Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Hard Work Pays Off For Thompson
2/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2001
By Bob Gosman
Boca Raton News
After scoring a career-high 16 points at Campbell on Feb. 1, freshman guard Shayla Thompson couldn't wait to call her dad.
Thompson, an invited walk-on from Olympic Heights, wound up having to wait until the following morning to talk to her father because of cell phone trouble.
"He was so happy when I told him," she said.
Happy is a good word to describe how Thompson feels about her freshman year at FAU.
Thompson is averaging 3.3 points in 12 minutes of action per game, but her playing time has started to increase because of some injury problems the Owls are having, as well as her improved performance.
In addition, her all-around skill and work ethic have not been lost on Owls coach Chancellor Dugan, who was a walk-on herself at Eastern Kentucky.
"She's playing solid defense and rebounding the basketball," said Dugan, whose Owls play host to Stetson at 3 p.m. today. "She's elevated her game."
The odds of any walk-on earning playing time is long, but the chance of Thompson just playing college basketball in the first place was even longer.
Early in her junior year at Olympic Heights, Thompson suffered a season-ending ACL injury to her right knee.
Many thought Thompson would be unable to return to competitive basketball, but through diligent work in rehabilitation, she came back to average 12 points per game as a senior.
In part because Thompson's injury kept her off the court for most of her junior year, she wasn't seriously recruited by any Division I schools.
Tompson still wanted to play college basketball, and she wanted to do it close to her home in Delray Beach.
FAU was the logical choice.
Thompson approached Dugan aabout trying out for the team over the summer, and her play earned her a spot on the team. Her teammates are impressed with the way she has elevated her game since the start of the season.
"The light bulb has gone off her her," senior guard LaTorria Matthews said. "She has stepped up her play a tremendous amount in the past couple of games. You can tell her confidence has picked up a lot."
Earlier this season, the entire Olympic Heights basketball team attended an FAU game to support their former teammate.
"When I went into the game, they went wild," said Thompson, who was a first-team selection on the News' All-Area Girls Basketball Team last season. "That was a lot of fun. We always laughed together at Heights, and we had a lot of good times."
Seth Moldovan, who grew close to Thompson when he was an assistant coach at Olympic Heights, also has attended some FAU games this season.
"I thought she was capable of giving FAU quality minutes, but she's earned (additional) playing time because of her work in practice," Moldovan said.
Her contribution to FAU has certainly put her in a position to earn a scholarship in the future, but Thompson said she will not talk to Dugan about that until after the season.
"I'll wait until a couple of weeks after the season to talk to her," Thompson said. "I love Coach Dugan. She's been a big influence on me."
Moldovan, one of Thompson's biggest influences in high school, is happy with the way things are working out for the former Olympic Heights star.
"She put the time and effort into what was needed to play Division I basketball after what we thought was a career-ending knee injury," he said. "How can you beat that? It's extremely special."