Gold Rush: Blue Collar Worker
1/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2003
By Sam Walker
Erin Ferrell wasn't the best player on her high school team, but she made her team better. She was the kind of blue-collar player who became competitive by mixing her skills with a work ethic that the competition would be hard-pressed to match. But there's no doubt she was the player that made it all come together. And she is doing the same thing early in her sophomore season for the Wake Forest women's basketball team. She scored in double figures in three straight games against UNC-Wilmington, Florida State and Virginia and has really made an impact coming off the bench for the Demon Deacons.
"For minutes played, she is probably our most productive player," head coach Charlene Curtis of Wake Forest said. "We recognize as a staff that we're going to get positive things out of her. The thing with Erin is that she works hard every day. There is no, 'I'm going to take a break today, or on this sequence.' She is going to go hard all the time and doesn't mind a challenge. She likes a challenge. She'll say, "Coach I'll guard the biggest post player on the opposing team and make it hard for her to get the ball,' and she'll do that. When you describe blue-collar worker, that's Erin."
Ferrell played her high school ball at The Bullis School of Gaitherburg, Md., where she teamed with Monique Curry, who is now at Duke, to lead her high school team to a 27-2 record and No. 1 ranking in the state. She scored more than 1,000 points and averaged 10.8 rebounds and four blocks per game playing for her father, Wayne Ferrell at The Bullis School. Curry was the star and last season was named the ACC Tournament MVP as a freshman. Meanwhile, Ferrell was progressively emerging at Wake Forest. She finished he freshman campaign averaging 5.1 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. Ferrell built her reputation as a fierce post defender. She did the little things that help win games, which was what Curtis wanted for her team when she recruited her out of high school. "She's a coaches daughter, so she has a good mind for the game," Curtis said. "In watching her, she was always on the floor for loose balls, getting offensive rebounds, was always where the ball was all the time. She made her high school team better. She wasn't the best player on her team. The best player was Monique Curry, but Erin was the one who made it happen. And in a lot of ways, on our team she is very valuable because she does those little things to make us better."
Ferrell didn't come in entirely ready to play at the collegiate level, but she adjusted little by little and averaged 19.6 minutes per game in the final five contests of the 2001-2002 season. Ferrell took to heart what Curtis had told her about lifting weights and getting stronger before beginning her collegiate career.
"When we recruited her, she was thin in the upper body, and we told her it was time to get in the weight room," Curtis said. "From the time she finished her season to the time she first got here, she had already gained some inches and gotten a little broader in the shoulders. So whatever we tell her to do, she is going to do it. She may not jump as high or be as quick as some other people, but she's going to get it done."
"I learned a lot last year, playing with a very mature team," Ferrell said. "LaChina Robinson and Val Klopfer taught me how to play disciplined ball, and I've learned you have to work hard every single day or it's going to show. It's a constant war, constant struggle. It's that every single person is a threat. I played on a very competitive high school team, but I wasn't used to everybody being a scoring threat. The girls are huge, and I was not used to that coming in. I would do my hardest work to push a girl out of the way, and she would not move, so strength is important. Postseason and preseason work is the most important."
Ferrell played summer league basketball and worked with a shooting and strength coach to prepare for her sophomore season. Arguably her best all around performance was against UNC-Wilmington where she scored 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in 29 minutes of action. Against Florida State, Ferrell hit two clutch free throws with 14.5 seconds left to tie the game at 61. And against ACC foe, Virginia Ferrell had another double-figure scoring night with 10 points.
Ferrell says her toughness comes from playing for her father, whom she says was the most critical of her play. But it has evidently well prepared Ferrell for the rigors that go with being a student-athlete at Wake Forest.
"It's a lot easier not playing for my dad," Ferrell said. "He was hard in the sense that he knew I could always do better so that always pushed me. I will never trade that experience for anything. But Coach Curtis can say anything to me, good or bad, and it won't phase me because I've come from playing for a very disciplined coach."
Ferrell is majoring in elementary education with aspirations of first teaching and later getting into school administration. She would be following in the footsteps of her mother, Linda, who is a central office administrator for the Montgomery County School System in Maryland. She also mentioned wanting to go after an MBA degree after finishing her undergraduate work. She is a person focused on her goals on and off the basketball court, and making strides. Curtis expects to get more out of Ferrell as the season progresses and hinted she may even work into the starting lineup.
"It's early so she is going to get better, and her skills are going to get better as she gets stronger," Curtis said. "She can now put the ball on the floor from the high post and get to the basket, has a good up-and-under move and has good range on her shot. The next step is for her to be able to shoot the ball more off the dribble, but we don't need her to do that right now. We just need her to be that gritty, gutsy kind of player she is. She might be a sweet, nice young lady, but I wouldn't want to be in the post with her. She doesn't look like she would be a physical player, but she plays a physical game, and that gives her that edge.
"She's playing well and making us make some decisions about our starting lineup. She's very determined, so I don't ever think there will be a wall she can't knock down or get around."