Former women’s soccer player Rickan to play basketball at SUNY Buffalo next year
Former Syracuse University women’s soccer player Jenna Rickan has gained a fifth year of eligibility and will play basketball at SUNY Buffalo next year, she announced on Twitter on Monday night.
Rickan, who tallied six goals and nine assists in her four-year Syracuse soccer career, is listed as a 5-foot-9 guard on the Buffalo website. She starred on the basketball court for Kenmore West High School in Buffalo, where she became the program’s career scoring leader and the first player to surpass 1,000 points. In her senior season, she was named to the All-Western New York basketball team by The Buffalo News.
“When soccer ended it was bittersweet, ready for it to be over,” Rickan said. “But I missed being part of a team and I wanted to go to UB for grad school because I wanted to be home.”
At SU, Rickan was a key in helping turn around the women’s soccer program. In her freshman season in 2009, the Orange went 5-11-3. In her senior season this year, the team finished 9-7-2 and lost to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Rickan, a forward, finished tied for 10th place on SU’s career assists list with nine.
“The last month (while at Syracuse) I started to play basketball I would say a little bit more just for fun up at Archbold (Gymnasium)… I started to realize I love basketball and I wasn’t half bad even if I haven’t played in a couple of years.”
With encouragement from her family and former coaches at Kenmore West, Rickan sent the coaches at Buffalo an email. Rickan eventually sent the coaches video from her high school career.
They offered her a May 14 tryout — two days after SU’s Sunday graduation. There, four coaches ran Rickan through ball-handling and shooting drills.
The next day, she was offered a spot on the team.
“Coach Felisha (Legette-Jack), she was able to give me the chance to give the desire to my heart,” Rickan said. “I feel like God has put my heart to be there to actually do it. So it’s a pretty cool opportunity.”
Published on June 3, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu
