By Mikael DeSanto
Sports Editor
Five years ago, graduate student, Gabby Richmond, stepped onto the St. Bonaventure University campus to begin her freshman season, having been recruited to play on the women’s basketball team. Though she would not play that season, Richmond got plenty of opportunities going forward.
“It was my best offer at the time; I was really close with Coach [Priscilla] Edwards,” Richmond said, referring to a former St. Bonaventure assistant coach. “She kind of was the reason I came, but when I came she got another job offer at St. John’s, so then she left. But then it was the year after they won the Sweet Sixteen, so I was like ‘why not go there?’”
Richmond, a native of Chicago, Illinois, quickly became a regular for the Bonnies, playing in 88 games and starting in 51 of those games through her first three years on the team. Head coach Jesse Fleming, who took over for Jim Crowley starting this season, said he was familiar with Richmond and what she had done before he arrived.
“Just from following the team, I thought she had done a really nice job as a role player and even you look at the James Madison game last year, Katie [Healy] hurts her ankle and Gabby comes in and does a good job for them,” Fleming said. “I watched film of them when they came in, and I thought Gabby did a good job as a rebounder. I knew a little bit about her in high school. She played for a good AAU team, and I’d heard good things about her. I know Bona’s was really excited when they signed her 5, 6 years ago now.”
Fleming said he has seen growth in Richmond’s game this season as she stepped into a larger role in the team’s game plan.
“I think she has played with a lot of urgency, and I think she knows that we need her to score,” Fleming said. “I think she gets more stuff run for her, and so I think that develops her. The last couple of weeks in the A10 she has gotten back to her face up game, she has made some jumpers, which has really helped, but she is scoring on down-screens and off of ball-screens. She has some good hands, she is scoring on put backs, so I just think she has become really aggressive.”
With the need to score more prevalent now than in her early years, Richmond has had some goals to focus on when on the floor.
“I’ve been trying to be more aggressive because we have kind of been struggling,” Richmond said. “Coach tries to get the ball into the post more, so I just try to convert. I was never really a huge scorer, in the past that wasn’t my role, so it is more so embracing going at whoever is guarding me and being confident.”
Experience has dictated Richmond’s role, both on and off the court, in Fleming’s mind, as they look to her as a representative of how to play.
“Gabby is a true leader for us. She probably is our number one leader,” Fleming said. “She is vocal for us, she plays tons of minutes and plays with a lot of energy, [and] she can take hard coaching, so I think that has just been a huge role for us. Then on the floor she is somebody that has played in the system for a long time. She is a leader for the young kids.”
Richmond agreed with Fleming, saying her experience has reflected on how the rest of her team sees her and looks up to her.
“It is funny because they call me the grandmother of the team because I am the fifth year,” Richmond said. “I just try to keep everybody together. So if it is someone’s birthday, make sure we are doing stuff for her birthday, making sure the little things are where they are supposed to be because sometimes you can forget about the culture of the team.”
As her final season nears the end, Richmond has a few things that are important to her before she says goodbye to her teammates and the school.
“I want to keep scoring obviously, but I want to get some wins because all of that stuff doesn’t matter unless you are winning,” Richmond said. “So I am just trying to get everybody to keep their heads up and understand that we are just in a slump right now, but it is not too late. We have 10 games, we can still do it. At the end of the day, we are all we have got.”
Fleming said he knows that whatever Richmond does after graduating, she will do great things.
“She could do whatever she wants. She has got a great personality; she is an engaging person,” Fleming said. “She is a worker, so I just think she is going to be really successful. She is going to walk out of here with an MBA, is in grad school right now, she is just a really talented all-around person, so I think Gabby is going to be able to pick whatever she wants to do. I will give her as good a reference as I can give anyone.”
The Bonnies will try to improve on their 6-12, 1-5 A10 record when they take on the Duquesne Dukes at the Reilly Center on Saturday at 4 p.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
