’s from her perspective as a senior,” coach Bev Smith said.
Credit should go to players on the court who sparked Oregon’s 6-3 run to close the season. An equal amount of credit should go to Shetters, who made sure she stayed involved, whether it was chest bumping during the announcement of the starting lineups or helping in practice.
“I tried to find ways to incorporate myself, like the chest bumping, and in practice I asked if I could be a passer in certain drills and that kind of stuff,” Shetters said. “It was important for me to still feel like I was part of the team.”
Smith added: “You never really know what’s going on when you have to sit out until you do it. I think Jess struggled with it a little bit because it was hard for her. She was having such a great season and she knew how important she was to our basketball team and I think she was concerned for us.”
Shetters’ absence has coincidentally allowed back-up Jamie Hawkins to emerge as a reliable post player who will only make the team stronger when Shetters returns to the regular rotation.
Shetters made sacrifices, returning earlier than expected, to make a small appearance against Stanford in what could have been her final game at McArthur Court and played seven minutes in a win at Washington State, even though the physical contact left her sore and unable to play at rival Washington two days later.
In the process, Shetters is showing that personal goals are secondary to the team’s success. And what is important is momentum going into next season, and that means a berth in the postseason, likely the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.
This next step is important with at least five freshmen joining the team next season.
“I think that the freshmen that they have coming in understand what it takes and the kind of sacrifices you need to make to play at this level,” Shetters said.
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