Lady cager Carter takes southern route to Happy Valley

By DONNIE COLLINS
Collegian Staff Writer

With just her sister by her side and dreams of getting a college degree waltzing through her mind, Clara Carter was admittedly a little nervous.

Actually, she was scared to death.

For the first time in her life, Carter, who never felt such anxiety while on the basketball court, was on an airplane.

The butterflies in her stomach, though reserved for the first-time flight, could easily have been attributed to the life that Carter was about to undertake.

Carter was about to leave behind her mother and four brothers. She was about to leave behind everything she knew.

In exchange, she was asking only for a chance.

Coming off a heralded career at Thomas R. Proctor High School where the talented forward from Utica, N.Y., broke 12 women's basketball school records, Carter and her sister, Sedonia, hit the road. Although heavily recruited out of high school by Syracuse, a school located almost 55 miles West of Utica, academic problems forced both Carter sisters 1,494 miles to the South -- to Kilgore, Texas.

Never before had Clara been to Texas. But at the suggestion of her high school coach, she and Sedonia enrolled at Kilgore Junior College -- a small school located in the Piney Woods section of the Lone Star State, near the Louisiana border.

Carter was a long way from Utica -- and a long way from Syracuse.

"I explained to (my high school coach), ‘When you find a college, don't find one far away from home,' " Carter recalled, laughing. "What does she do? She calls and says, ‘You gotta go to Texas.' "

Cowboys and Tex-Mex food, sweltering summers and Southern drawls were not exactly what Carter had in mind when she thought of what her collegiate basketball career would be like.

But this, she was told, was the only way to earn both her coveted degree and a chance of fulfilling her dream of playing Div. I college basketball.

In the beginning, Carter was less than ecstatic with her situation. And for a short time, it looked as if her bout with homesickness would end up hurting her performance on the basketball court.

"My freshman year, it was hard because of the adjustment," Carter said. "Even though I had my sister, I still missed my mother. You had family you could turn to if you were back at home. Whereas in Texas, I was far from home and my heart wasn't in it. I didn't want to be there. I wasn't in it as far as basketball, either."

For a player who has always relied on heart and intestinal fortitude to get her through the tough times during a game, Carter's lack of intensity during her freshman season at Kilgore caused some unwanted misery.

Unfortunately for Carter's opponents, that sentiment wouldn't last long.

As it often does, time cured all that ailed the homesick Carter. After living together for a semester, Carter felt comfortable enough in her new surroundings to move away from her beloved sister. Each went to live with other members of the team.

After the early trepidation, Carter blended into the Kilgore community with astonishing ease. And her performance on the basketball court soared. During her career with the Lady Rangers, the forward averaged 15 points and 12 rebounds per game.

Thanks in part to the partial decline of the women's basketball program at Syracuse, Carter decided that after leaving Kilgore in the spring of 1997, she would not be donning Syracuse orange in the fall.

While Sedonia had already decided to spend her remaining two seasons of eligibility at Ohio Valley Conference power Middle Tennessee State, Clara set her sites on Happy Valley as the place where her dreams of playing big-time college basketball would come true.

Despite the fact Penn State is well over 1,150 miles closer to her hometown than Kilgore, it didn't make the transition any easier. This time, Carter was still quite a distance from her family in Utica, and she didn't even have her sister to help her cope with everyday problems.

"When I got here, I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I miss her. I shouldn't have made that decision,' " Carter said. "But I don't regret it. She's doing well and I'm doing well."

Much like it did in Kilgore, Carter's heartache ended up causing a great abundance of pain for opponents. This season, her first as a full-time starter, Carter is averaging 7.6 points per game.

Although her offensive numbers at Kilgore dwarf those she's attained at Penn State, the ever-adapting Carter could care less.

Her newfound job at Penn State is not to be the main offensive threat in the post, as she was in her junior college days. That distinction belongs to All-Big Ten center Andrea Garner. Carter's role is that of a smothering defender, dominating rebounder and feared defensive presence in the post.

At Kilgore, she changed as a person.

At Penn State, Carter has changed as both a person and a player.

"(There is) no comparison," Lady Lion coach Rene Portland said when asked how Carter has changed as a player since arriving at Penn State. "She has a right and left hand that actually know each other now. She is our defensive stopper. She has stopped some of the finest post players defensively, and she gives us enough offensively to not hurt us.

"The kids really count on her to do some things physically. When she hits them in practice, they're like, ‘Oh man, she just killed us.' And then they say, ‘We're happy she's on our team. We know she's going to do that to someone else.' "

In addition to providing a vivid compliment to the less-physical Garner, Carter has also emerged as an emotional leader on a youthful Lion squad that looks to be among the most talent-laden teams in the conference.

With Carter and Garner, along with sophomore forward Maren Walseth and freshman forward Rashana Barnes, Portland feels she has at her disposal the best quartet of post players in the Big Ten.

Carter has demonstrated not just the ability to change her style of play for the good of the team, but also that she can assist her younger teammates to develop techniques of their own.

"Clara," Barnes said, "sets a great example for a young player like me to learn from."

Carter has come a long way as a player and person since leaving Utica four years ago -- and she has the frequent flier miles to prove it.