University of Washington Official Athletic Site - Women's Basketball
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Freshman Megan Franza
by Ryan Wilkerson
From the opening tip of the first game of the college season, everyone in the small eastern Washington town of Leavenworth has been watching Megan Franza's every move.
The talented Franza developed a following in her hometown while becoming a four-year letter winner in basketball, volleyball and track at Cascade High School, in the little German town of Leavenworth, at the other end of Stevens Pass.
"The whole town gets excited when they see someone they know on TV," explains Franza.
On Monday, December 29th, the 1,500 residents of Leavenworth had their first opportunity to watch Franza and the Huskies on television in their win over Texas. In all, 5,541 fans were at Hec Edmunson Pavilion to watch the game live. Franza has never played in front of a crowd that big, and she laughed when she was asked if she ever had. Cascade drew some rather large crowds during the State Tournament at the Tacoma Dome, but none of them were close to the numbers in attendance versus Texas.
"The crowd was huge, the noise was amazing," Franza says.
Franza's high school numbered just 400 students, with 90 in her graduating class. Although the number of people in Leavenworth may be small, the support Franza has received from them hasn't been. The lifelong encouragement began with her father. Franza's dad has helped her and her sister with basketball since they were very young.
"My dad taught me how to shoot since I was a lefty and it was hard for me to learn how," Franza recalls. "He saw that I couldn't play post forever and would have to learn ball handling. Without him I would definitely not be as good a basketball player."
The interest in Franza's team seemed to reach city-wide.
"There was a lot of involvement. The whole town had someone on the team or involved in the school, so we had good crowds," she says. "We had a little local paper that focused a lot on sports."
Even local businesses got involved in the success of Franza and her teammates as their team poster and schedule began to appear on restaurant walls.
The support didn't end when Franza left the town of sledding and snowmobiling for Seattle, where, Franza explains, "the weather is nice." Franza has had many friends and relatives make the trip across the pass to watch her play.
"One of my parents has been at every home game, about 50 people from my town came to the Texas game, and my old basketball coach from high school has already brought the whole team over to watch." Franza says proudly.
Franza plans on going back to her small town someday to repay the town for its guidance.
"I want to go back to teach 4th or 6th grade and coach." she says.
But before she goes back, Franza is going to strive to make the town proud of what she does on the court.
As a freshman in the starting line up and with high expectations, Franza has had to deal with a great deal of pressure, while battling the nervousness of many firsts. Going into the first practice with her team, Franza tried to prepare herself.
"I expected to be overwhelmed," she says, "and the team did a good job of keeping me from becoming overwhelmed. You just have to play."
The first stepping stone was, of course, her first game in a Husky uniform, an exhibition game in which she totaled 21 points. It didn't get any easier from there. Franza's next test was her first road game at her first collegiate tournament, the Iowa Classic. Franza was again seemingly unfazed, scoring 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the championship game against then-No. 18 Iowa.
After a 3-0 start, Franza and the Huskies came home for their first regular season home game with Montana State, awakening the butterflies in her stomach again. The Huskies perfect start and a newfound No. 24 ranking set up a showdown against then-No. 5 Vanderbilt, by far the biggest game of the season - and Franza's short career.
"Vanderbilt was the biggest game," she says. "I had already decided to come here when we got beat by Vanderbilt (last season). They were who we wanted to beat real bad. I was nervous because there was only about four people who thought we were going to win."
The Huskies would need a big game from Franza against the Commodores if they wanted a chance to win.
"I tried real hard to relax and keep my adrenaline down a little bit," she says.
It worked. Franza was huge in the upset victory, connecting on five three-pointers en route to 18 points. Despite her continuous success at handling herself with great poise and composure in new surroundings, Franza will not rest until she feels the nervousness of playing in her first national championship game.
A national championship is a goal that the team has set for themselves, and they won't settle for anything less. "We're going all the way, nothing less than the whole thing," Franza claims confidently.
It seems a national championship would be hard to come by if the Huskies finish fifth in the Pac-10, as selected by the conference coaches in the preseason poll.
In response to the ranking, Franza jokes, "That just means the Pac-10 is going to have four teams in the Final Four". She then explains more seriously that the underdog role doesn't bother her "I like being the underdog, coming out and proving people wrong."
A national title is still far off, despite the Huskies getting off to the best start by a Washington team in over 20 years.
"We've been doing a good job taking it one step at a time," she says.
Franza feels the start of the season has been crucial in the gathering of valuable experience for late season games.
"We've been in close games which have been good opportunities for us to get ready," she says.
That early season experience in close games is more valuable than ever this year, with seven freshmen gaining confidence.
One of those freshman gaining a lot of confidence is Franza. She's playing a big part in the Huskies success at such a young age. Franza says her early success is due to the coaching staff and her teammates.
"The coaches did a good job of helping us, they have been real patient and explanatory about everything." Franza says.
Franza enjoys the role of a freshman, and explains how it reduces the pressure. "My favorite year is my freshman year, because no one expects anything out of you. If you do something good, people say, 'she's only a freshman,' and if you do something bad, people say, 'she's just a freshman.'"
Franza says she has no problems with the off-court role of a freshman, carrying bags and such. "I put up with it because when I'm older I'll want the freshmen to carry the bags for me," but she wants no part in the on-court freshmen stereotypes "If the game is on the line, I want to shoot it." Despite Franza's confidence in taking the game-winning shot, she also feels she has a lot to work on and can improve greatly.
"It's an opportunity to learn a lot of new things. There are so many things I can learn and improve on," Franza says. "I look at what I've learned already, and wish I knew this stuff in high school. I could have been so much better."
Maybe she can pass the knowledge on to her players when she goes back to Leavenworth to coach.
Franza feels the team has as much of an opportunity to improve in the next few years as she does.
"Our program is going to get a lot more top recruits out of high school," predicts Franza.
The Huskies are looking forward to another successful season next year, when they will return four starters and a deep bench.
"No matter who we've got, losing Gena and the seniors will require a big adjustment," she says, "but I have faith that there are people out here right now that can step up."
With seven freshman gathering experience, Washington basketball could be shooting for the top well into the next century.
Whether Franza and the Huskies win four national championships or none, win or lose the rest of their games, or play in front of 30,000 people or 100, she'll always know that she has the support of the 1,500 people back at home.
