Most of us have heard the sayings “everything happens for a reason” and “what is meant to be will be,” but those phrases are particularly true for junior biology major and co-captain of the women’s basketball team Aleisha Stiltner and the journey that brought her to Blackburn.
Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, playing basketball at some point in your life is almost a given and for Stiltner, her first encounter was on her second birthday when she received a Little Tykes basketball hoop. She was fixated and couldn’t get enough. You could say that day changed her life or at least was the day that basketball became her life.
Through her career she found herself playing every chance she got. Her parents divorced when she was young and besides one half-sister, she was practically an only child. Her mom worked late most nights, sometimes not getting home until close to 8 p.m. so after school, she would hurry home, quickly do her homework and then run to the park near her home to shoot until it became too dark.
In elementary school she remembers while the other girls were playing on the swings or talking to their friends, “I was the girl out there with her hair tied up playing basketball with the boys.” From there she jumped into middle school basketball where she really got serious and then on to a successful Lafayette High School program that won a district title. While many see their careers end after high school, Stiltner found the opportunity to continue playing at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Unfortunately she was never able to play as the team was reluctant to gamble on a player coming off of an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the knee, which she sustained during her high school senior night.
In the meantime, her grandparents had moved to Carlinville and she began to look at Blackburn as not being able to play the game she loved was eating away at her.
Now as she nears the end of her third season, she prays for one more. Due to NCAA rules, an athlete is allowed 10 semesters of eligibility and this is Stiltner’s 10th semester of school. She hopes to be granted another season of eligibility, however, since her knee injury led to a two-year absence from the sport. If she is given another season, she will embrace it wholeheartedly. If she is not, she hopes to get certified to help with strength and conditioning and possibly assist Coach Fonseca. “I love basketball and I don’t really know what I would do without it. I’m from Kentucky. I remember being like six years old and watching Tayshaun Prince hit four 3s in a row against the University of North Carolina and just going crazy; he was my all-time favorite player.”
As her eyes lit up and she looked back, Stiltner credits her mom for her own passion. “I remember me and my mom, there was a game, we were playing Michigan State and it was down to the wire and we thought we were going to lose and me and my mom were on all fours down in front of the TV praying like ‘please Lord let us win this game.’ That’s just how it’s always been. I guess a lot of it came from her.”
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. Who would’ve thought that a game could hold such a strong connection between a mother and daughter. Or that a Little Tykes basketball hoop could have such an impact. Or that a single day could’ve sent a two-year-old little girl who fell in love with the game on a journey that still continues.