OAK PARK Oak Park-River Forest senior Victoria Waters made the most of her opportunity Friday on senior night in the Huskies’ 72-51 loss to Lyons.
Waters, who has been coming off the bench, started and led the way with a team-high 12 points, including eight in the first quarter.
“I was so weepy and sad and I knew this was my last time playing in this gym,” Waters said. “Everyone told me, ‘Hey you’re a senior and this is your last time on this court. You have to go do great.’ I was a little nervous because there was so much pressure but I was expected to play well and I think I came through. I definitely feel like I left it on the floor and I’m happy with the way it ended but I wish we would have won.”
While Waters would like to start every game, OPRF head coach JP Coughlin thinks she’s invaluable as a reserve.
“I like her off the bench,” Coughlin said. “I see it as a strength of ours, to be able to bring someone in who can play multiple positions and bring that type of energy and enthusiasm off the bench.”
Sophomore Maria Kent can see what playing time means to Waters and how the senior makes the most of her minutes.
“As a senior she really stepped up leadership-wise,” Kent said. “The fact that she doesn’t start but still produces off the bench says a lot. She gets pumped up and when she gets going there’s no stopping her.”
Waters moved to Chicago from Los Angeles just before her freshman year and need to make a lot of adjustments, from making new friends to braving Chicago’s frigid winters.
Basketball helped with the transition, introducing her to a group of girls who would become her closest friends. Her happy-go-lucky personality made that easier..
Waters always keeps things loose at practice and she’s a master prankster, as Coughlin can attest.
“She’s kind of like — and none of the kids will get this — Manny [Ramirez] being Manny,” Coughlin said. “It’s Vicki being Vicki. If there’s a dead minute in practice she’ll be dancing. She knows my name is James but for years she would call me Jerry and it got to the point where one kid last year put Jerry as my first name on their college application. That’s classic Vicki.
“I’ll miss her. She makes things fun and interesting and she makes my hair even grayer than it already is.”
Waters is planning to head back west after she graduates. She’s looking at California State-Northridge and The Art Institute of California-Hollywood.
“I’ll get lots of sun, my family is out there and I want to go into visual effects and special effects and Hollywood is the place to do it,” Waters said. “At first I had no idea what I wanted to study in college. Then I went to Universal Studies and went behind the scenes and saw how everything worked. I saw all the cool stuff that goes into making movies and I said, ‘This is exactly what I want to do’.”
Rob Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press
