Begins Next Challenge in Her Life at Ohio State
Selena Eskinazi-Budge
Budge began her collegiate basketball career at NCAA Division I Miami of Florida and ended it four years later on the florr of the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in Berea, Ohio.
After graduating from Beachwood following a stellar four-year career in which she averaged 26 points per game as a senior, Budge headed to Miami as a freshman planning to major in physical therapy. While at Miami, her focus in basketball changed, but academic focus did not.
“My freshman season was like all freshman seasons,” said Budge. “I just didn’t play a lot at a Division I program. I worked hard and waited for my sophomore year to make an impact.
But, as a sophomore, Budge suffered a season-ending injury. Despite the injury, she would go on to earn Academic All-Atlantic Coast Conference accolades for her work in the classroom and on the basketball court.
Following her sophomore season at Miami, Budge decided that she had given Division I basketball a shot and wanted to return to the Cleveland area.
“I got to a point where Miami couldn’t give me anything more and I couldn’t give Miami anything more,” said Budge, who carries a 3.86 grade average and will attend the doctoral program in physical therapy at The Ohio State University beginning this summer. “It was just time for me to move on with my life, including basketball.”
That led her back to B-W and Head Coach Cheri Harrer.
“Coach [as Harrer is referred to at B-W by her student-athletes] talked to me in high school and I remembered that B-W had both a quality pre-physical therapy program and an excellent basketball team,” said Budge, who was tabbed this winter as a first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference player on the court and both a first-team ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV and Academic All-OAC student-athlete in the classroom. “It was a good fit for me and I don’t regret one minute of it.”
But, a season ending injury at B-W also ended her season after 20 games as a junior. It would have been easy to throw in the towel, but that is not be Budge’s nature.
“I had to get back on the court,” said Budge, who helped B-W to a 16-4 record and was the Most Valuable Player at the Wittenberg University Tournament before being injured. “I love competition too much to let that stop me or end my career. I still had something to prove.”
That was arguably the easy part. The hard part was making a decision to return to Miami or transfer. Budge called Harrer, who had recruited her in high school, to chat. Harrer explained to Budge that for her to talk with her about the possibility of leaving Miami, she would have to get a release.
Once Budge obtained her release, she and Harrer spoke again. At the end of the conversation , Harrer told Budge, “there’s a spot for you here at Baldwin-Wallace.” To which Budge responded, “We’ll see about that.”
And that was that. Budge was on her way to becoming a Yellow Jacket, although she was still happy with her experieneces in Miami.
“I learned a lot at Miami and I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world,” said Budge. “I learned a great deal academically and I fulfilled a dream of playing at the Division I level.”
Experience is a word used liberally to describe Budge’s daily schedule at “The U” as she describes it.
“I woke up at 4:00 a.m. three or four times a week for conditioning, went to class, went to individual practices, went to team practice, went to more classes and finally studied before falling asleep near one o’clock in the morning,” remembered Budge. “Add in eating, travel time for away games, and making up work for three or four missed classes per week due to travel. It was a very intense situation.”
After rehabilitating during the summer of 2006, Budge entered B-W, but she might as well have entered a new world.
“B-W was a very different place then Miami,” she recalls. “There are different levels of athleticism at the Division I and Division III levels. At Miami the girls were pure athletes, but they also played for tangible reasons like scholarships. At B-W, the women are more fundamental basketball players, but they play because they love the game, for the experiences we’ve had or will get. I liked that alot.”
Becoming assimilated to Harrer’s system was a challenege for Budge as she was admittedly apprehensive.
“Coach played a different style of basketball than I was accustomed to, so it took some time to learn,” said Budge. “We played summer ball and that helped me to get to know the other women. It was definitely a summer of me learning from them and them getting to know me.
As a sophomore at Miami, Budge saw time in four games and averaged 8.3 minutes per game. It was a system where the five starters played upwards of 30 minutes per game. At B-W, Harrer runs a system that consistently goes 12 women deep. In 2007-2008, only four girls averaged more than 20 minutes per game and 10 players averaged more than 10. Harrer rapidly shuffles in substitutes for two or three minutes, and rapidly subs them out again in her system that does not have a star.
“It took a while for Selena to get oriented,” said Harrer, who has a 374-127 career record and has led the Yellow Jackets to the NCAA Division III National Tournament 10 of the last 13 years. “Selena will be the first to tell you that at Miami, it is more of an individual, one-on-one style of play and run-and-shoot. Here at B-W, it is much more fundamental and team oriented. Once she understood the system, we were able to adjust the offense to be able to better utilize her many, many talents.”
Then there was the social aspect. During the preseason and throughout the actual season, Harrer holds numerous team-bonding events to promote chemistry, cammeraderie and culture. But Budge kept to herself. It took an entire year for her to mesh with the team culture that Harrer prefers.
“Last season, I was quiet as far as socializing with the other women,” said Budge. “I opened up a lot more this year. Other people took initiative to get to know me and I openly received them.”
Harrer also noticed this aspect.
“Selena became much more of a team-leader this season and make a big impact in the program,” said Harrer. “She took the initative of helping many of the younger players become oriented. She was a leader both on and off the court. Her leadership as well as that of the other seniors is a big reason why we finished 27-3, won the OAC regular season and OAC Tournament titles and advanced to the national tournament.”
In her finest season as a collegian, Budge led the Yellow Jackets in three categories, including scoring average with 10.7 points per game, assists with 66 and steals with 47. She also shot 45.4 percent from the field and tallied 3.7 rebounds per game.
“Selena definitely was our most potent player on offense,” said Harrer. “We knew that we could give her the ball late in a close game and that she would find or create a way to score. Her quick jump shot also was a key for her offensively.
“On defense, Selena was our lock-down defender on the opponent’s best scorer,” continued Harrer. “She worked hard and is a talented, aggressive defender.”
Although her basketball career is over, Budge is inspired about her challenges ahead. It is ironic that she asprires to become a physcial therapist and work exclusively in the area of sports injury rehabilitation with a college or professional team.
“Selena will do very well at Ohio State and beyond,” said Harrer. “Through basketball and life, she has learned to deal with adversity and to be a better personal in spite of it. She also is extremely intelligent. Add that to her hard work and good nature and I am sure that she will be successful.”
“The hardest thing to accept is not being able to see my teammates everyday,” said Budge. “I really enjoyed the experience albeit it brief. We won and had a lot of fun.”
It is safe to say that for Budge, the new challenge at OSU will be welcomed. She has learned to adapt to change and to thrive in the face of adversity.
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