SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: McAlester's Milligan thankful for sisterhood of Lady Buffs
Jan. 14—The senior Lady Buff said she's been looking forward to this season with her teammates, and she's ready to make those memories in real time.
"I really just want to do really good this year," Milligan said. "Like, I really hope we can make it far and win a lot of our games."
A multisport athlete, Milligan can be found making memories in a variety of games. But when she reflects on her basketball path to get to this point, many moments flood to the forefront of Milligan's mind.
"There's good and there's bad ones," she laughed. "We were at Claremore one time, and Mariah (Guyer) was running off the court, and she tripped over a ref and fell right onto her face.
"And she goes through film and finds the funniest videos," Milligan explained further. "There's just a lot of mistakes that we find that's funny."
But as she mentioned, there are also some of those memories that have left a not so fuzzy feeling, like when the Lady Buffs recorded a large number of turnovers — and they paid the price at the next practice.
"We had to run for every single one of those we made," she said.
Looking toward the future, Milligan plans to attend Oklahoma State University and earn a degree to be a physical therapist. She's also been participating in an internship locally and has enjoyed that immensely.
But whether it's in sports or life, Milligan said she's thankful to have had her parents by her side for every step — as well as a few special teammates.
"(My parents) always made sure I have good grades, because if I don't have good grades, I can't play sports," she said. "And also, I have Stevie (Stinchcomb), Lexi (Zurovetz), and Allison (Bond)...we have a little group chat that we talk on every single day. And they've always been there."
And although she and her teammates will be graduating after this season, Milligan said there's advice she can pass to future Lady Buffs — using her own experiences as an example.
"Me and Stevie always went to school together, and we've been pretty much working together with basketball forever. And that's why we're starting together now," Milligan said. "You have to start when you're young, and then just always work hard. Because if you don't, you're not going to get any better.
"And it's all worth it in the end," she added.
Contact Derek Hatridge at dhatridge@mcalesternews.com.
