Cavalier Corner

"I knew basketball was going to come and go. Basketball's a great game, but at any moment it can be taken away from you. I was down a little bit, but was able to uplift myself because I knew every day I was getting better. My main focus was to get better every single day." The fact Venson got better "every single day" was attributed to two factors: her father, Michael, who played basketball at Georgetown and James Madi- son, and intense workouts with him and "pickup" games with men. "I spent a lot of time with my dad on and off the court," Venson said. "I talk to him every single day about life things and basketball. "He influenced me and helped me get to where I am today. I've very fortunate to have a father who supported me like he did." Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle noted that those workouts helped Venson morph into a top- flight Division I player. "What I saw was the product of what her fa- ther and Mikayla did," Boyle said. "They were up around 4 a.m. and were in a gym by 5 a.m. She was going to work out before school and then going back into the gym to play pickup games. "She was doing workouts twice a day and on weekends. She was playing pickup games with guys at the YMCA. It wasn't that she had a gift. She worked on it with her dad. He always put her in drill work where he really could push the tempo." When Michael Venson "pushed the tempo," in retrospect it helped his daughter in more ways than one. "My dad helped prepare me mentally and physi- cally for the game," Venson said. "I think mainly mentally because when you get to college you have to fight through fatigue and because going into ACC play, every game is a dogfight. "Physically, it was a matter of waking up early, getting hard workouts every day, getting a lot of shots and trying to simulate game speed. I knew I just couldn't catch and shoot. I knew I had to work on getting my shot off quickly plus work on different ways to score and create ways for my teammates." Even though Venson's high school career was short-circuited, Boyle was still able to scout this player who last season was voted to the ACC All- Freshman Team. "There are exposure camps and AAU games," Boyle said. "She played on the EYBL circuit, which is a high Nike circuit. The only teams there are BY MIKE SCANDURA T HREE GAMES INTO HER SOPHOMORE YEAR at Arlington (Va.) Yorktown High, Mikayla Venson's basketball career came to a halt. On a drive to the basket, she was hit in the head and later was diagnosed with a concussion. That was the end of her high school career — which makes the fact she transi- tioned into Virginia's leading scorer this season all the more remarkable. "Once I got the concussion, I knew I had to go away from basketball for a while," said Venson, who led UVA in scoring (15.1 points per game) and three-point shooting (37.7 percent, 46 of 122) through Jan. 24. "I was worried more about my health and being able to do my school work every day, and getting back into the swing of things.

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