Making Friends First, Baskets Are Next on Her List
Vaz brings energy and positivity to CSU women's basketball
Mike Brohard
Ryun Williams is not into making proclamations.
If he recruits a player, it is because he thinks she’ll make an impact on the team, but he likes to reserve expectations for a spell, let them feel their way into the program and the system and let the player come to life. Joseana Vaz is no different.
He likes her athleticism and the promise it holds, but she’s also coming from the junior college level, so there are adaptations she’ll have to make entering the Mountain West. How soon she adjusts holds no timeline to him.
But he is positive she will make a positive impact on his team. Truth is, she already has. The mere mention of her name elicits smiles and adoration. Basically, before the Colorado State women’s basketball team has officially played a game this year – that comes tonight at Moby Arena against BYU – Vaz is pretty much everybody’s best friend.
“She’s got an extremely infectious personality. It’s hard to come in as a new person and everybody wants to put their arms around you, and that’s exactly what’s happened,” Williams said. “Everybody really loves Jo. She can communicate with everybody on the team, she has a great sense of humor, and she cares for everybody on the team, and everybody can see that. That’s why I think everybody is drawn to her personality.”
Really, who doesn’t love to be around somebody who will poke fun at her teammates and herself and enjoys laughing at the ludicrousness of horror movies which scare her roommates?
As it turns out, all of the Rams do.
“It’s so much fun to be around. She creates a different energy,” Sydney Mech said. “You know if you do something bad, she’ll be there. And if she’s having a bad day, you pick her up. You know we’ll always be able to laugh and joke things off. Sometimes things can get really serious and it’s hard, and it’s nice to sometimes have that little joke which will help you here and there.
“It’s super rare. I’ve never had a teammate like her.”
Nor one from Praia, Cape Verde either. It’s the age old story, really.
Growing up in Praia, the largest city in the island nation found just west off the coast of Africa, she earned a spot on the junior national team. They end up playing a tournament in Portugal, and a coach who knows somebody who knows somebody who has connections with some other person leads her to sign with Casper College in Wyoming.
“I said, OK. I went to play, and I found Casper was a lot different, but I mean, two years there was good,” she said. “I learned a lot and now we’re in Fort Collins.
“I think the people here, they really enjoy life and they’re like family. Casper was a good place. It’s different, but I feel like I’m home because they gave me love. I was good with that.”
In her second season, she started all 33 games and led the team in scoring, guiding a path to the NJCAA National Tournament. That’s where Williams found the 6-footer who he can clearly tell can play but is still a bit raw.
“She still has a ways to go. It’s hard to be a new person in a Division I program and pick things up really quick,” he said. “She’s very competitive, she’s very physical and she’s very versatile in how she can play. She can drive it, she’s a pretty good playmaker for us and she can guard multiple positions on the floor. She’s a very physical inside presence in the pro-post, so that’s what she’s going to bring. And she’s just a different level of athlete. It’s yet to be unlocked. There’s still a lot of processing, there’s still some overthinking going on, but there are those moments when she’s freed up and she plays out of the right side of her brain that she’s different. She’s a unique one.”
For now, she’s a center or a forward, In time, she may play some on the wing, a progression which will depend on her defensive development.
Life is good, you know? My dad is a sweet guy, and my mom too. I learned this way from them. A lot of love. I love everybody.Joseana Vaz
What is clear is she moves well on the floor, which she showed in the team’s exhibition outing. She scored 10 points in 11 minutes off the bench, showing her ability to finish at the rim. She pulled down a couple of rebounds and collected three steals, but she also had a pair of fouls, the result of an unnecessary overzealousness going after rebounds through people.
She’ll learn, just as she did to be herself with the team.
The first time Mech met her as at Denver International Airport as Vaz was arriving and Mech’s family was returning from a vacation in Mexico. She was quiet then. She’s anything but now.
“In the very beginning, she was really shy, kinda like how I was,” said Petra Farkas, who is roommates with Mech and Vaz. “I know, because when I got here, I was like, I'm going to step back because I don’t know what’s going on.
“I feel like it’s in our culture to have people around who are positive. People have bad days, and we just have to carry on and lift up each other. She doesn’t really have those bad days, maybe once a month. Everyone admires her, listens when she talks, and she says good things. She’s a newcomer, so we have to make sure she knows how we like guarding the ball, how we run the offense, but she also listens really well, so it’s never been a problem.”
Vaz is very comfortable in her own skin, which Williams considers to be a gift. She is unapologetically herself, which deep down is a very fun person. She helps Farkas keep the house clean, but she’ll also make fun of her. And Mech. And Williams for that matter. She did on her recruiting trip, which made a positive impression on her soon-to-be coach.
If one of them does something goofy, she is going to point it out. And if she does, she expects the same treatment.
“It’s like you know where the line is to stop joking around with people, right?” Farkas said. “Her line is way pushed over. She does not really have one.”
She also loves horror movies, and listening to Mech and Farkas, they think it’s because they’re scary. Farkas said ‘It Follows’ got her, and Mech said it was creepy. The month of Halloween, it was a sure bet to find Vaz watching one and her teammates joining her.
Vaz’s critique of the movie is well, ho-hum. For the most part, she sees them as comedies.
Really, don’t we all, deep down?
“It’s just fun for me. I like the adrenaline and stuff, but I don’t know, I think they’re funny because the reality is not there,” she said. “I don’t have a movie that scares me. I kind of laugh at them more.
"I watched ‘It Follows’ a long time ago, and it’s a little scary, but not too much.”
What really gets her going is basketball, and she’s dead serious about her game and being a part of this team.
The adrenaline she finds in Fort Collins is the challenge which awaits her in the form of escalating her game.
“I am excited to elevate my level of basketball,” she said. “Division I is different than junior college, and here, I feel I’m going to improve a lot. I’m going to learn different ways to play. Every coach I’ve had has their way to teach and their way to see basketball, and I think I’m going to be good.
“I think I’m a running and a driving player, and coach has a system where we’re driving and moving, so I think that’s going to be good for me, because I’m always moving.”
She’s not the only one who is excited to see how much she grows and how long it will take her to become a major contributor. There are a lot of new faces to the team, so there are a lot of moving parts – literally. Vaz was just one who showed well in the exhibition, putting on display what they’ve seen in practice every day.
Based on what her teammates have seen, their clock is ticking a lot faster than Williams’. They’re leaning toward sooner rather than later.
“I do. She’s very athletic, bouncy, strong,” Mech said. “That’s one of the biggest things. We keep telling her, use that. She’s a great runner. I think junior college is a different type of basketball, and she can bring that competitiveness and toughness we really need.”
But right off the bat, she brought what she knew she could, which was a positivity through encouragement. Practice can be hard, so an uplifting voice is never a bad thing. Talk somebody through a tough drill and make sure to pat them on the back when they do something right.
Every squad needs that type of teammate, and Vaz was already primed.
“Oh yeah. I don’t know, but I have this thing where I like to make friends and know new people,” she said. “Life is good, you know? My dad is a sweet guy, and my mom too. I learned this way from them. A lot of love. I love everybody.
“Team chemistry is important for the success, so I feel we need to do that to be better if we want to compete in this league. And I think we should. We have to encourage.”
He liked her when he met her, but Williams said he’s never seen anybody become fast friends with everybody on a team so quick. In that regard, he’s willing to say, without question, she’s made an immediate impact on the team.