Basketball just sort of came to her

When Melissa Gower was in the eighth grade she probably had no idea that she would one day be the leader on a university basketball team or that she would be a candidate for the conference player of the year. What she did know was that she wanted to play the game, actually any game.

As it turned out she didn't have to go out looking for a game, instead the game came to her. While shooting baskets during PE. class, at Jefferson Jr. High School, Gower was approached by an assistant coach of the school's team. After meeting the teams head coach, Gower was placed on the team, and without having attended a practice, was the teams starting center the next Saturday's game.

Gower had never played organized basketball, although she had wanted to, her prior school did not have sports for girls. It was because of this that Gower wanted to transfer to another school.

"I said, 'I don't want go here mom, I want to go to a school where I can play something,' so I transferred," Gower said.

Upon transferring she did not intend on playing basketball, she had been mostly a softball player, but once discovered, had found her calling.

"That was my start and after that my mother sent me to like a zillion camps," Gower said. "I went to Pat Riley camp, Karl Malone camp, I was into all kinds of things, tournaments and stuff."

Gower wound up at Lakewood High School, where she played with current teammates Akia Hardy, Toby Metoyer, Amy Heaton and her best friend and former 49er, Charon Johnson.

The turning point for Gower seemed to come in the summer after her sophomore season in high school. She was taken on a traveling All-Star team and found out what it meant to be one of the elite players. The experience of riding the bench for most of a game put it in a whole new perspective for Gower.

"I came back my eleventh grade year and I was a whole different person, player, attitude, everything," Gower said. "My goals just kind of changed, it wasn't just like playing basketball, I was working for something, to get a scholarship," she added.

The scholarship she chose was from former 49er coach, Joan Bonvicini and CSULB. Yet when Bonvicini later told Gower that she was leaving to Arizona and asked her if she would go with her, Gower decided to remain here at Long Beach.

Ironically after getting offers from all over the country and a desire to go away from home, Gower chose CSULB, a school she had not even considered before Bonvicini made her offer.

"I didn't know anything about Long Beach, I didn't even know Long Beach existed, I think, when I lived in Lakewood," Gower said.

In the end it was the reputation of Bonvicini and a change of heart, to stay close to her mother Linda, so she could attend games, that brought Gower to this campus.

In her first three years as a 49er Gower steadily improved until averaging 15.8 points and 9.6 rebounds last season. This season Gower is averaging 22.7 points and 13.3 rebounds per game and has been voted Big West Player of the Week twice.

Gower currently ranks third in the Big West in scoring and first in rebounds and is third in the nation in rebounds per game.

Gower is hopeful that the team can return to the NCAA tournament, as it did her freshman season. Gower is the only current member of the team who has been to the big dance and is confident that this team can return to the tournament.

"I think right now our whole team wants the same thing, to go into the NCAA tournament," Gower said.

A criminal justice major, Gower says after graduation she will attempt to play professionally, oversees, a goal she admitted has grown stronger as the end of her collegiate career is drawing near.

"When you're younger you don't really think about it," Gower said, "but now that I see that I can and people tell me that I can, I work hard to try and make sure that I get that, . . . I'd probably be pretty disappointed with myself if I didn't obtain that."

If she goes professionsal, she will probably look back to that day on the Jefferson Jr. high playground more fondly than she already does.