Freshmen Growing Up While Living the Dream
Boni, Clark pick up pace as season progresses
Mike Brohard
They’re living the dream.
Show up as a true freshman, start a bunch of games and do so for a team that’s in first place.
“I was really excited coming in, because I knew we had a good recruiting class and the girls who were already here, I knew we were going to be good,” true freshman Cali Clark said. “I had high hopes, and it’s meeting all of my expectations and more.”
For Colorado State’s women’s basketball team, it’s been the dream, times two, as both Clark and Ellie Boni have combined to start 20 games for a team which is 12-2 overall, 8-2 in Mountain West and residing in the penthouse suite.
That doesn’t mean it has been easy for either of them, and there have been growing pains long the way. Some of them have been mental hurdles to clear, others learning the ropes in making the jump to the college game.
What has been comforting for both of them is the reminders along the way, from coaches and teammates alike, they can do this. They can and should be counted on to do big things. They are to be seen and heard.
They matter.
“We put them in some tough situations, especially right out of the gate,” CSU coach Ryun Williams said. “They’ve really responded well. I think the oldies on our team have done a tremendous job of bringing the youth along, as well, and kind of guiding them and leading them in some tough situations and having them ready to play. I put some credit there, too, as well. The thing I’ve really enjoyed about them – really all of our new kids and young kids – is they are very coachable. That’s why I think you’re see this. They want all the information, they want to know how to improve and they have tremendous work ethic. You put all of that together, you’re going to have success.”
For young players to gain confidence, coaches have to put them in situations which scream it out loud, which is what Williams did when the Rams opened conference play against two-time defending champion Fresno State. Defensively, he assigned Boni to the guard Haley Cavinder, the freshman of the year the season prior.
Out of the gates, Boni realized it was an expectation being placed on her, even if it was brand new in her mind.
“I really never considered myself a lock-down defender, if I’m being completely honest, but it’s really nice coming in as a freshman and getting that assignment, being that person to guard their best perimeter player,” Boni said. “It gives me some sort of confidence, where I know I’m kind of needed out there on a really good end. It’s nice coming in that he trusts me right off the bat.
“Just having that trust early on and knowing that he’s going to rust me throughout the next three years I’m here is super cool.”
There’s a tremendous belief. They have a tremendous belief in themselves and what they’re doing because the people around them believe in them. I think that helps get through a tough night, or what have you.Ryun Williams
They also asked her to score, and she produced double-digits in each game of the split. Yet for both her and Clark, the road hasn’t been paved with superlative moments, and in the early part of the season, they both had to deal with the fact.
They are freshmen, and often, that leads to the feeling of not being able to make mistakes or else they’ll be on the bench. Boni had the extra layer of having to do so through an early season injury.
“I think it was more mental for me. The first couple of games, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m a freshman, and I was setting as super-high expectation of I have to be perfect and minimize my errors,” Clark said. “Nobody is perfect, so I think having the coaches keep expressing that to me and telling me you’re going to make mistakes, we’re just trying to minimize them. Just understanding I am going to make mistakes and I have to grow a sense of maturity, I’m glad I was able to develop that finally.
“College basketball is different. Everybody is good, so being able to play through that and learn from them on the fly in games was really good.”
Patience by the coaching staff has paid off, for the team and the players themselves.
At this point, Williams no longer considers them freshmen, but he’ll continue to teach them as such while pushing them as if they were more experienced veterans. That, he says, is how they’ll grow. What has aided the development is their understanding of what the staff is doing, how the veterans around them encourage them and, maybe most importantly, the increased understanding of Boni and Clark they won’t be sent to timeout.
“They’re very good at being resilient. It probably has some difficulty to it,” Williams said. “They’re very strong minded, and I think what allows them to get through those tough stretches is, one, they’re very, very confident. Two, their teammates and the coaching staff instills a lot of confidence in them. There’s a tremendous belief. They have a tremendous belief in themselves and what they’re doing because the people around them believe in them. I think that helps get through a tough night, or what have you. They’ve also played enough ball to know it’s just sports.”
They also have the luxury of not having to carry the load. Clark has an experienced post mentor in Karly Murphy, and Boni has plenty of guards around her to mold her, and both of them use the advice given. But they also have each other, which is comforting knowing you have somebody on the floor in a very similar situation who can relate to a tough practice, a rough run of minutes or even the high of doing something right at a key moment of the game.
Those are moments which are building for both.
If you look at the overall numbers, they aren’t going to be the first to jump off the stat sheet. Boni is averaging 7.8 points per game, Clark 5.9. Clark is averaging 4.9 rebounds a night, Boni 3.5. The current trends sell a different narrative.
After being held scoreless in the opener against Utah State, Boni has come back with consecutive double-figure outings in the road sweep of Boise State, including a career-best 19 in the first game, and she’s averaging better than 10 points in the past three contests. She also pulled down a career-best nine rebounds in the first game against the Broncos.
For her, those games told her she was back to feeling like herself.
“I just kinda felt different, but in a good way,” Boni said. “Even when I came back in the second game, I just felt like I was more aggressive, I got to the line. I know when I’m aggressive because I get to the line. I was looking for my 3s again – I know I was off on my 3s for a little bit – and those were starting fall, my confidence started to get more up and defensively I was doing well. I think mentally I’m back and it’s good to be back. It was good to have that series of just playing solid and contributing for the team.”
For Clark, her first glimpse of moving forward came in the series finale against UNLV, a road win where she scored eight points and pulled down eight rebounds. Against Utah State, she was challenged to score – and produced – which carried over for her in the sweep of Boise State.
She has three of her five double-figure scoring games in the past four contests, averaging better than 10 points per game herself in that span. She had a career-best 14 points against the Aggies, and while she knows it is important she scores, her first love is rebounding.
In the past five games, she’s averaging eight a night (she hasn’t grabbed less than seven), including a career-best nine in the closer against the Broncos. When Williams speaks to her in practice, the word rebound is generally part of the narrative, because he believes she can be one of the program leaders by the time she’s done.
“Slight pressure, but I feel because I understand that part of my role, it comes naturally,” Clark said. “Rebounding has always been such a natural thing to me. I love that they’ve given me that challenge and they do it on a daily basis. I hope to achieve it. I need to focus on it a little bit more, because there were a few that slipped out of my fingers.”
By now, they’ve gotten past the nervousness of stepping on toes. Of feeling that maybe they shouldn’t shoot, not with a Lore Devos, Tori Williams and McKenna Hofschild on the floor. Besides, the Rams’ trio has told them time and time again to not only look for their shots, but take them.
There are plenty to go around for a team which is second in the Mountain West in scoring (83.6 points) and leads in scoring margin (17.2). For the freshmen, it’s been a blast.
It’s been the dream.
“It’s not easy, no, but it is fun,” Boni said. “There’s a lot of hard work and a lot of sweat and tears put into games. When you do that, it’s fun. Practices should be hard, hard, hard and games should just be fun. Not easy, but fun.”