St. John's University Athletics
Women's Basketball: Right Place, Wright Time
2/23/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2006
By Amy Mulligan
St. John's Athletic Communications
From just watching her play, there are things that are obvious about Kia Wright.
Her athleticism is apparent on slashing drives through the lane. Her basketball knowledge is on exhibit as a play unfolds and she finds the open player. Her face reveals someone who is competitive, composed, confident.
It's clear, watching her defend some of the best guards in the nation, why she was one of the most highly recruited high school basketball players on Long Island. It is not surprising that St. John's is enjoying of one of its most successful seasons ever and is garnering national attention behind the strength of Wright's play.
Look closer and see a mature point guard. A reserved leader. A playmaker.
What you cannot tell - what there is no way of knowing just by watching her play - is what a long journey she has taken to become the player, and person, that is visible now.
There is not a hint of the player, who, after transferring to St. John's from Connecticut before what would have been her freshman season, once considered giving up the game of basketball.
There is no brace on her right knee, so while watching her race up and down the court you might miss the scar that conceals a once-torn anterior cruciate ligament that threatened to end her career.
And while the voice of a floor general calls out a play for her team to run, it is hard to imagine her off-the-court persona being soft-spoken, even shy.
By now, the story is familiar: Wright, then a 17-year-old standout for Copiague High School, was being recruited to play for some of the powerhouses of women's college basketball. She recalls a bin full of letters from interested schools and dozens of phone calls from coaches.
That same year, a 31-year-old Long Island native got her first Division I head coaching job and, as soon as rules permitted it, expressed immediate interest in Kia Wright.
The coach, Kim Barnes Arico, was just beginning a rebuilding process at St. John's, and knew Wright was just the type of local talent she'd love to have in a Red Storm jersey.
"Once I got the job, Kia was one of the first phone calls I made," Barnes Arico says.
The two talked and, reflecting on it now more than three years later, both recall making a connection and having a good conversation.
"I remember specifically when I was talking to Coach, my mom heard me on the phone laughing and talking and she said `Who are you having such a good time with?' and I told her the coach at St. John's," Wright recalls.
But by that time, Wright's mind was practically made up, and although she tore her ACL the summer before her senior year of high school, she came back from the injury and left her home state of New York to become a Husky after graduation.
But home, it turned out, was harder than she thought it would be to leave.
"I was so homesick. I just wanted to be back home. I missed my family," she says.
Once she decided to transfer and come back to New York, Wright remembered Barnes Arico. She remembered their conversations and knew that her former Copiague teammate, Angela Clark, had committed to play for the Red Storm. The first-year coach had just completed an 8-19 season but signs of a turnaround were already showing.
"I knew Angela obviously, and I knew Mercedes Dukes and I remembered talking to Coach," she says.
So Wright came to St. John's, but had to sit out a year to fulfill NCAA transfer requirements. The team went 10-18 in 2003-04, again surpassing the win total from the year before, and qualified for the BIG EAST Tournament.
Wright spent her freshman year adjusting to college life at St. John's, but struggled to find her place.
"I was out of shape. I wasn't really willing to meet anyone new," she says. "I just wanted to sit in my room all the time. Basketball was not fun for me at that time."
Eventually, she left St. John's prior to the spring semester and went home to live with her mother on Long Island.
Whether it was feeling the pressure of making the transition to another college or being burned out, Wright had lost her drive.
"2003 was not a good year for me. I just did not want to play basketball. I didn't want to do anything," she says.
And then, as often happens with great athletes in times of adversity, there was a moment. Something clicked in her mind.
"I remember, I was sitting in my room one day and I thought to myself, these trophies are here for a reason. God has given me this talent for a reason. Opportunity is staring me in the face," she says. "I have a chance to go to college on a scholarship, and if I waste that I am so stupid."
So, in the spring semester, she returned to campus and concentrated on school, without practicing with the basketball team.
And slowly but surely, her love of the game returned. This was the player who began dribbling at age seven as the only girl in the all-boys Copiague Youth League. This was the player who returned from what could have been a career-ending injury and won the New York state championship as a high school senior. This was the AAU player who, for the Long Island Wave, made a name for herself and became one of the great recruits in the area.
"I would kind of sneak in to practice and just watch from the stands that first year," she says. "And, if someone didn't make a pass that I knew I could make ... I would start to think, `I wish I was out there.' Sometimes, taking a break from something is not necessarily a bad thing, because it really makes you appreciate it."
The next year, Wright's first official year of collegiate basketball, was a banner season for St. John's. Twenty wins, a postseason berth and an infusion of energy into a program on the rise.
But even then, her transition was at times inconsistent. Thirty-point performances were off-set by being held to three points on some nights. Still, her debut season obviously turned heads and she was chosen to the All-BIG EAST's second team.
Now nearing the completion of her junior year, Wright has matured into the type of player that makes good teams great. Her defensive efforts have stopped some of the conference's best guards and her offensive firepower has led the team right into the hunt for an NCAA Tournament berth.
"I do feel like a different person," she says. "I'm more open to people and things now. I really feel like I'm more mature. And, I smile more. I laugh more."
Listening to her talk now, she is everything a star player should be - but often isn't. Polite. Humble. Kind.
Tim Duncan comes to mind, but Wright points out Dwayne Wade's game as one she would like to be compared to. "I like him," she says. "Actually, I love him," she jokes.
Coach Barnes Arico has this to say about her game: "She has a great first step. She's explosive and she's quicker than people think. She's as strong as can be, and she can rebound and defend. But, probably her biggest strength is that she has a great feel for the game that not many players do. She sees things develop two steps before everyone else."
Barnes Arico, quick to respond to what type of player Wright is, takes a moment to think about her off-the-court traits.
"She's reserved, and she kind of takes everything in, but she has a ton of personality," Barnes Arico says. "She's funny. Once you get to know her, she will open up a lot more. She has kind of the same personality on the court. She's smooth. Low-key. Cool.
I feel like she has matured so much, in all areas. She accepts responsibility for this team. She's always telling me that she doesn't feel comfortable being a star or being in the spotlight but I think she's learning how to accept it. She's matured enough to realize she needs to take that role."
Wright agrees. "People sometimes ask me why I'm humble," she says. "But, it's the way I was raised. It's my personality."
There is no doubt that for Kia Wright, it has been a process. A process that, all told, has contributed to the type of player that she is.
The type of player that people notice. Notice because of her skill, her knowledge, her personality and her passion. Those things are evident every time she steps out onto the court.
So go ahead, watch her play.
