Beloit College

            At my first basketball camp ever, out of the blue, the director of the camp, Doug Bruno, would shout out "basketball," and all the campers would reply with a loud yell of "I love it, I love it, I love it." 
Love it, I did! 
            At the end of camp, my coach gave me an evaluation keep working on your dribbling and a list of dribbling drills. I went home, and on the long asphalt driveway adjacent to my house, I would dribble. I didn't have a hoop, but I had this driveway where I could dribble all day long. That passion for basketball never stopped for me. Though I spent countless hours practicing and attending many camps, basketball always came easy to me. At the start of my senior year, I received a letter from the coach at Beloit College. I had never heard of it, and a part of me thought I'd never go there, but another part of me thought this person sees something in me. So, I went for a visit, and the rest was history. 
            My life as a Beloit basketball player started. When I got to Beloit, I grew up as a player. To me, playing basketball was getting on the court and doing my thing. I relied on my athletic abilities and the plays drawn up by my coaches. I never actually studied the game; never analyzed it, just played. For a long time, this worked for me. I'll always remember the first open gym, getting on the court and one of the seniors yelling at me to let her through the screen. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. It must have happened three more times that game. Afterward, she took me out and showed me what she was saying. "Oh, I never knew that," feeling a little dumb that I didn't know. It was at that moment, I realized I had a lot to learn. 
            At Beloit, I learned the game of basketball. I learned how to defend the pick and roll, how to hedge on a screen, how to beat a 1-3-1, how to recognize matchups. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I remember sitting in the coach's office, drawing up plays on the wipe board. Coach Knapton and Coach Walters, showing me how to attack a zone defense. I'd go back to my room and visualize situations, come back the next day full of questions. I took my game to another level because of these "talks." By my senior year, I had the athletic abilities and I knew the game. What I also learned during my years at Beloit is that the game is so much more than X's and O's. Success comes with twelve women figuring out how to be one team. My senior teammate taking the time to teach me, the freshman, was the building block of showing me how to be a good teammate. While this might have been seen as such a small thing, she could have easily chosen not to help me and let me figure it out on my own. She taught me that working together and helping each other, we were going to be better as a team. The intangible part of the game is so critical for a team to be successful. 
            I ended with a great career at Beloit, and I am not sure I would have grown as much as I did if I were somewhere else. I believe this is where Beloit is different than most places. These coaches kept pushing me to improve my knowledge of the game, to strengthen my leadership on and off the court; they wanted me to be the best person I could be, and so did my teammates.
             It's been over 25 years since I last competed, yet sometimes it feels like it was yesterday. Every-once-in-a-while I get this yearning to lace up the shoes one more time, to talk X's and O's in that office one more time, and to fight one more fight with the twelve women who were my teammates one more time. 

Karen Walker Proesel, Beloit College Athletic Hall of Honor

• Class: 1993
• Induction: 2005
• Sport(s): Women's Basketball

A two-time high school all-conference basketball player, Karen Walker arrived at Beloit College ready for challenges in the classroom and on the hardcourt. In her first season as a Buccaneer, she established the college record for steals with 84, averaged 14.4 points per game, and led the team in assists with 128. Karen again demonstrated she had the strength, talent, and tenacity required of standout athletes as a sophomore, but equally as important, her career total of 274 assists at season’s end underscored her determination to be a true team player. In her final two years, she shouldered more of the scoring burden and on January 30, 1993, in a game against Cornell, she netted a layup to join the Buccaneer 1,000-point club, eventually finishing with 1,110. Karen is Beloit’s career leader in assists (532), steals (292), and free-throws made (335); her 95 thefts as a senior are a season’s top mark.  Before she graduated, this four-year starter in basketball and three-year regular in softball also was a three-time team MVP, won all-conference recognition three times in basketball and as a senior in softball, earned Buc Defensive Player of the Year honors, and served as team co-captain. Karen, who lives in Chicago with her husband Fred and their four children, is assistant varsity basketball coach at her prep alma mater, Maine South High School in Park Ridge.