Early in the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s game, Wilberforce guard Constance “Connie” Chaplin was driving along the baseline when a Fisk defender slid over in front of her.
At the last second — in order to avoid contact and a likely charging foul — Chaplin executed an exaggerated rock-back-and-to-the-side Euro step that made the already amped-up crowd at Gaston Lewis Arena gush ‘Whooo!” in unison.
Before the Fisk player could recover, Chaplin was past her and though she missed her short jump shot, she got the rebound and made the layup for part of her team high (along with Laniya Early) 15 points in Wilberforce’s 71-62 victory.
“I work on that Euro step in practice about every day,” Chaplin said afterward. “It helps so I can avoid teams taking charges on me. It helps me avoid trouble and just play my game.”
It’s a move she could have used already as a kid growing up in Cleveland in a single-parent household led by her mom, Jeanine Christal King.
Her 47-year-old mother died in February of 2012 from what Chaplin said were complications after a surgery. A blood clot turned out to be fatal. With her life upended, she and one of her five sisters eventually ended up being raised by her father.
“At 10, you can’t really comprehend the significance of everything that’s happening,” she said. “You cope however you can.
“All I did was play basketball — all day. I played at a park on 30th Street that had chain link nets. It was pretty tough, but it forced me to step up.
“The park is competitive and you’re not going to get picked up to play if you can’t create your own shot. Nobody will pass you the ball, so you’ve got to find a way to score. You develop little moves.”
That’s how she came up with her little shake-and-bake move out front — she called it her “wiggle” — that gets a defender off balance and allows her to drive.
Several times Thursday night she also used a behind-the-back dribble and, of course there was that Euro step.
Her ever-growing arsenal already was developed enough when she captained the Euclid High team to two Greater Cleveland Conference titles, was the MVP her senior season and ended up as the school’s all-time leading scorer with over 1,600 points.
But since then, she’d found her path blocked — sometimes by her own doing, sometimes not — in far more formidable fashion than she faced from that Fisk player Thursday night.
Her college career started at Eastern Michigan, where he played six games in the 2019-20 season.
She then transferred to Wright State, where she said she initially sat to meet NCAA transfer rules, and then played in 12 games as the Raiders advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The following year — with Kari Hoffman replacing Katrina Merriweather, who went to coach Memphis — she played in three games but eventually was dismissed from the team, as was Shamarre Hale.
The Raiders went 4-23 and by the next season almost all the players from the NCAA Tournament team were gone.
Chaplin headed on to Virginia Union, played five games and then spent a semester at Point Park University, an NCAA D-II school in Pittsburgh.
This season she joined Wilberforce, whose new coach, Rachel Naughton, came through her own childhood hardships and trauma.
Naughton has worked at forging a bond with Chaplin and the 5-foot-9 guard has responded. She’s the team’s second leading scorer (13.8) and rebounder (7.2)
She also is now able to reflect on her odyssey:
“When you’re in the middle of going through all that, it’s tough. But when you’re standing here today like I am and you look back, you can laugh a little and say, ‘Dang, I was young.’
“But there’s beauty in all that because that’s made me who I am today. It helped me build my character and deal with my flaws.
“It made me go back to that little girl and helped me heal myself. It made me realize being good in this game is better than being good at this game.”
Process ‘took a toll’
The transition was tough for a lot of the WSU players who were recruited by Merriweather and then inherited by Hoffman, who took over in 2021-22 after having great success at nearby Cedarville University.
The dynamic was just as tough for Hoffman, who had seen some of the top Raider returnees transfer out before she ever got there.
“When you get a new coach, things change,” Chaplin said. “She wanted to make the program different.
“The day I left I didn’t pound on nothing and I didn’t necessity cry either. I was just hurt.
“I finished my classes that year and every day I went to the gym, sometimes in the student center or McLin Gym and sometimes the YMCA in Fairborn. I wanted to keep my mind off what happened and to keep trying to better because you never know what might be next.”
She grew quiet and finally said: “But it did take a toll. I had a hard time trusting anybody after that. I had a hard time trusting different coaches.”
She did praise Virginia Union and its coaching staff:
“Great coaches, great program. I tried to fit in and learn the team concept, but I felt far from home. Far from my family. I realized I needed a better support system,”
Her departure from Eastern Michigan had been because of youthful impatience she admitted. This was different.
When the opportunity at Wilberforce arose, she was intrigued.
“I saw it was near Wright State and that it was an HBCU,” she said.
Virginia Union is a Historically Black College and University as well and she had liked that.
“There a real family feel,” she said. “I felt comfortable.”
Teammates ‘look to her’
Naughton can relate to players travelling a tough road.
She grew up in Queens, dealt with abuse from someone close to the family and became a teenage mother.
Basketball became her outlet.
Although she’d dreamed of taking her hoops skills one day to Cornell University, she ended up at a junior college and then St Paul’s University, a small HBCU in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
She was nurtured there and prospered.
She became a successful coach — as well as a loving mom and now grandmother — authored a pair of books, and as she did at Baltimore City CC before coming to Wilberforce, she’s tried to use her story and her insights to aid the young women who play for her.
“She’s a great coach and, more importantly, a great person,” Chaplin said. “She’s a great fit for us. She understands a group of girls who come from a certain background and she can create a dialogue.”
Naughton — who’s led the Lady Bulldogs to a 10-12 mark this season — said she “loves it” at Wilberforce and “most importantly I love what I do.”
“I just see myself in all these girls. And I’ve got to be there as a coach: teaching them, being their friend, their mentor and their mother.”
When it comes to Chaplin, she said, “I’ve never met a player with so much passion. She brings a lot of intensity.”
And versatility, too:
“She’s able to play several positions for us. A lot of times our players kind of rely on her. They look to her.”
When Chaplin fouled out with 5:20 left, the Bulldogs still led by 12 points, 58-46.
But over the next 2 ½ minutes, Wilberforce did not score and suddenly Fisk trailed by just one, 58-57.
The Bulldogs managed to find their footing after that, and five different players scored in the final minutes to provide the nine-point victory.
“My teammates did what they were supposed to do,” Chaplin said. “They showed what they were really about and in the end, we won.”
It’s kind of like her story is turning out to be on the court ... and off.
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