GO Getter: Molly Carter

This senior Lady Panther is an All-American... well, everything.

If you hadn’t noticed, Springfield is a hotbed for women’s hoops. A big reason for this is the Drury Lady Panthers—and no one has been a bigger part of Lady Panther basketball than Molly Carter, 22. The 2004-05 Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year and 2006-07 1st Team All-Great Lakes Valley Conference selection sat down with us to talk about DU women’s basketball, life as a student-athlete and ex-coach Nyla Milleson’s move to Missouri State.

So where is the team at in its season? I understand a few things have changed since last year.
We just finished our exhibition games, and we’re getting ready to kick off the regular season in Oklahoma... Coach Milleson of course left for MSU, but we got a great coach in Coach [Steve] Harold. He actually was the Division II coach of the year last year, so you can’t argue with that.

Do you talk record at this point in the year?
Of course we always take it game by game, but a perfect record for us would of course be having no losses. And that would actually be a feasible goal. There aren’t too many teams that can say that.

Courtesy Drury University

What’s the coolest place you’ve traveled as a member of the team?
Chicago was pretty cool, but the best trip was last year, when we went to the Bahamas and played in a tournament. We only played for two days and we were there for five. We just sat on the beach and swam with the dolphins. That wasn’t too bad.

Okay, so your old coach is now coaching across town [at Missouri State]. What are the feelings in the locker room?
There’s obviously some disappointment there because Coach Milleson is not only a great coach, but we lost a great person. But she had to make that move, and I’m so happy for her. Who goes from high school to Division II to Division I and stays in the same city? That’s an amazing accomplishment. She’s going to do great things with that program.

Honestly, though, would you still like to play [Missouri State] and beat them?
Really? Maybe. But I don’t think that will happen.

With one season left, what’s going on inside of you. You’ve done this for so long.
It’s kinda strange because I’ve been in Springfield all my life… there are no words to describe it. It’s crazy. As for the future, I might get my MBA. The other day I actually got an invitation to go play in Italy, so you never know what’s going to happen.

So you’ve thought about playing overseas?
Yeah, I’ve thought about it a little bit. There’s always that possibility. You have to keep your options open, and if one of those options is overseas…

You could go play in the Bahamas!
Exactly, Bahamas. Australia would be fun.

Do female basketball players get abuse on the road? Have you ever had a time when you’ve had somebody catcalling or heckling?
I think guys on the road try to [rattle] female athletes. I was taking free throws once, it was dead silent, and some guy literally asked me to marry him. I couldn’t help but crack a smile at that.