Ace Austin fulfills childhood dream, leads Spring Garden to four state titles
Ace Austin has always wanted to play basketball at Spring Garden.
"I always wanted to be right in the middle of it," Austin said.
Her earliest memory of basketball is when the teams were practicing on the floor, and her dad told her to get off the floor.
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"She wasn鈥檛 even old enough to walk," said her dad and head coach, Rickey Austin.
Rickey Austin remembers it well.
"She was a toddler, so I just kind of rolled a ball over to her and as soon as the ball got between her legs, she started patting the ball like she had seen the girls dribbling and she was trying to dribble the ball. That鈥檚 the first time I remember her connecting to the game of basketball and she鈥檚 probably less than two years old," he said.
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Fast forward, and that toddler is now not only the best in Spring Garden but also one of the best in the state.
"I do think she鈥檚 the best player that鈥檚 ever come through this state," Rickey Austin said. "I鈥檝e never seen a player that can dominate all phases of the game that she can."
That domination has led to four state championships, showing that the apple doesn鈥檛 fall far from the tree. Her mom and aunt won a title in 1987, and her dad won five as a coach. Before she made varsity, it was her brothers who really influenced her.
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"People ask me who I looked up to growing up, who I watched and wanted to inspire me, but they were who I watched. I would come when they would come shoot in the gym and I would watch them," Ace Austin said.
As a kid, she took it all in, the wins and the losses.
"We鈥檙e walking back to the hotel and she just kind of tugged at my arm and I just looked down at those big ole brown eyes. She said, 'Don鈥檛 worry, Dad, we鈥檙e going to be back and you鈥檙e going to have many up there,'" Rickey Austin said. "It wasn鈥檛 a kid trying to make her dad feel better, she was serious and I just looked at her and I said, can I count on that? She said yes sir."
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The banners are a promise kept and a legacy.
"I just want them to remember that I wasn鈥檛 just a good basketball player. I want them to know that I was a good person and influenced others," Ace Austin said.
As she heads to Alabama, she鈥檒l keep doing what her mom told her, "Just go be Ace."
"It鈥檚 always my smile that always just brings off good energy to others. I think that means you鈥檙e having fun and when you鈥檙e having fun, you鈥檙e doing good," she said.
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