Guaranteed To Mesh

You have been forewarned. You are about to meet one of the top performers in women's college basketball and you have been told that she is not much of a talker. Remains quiet most of the time with reporters, and certainly does not like to talk about herself. She is the young woman who raises eyebrows among basketball experts with her quick first step and her perimeter shooting, but who doesn't particularly stand out on her own campus at Harvard, which is full of young people who excel in their own specialties. A few hours to the north resides a different athlete, Cindy Blodgett, a high school star who stayed in-state to attend the University of Maine. Two books have been written about Blodgett. She has won two national scoring titles. A state icon. A highly publicized, bonafide celebrity. But the woman you are about to encounter is unique. Not much is known about her outside of Boston, except from one article in USA Today. She prefers to let her skills on the court speak for themselves. Allison Feaster enters the lounge in Lavietes Pavilion wearing a grey Harvard Athletics sweatshirt and a Nike hat. She apologizes for being a few minutes late, and you tell her you realize she has more important things to do than to sit and answer questions about herself for this interview.

"I was hoping to sort of get away from the media by coming to the Ivy League where sports aren't that publicized, but it hasn't worked out that way," she says in answer to the first question. "But everyone has been really positive and supportive and that's been nice."

What you have been told appears to be true. She has a steady, soft-spoken voice, and her easy smile draws you in as you prepare to hear her story. She is extremely polite, and happy to answer your questions, but you can tell she would rather be having a conversation about her teammates, her coach or even you, than discussing herself. Alas, she is the intriguing one who has earned the spotlight.

Feaster was born in Chester, S.C., as the third of four children in her family. Part of a typical military family, she traveled often until her parents separated when she was in the fifth grade, and her mother returned with the four children to Chester.

Basketball for Feaster began at the age of seven. She remembers wanting to join her older brother and sister in their games of H-O-R-S-E, only to be chastised because her lack of height and strength made it impossible for her shot to reach the basket. However, she learned an important lesson from the experience. She realized how much she wanted to be a part of those games, and worked hard to make it possible.

Helping her to overcome those burdens was nature, as Feaster grew to 5-feet-9 inches tall by the seventh grade. She does not remember what spurred her, or what gave her the confidence, but in seventh grade she made the decision to try out for the varsity basketball team. The high school varsity basketball team. Despite her young age, she made the team and was a starter from day one.

As she speaks about her experience on the team, you can see indications of the humility of which everyone speaks. Imagine walking into a high school gym, into the competitive environment of a tryout, as the kid from middle school. Not an easy task, and the team concept won't work if other players develop jealousy about playing time. But jealousy wasn't a problem on that high school team, thanks to Feaster's easy, wise-beyond-her-years demeanor. As she relates her memories of that tryout and the subsequent six years on the high school team, she uses nothing but positive words to describe the experience and makes sure to credit her teammates.

"I guess I'm pretty athletic, and I have a fair amount of athletic ability," she understates. "I guess through practicing and working hard I became good at basketball." The middle schooler blossomed into a top college prospect and suddenly choices appeared for the player who coaches determined had more going for her than just a "fair amount of athletic ability."

This was the perfect kid for any college coach. She had developed an all-around game through her six years of high school basketball leading the team to a state championship in 1993 and her participation on a two-time national champion AAU team. A high school All-American and South Carolina Miss Basketball her senior year, Feaster broke the all-time state scoring mark and finished her career with 3,427 points, a record that still stands. On top of her basketball accolades, she was extremely bright and would finish as the valedictorian of her senior class. In addition, she avoided getting herself into predicaments, spending her free time working at a local Burger King for two-and-a half years. I came home after basketball practice, made dinner for the family, and that was my day, she says. "Most people that hung out got in trouble," she continues, "so I just stayed focused. I saw how hard my mom was working for our family, and there was no way I could disappoint her."

As Feaster tells her story, you repeatedly hear about her mother Sandra and you understand the origins of Allison's remarkable work ethic. After the divorce and the family's return to Chester, Sandra began working full-time during the week as a secretary, driving two hours each day to reach the financial analyst firm where she was employed. In 1987, when Allison was 11, Sandra returned to school at Winthrop University, having dropped out as a young woman to raise her family. On top of those responsibilities, she spent her weekends as a switchboard operator for Greyhound to earn extra money. You wonder silently how one person can do all of these things and remain close to her family. But Sandra succeeded. The proof is in her daughter's eyes, which awake from their sedentary lull and glow strongly whenever she speaks of her mother.

And it was her mother who helped guide Allison through the stormy waves created by the recruiting process. Sandra had seen the value of a college degree first-hand; after receiving her's from Winthrop in 1992, she was promoted to a position as a financial analyst and working weekends at Greyhound was no longer necessary. Watching her mother, her role model in life, Allison decided early in the process that academics were important to her as well.

"My mom stressed academics so much - the importance of being prepared so you can have a good life for yourself," Allison says.

Her sister had attended Duke University, and due to that fact and the schools proximity to Chester, it was among Allison's choices. Rice University also entered the picture, and both Duke and Rice offered her full scholarships. But there were three Ivy League institutions Harvard, Yale and Princeton that intrigued Feaster due to their long traditions of a guaranteed commitment to academics.

"I knew that they had great reputations," she says, "and I knew that one of the three was probably the best school [in the nation]."

So, after making her initial decision to focus on academics, Feaster politely told other coaches from big-time programs around the nation that she wasn't interested. And, despite keeping Duke and Rice on her final list, she already had decided to attend one of the three non-scholarship, Ivy League institutions. She understood the monetary implications of such a decision, but she figured the education would create opportunities for her to help pay back loans after graduation, and she did not want to be tied down by a scholarship.

"I do know a little bit about [the process], so I can speak about it. If you attend a scholarship school, they tell you what you have to major in, they tell you what you have to take as far as classes, you can't work, you're just not your own person," she says. "I don't think you have time to grow, and that's what college is all about, and I think Harvard and other Ivy League schools offer that aspect of college life that other Division I schools don't offer."

On the last possible day, late in April 1994, Allison Feaster made the decision to attend Harvard. As she recounts the reasons for her ultimate choice, Feaster displays a genuinely refreshing disbelief at the opportunities with which she was presented she was able to say "Yes" to the oldest and one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and it would accept her with open arms. For the first time, a Chester High School graduate would attend Harvard.

Feaster exploded on the scene at Harvard, averaging 17.0 points per game, and leading the Ivy League in rebounding her freshman year. She was selected to Basketball America's All-Freshman team, was named an honorable mention All American, and was chosen unanimously as the Ivy League Rookie of the Year. But the accolades meant nothing to Feaster, as Harvard finished with an 11-3 League mark, one game behind first-place Dartmouth.

Things would only get better. The following season, Feaster led the team in scoring (18.1 ppg.) and rebounding (10.1 rpg.), and the Crimson won the League title by four games. The sophomore forward was named to the first team All-Ivy for the second straight year and was honored as the Ivy Player of the Year. As the teams success improved, Feaster began to receive more individual notoriety, not a desirable occurrence for the humble player.

Harvard head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith remembers one telling incident.

"[Allison] was interviewed for a [local TV station] and she said, I have confidence, I'm not afraid to play anybody in this country or anybody in the world," says Delaney-Smith. "I like that comment because that's true and that's how I think any coach in the world would want her to feel, but it's something she's never said. She went running into the locker room afterwards and sobbed, Oh, my God, I'm so arrogant and I think she felt a little unusual."

But dont be fooled into thinking Feaster is a simpleton who cannot handle the pressure of notoriety. That would be too easy. Feaster is confident, and she knows she is a talented basketball player, but she never outwardly displays that confidence for fear of being misunderstood as demeaning to her teammates. She doesnt require any personal recognition to feel good about herself.

You ask her how it feels to read about herself as a humble person.

"It's not true," she screams, hopping up slightly from her seat while laughing. "I don't want to be misunderstood. You have to be careful if you're in a position where you get a lot of attention. Your success depends on what others do for you, and that's the way I treat it. Without my teammates I couldn't score 2,000 points, without my teammates I couldn't break the Ivy League scoring record so that's just being fair to my teammates and the people that are around me."

"She knows that she's good," says Delaney-Smith. "Charley [Allison's nickname, taken from her middle name, Charlene] has enormous confidence, unflinching, and always has. That's why it's so unusual to have such incredible confidence coupled with great team spirit, team focus and humility. She really doesn't care about the statistics."

Speaking of those statistics, consider the legacy that Feaster will leave at Harvard. Entering Saturday night's NCAA first-round tournament game at top-seeded Stanford, she totals 2,249 career points (21.2 ppg.) and 1,134 career rebounds (10.7 rpg.), making her the first women's basketball player in Ivy League history to reach the 2,000-point and 1,000-rebound plateaus. Last week, she became the first Ivy League athlete in any sport, men's or women's, to be dually honored as a three-time Ivy Player of the Year and an Ivy Rookie of the Year. And she is only the fourth woman in League basketball history to be named first team All-Ivy four times in her career.

In four years, Allison Feaster has changed Harvard basketball, leading the Crimson to its first three NCAA tournament appearances, all in the last three years. But Harvard basketball has not changed her. She remains content with no spare time, working in the Harvard mail room when not concentrating on academics or playing basketball.

"If I didn't work, I would have time to waste, so why not make money," she comments fittingly.

After graduation from Harvard, the economics major plans to begin her career as a financial analyst. Feaster currently is interviewing at several of the top investment banking firms in the country, but maintains dreams of playing professional basketball, dreams that are becoming more realistic as WNBA scouts report favorably on her play. Much as Feaster was the perfect, well-rounded college recruit, her playing ability and personality combine to make her an ideal spokeswoman for either one of the two new women's leagues.

"On a WNBA team, there must be giant egos that clash," says Delaney-Smith. "And [Allison] will not be that giant ego. She is guaranteed to mesh."

The March 9, 1998, issue of Sports Illustratedhits the newsstand just as Harvard closes out its regular season with a third straight Ivy League title. On the cover is Allen Iverson, the oft-troubled Philadelphia 76ers basketball star. Inside appears a three-page article on Blodgett, that icon from the University of Maine, who, entering the NCAA tournament, trails Feaster by an average of 0.8 points per game in the race for the national scoring title. And on page 41 appears Feaster's smiling face. Listed under Faces in the Crowd, arguably the best women's basketball player in Ivy League history receives one paragraph of text, exactly 45 words.

Fair?

Of course not.

But fitting given Feaster's personality?

Absolutely.

-- Dan Rosenthal

***Please note, this story was written for a previous Ivy League Black History Month celebration. It is reproduced here for archival purposes and has not been updated.***