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Saginaw native Brittany Burns transfers home, recruits best friend LaTille Ross
December 4, 2006 —
Juniors Brittany Burns and LaTille Ross are playing basketball at Saginaw Valley this season. Suffice it to say, they did not plan on it two years ago.
Burns, a 5'7" guard, and Ross, a 6' forward, met a little more than two years ago as freshmen at Alabama State University. As the only two freshmen on the squad that year, they spent a week sharing an entire dorm floor by themselves as part of the university's freshman orientation week.
"We just kind of clicked, because we were there for a week," Burns says. "(LaTille) was my first friend and I was her first friend, and we stayed real close."
The two hadn't met before arriving at ASU because they lived about 14 hours apart. Ross was a three-year starter at Opelika High, about 45 minutes northeast of Montgomery, where ASU is located. Burns, meanwhile, was a four-year starter who spent her first year at Arthur Hill High in Saginaw before transferring to rival Saginaw High.
Despite their distance apart, both share a slightly equal story of how they chose ASU.
Arthur Hill grad Shameka Jackson was a senior at ASU during Burns' junior season at Saginaw High. Burns says Jackson told her coaches about Burns, and they came to Saginaw to watch Burns play and recruited her to be on the Hornets squad.
The decision to move far away from home wasn't hard for Burns.
"I wanted to get away from home, as far away as I possibly could," she explains. "I liked the school and I liked the coaches, so that's where I chose to go."
Ross also knew a player on the ASU roster, senior Chrishutta Lewis, who told her coaches of Ross' ability. Despite the fact that basketball was her first love, Ross was initially on a track scholarship before earning one for basketball.
Successful but unhappy
Burns started nine games her freshman year, while Ross started 14. The two were on their way to having a successful career as Hornets, but neither were happy.
"Me and my coach (Freda Freeman-Jackson) really didn't see eye-to-eye," Burns says. "There were some things I didn't agree with and some things she didn't agree with. There was too much stress trying to balance the books and basketball."
Ross was having problems, too.
"I don't think anybody was happy there," Ross says. "Maybe like two people out of 12 were happy."
"They have a very old fashioned system there, and they don't really change with the times," Burns adds. "We were on some 1960s rules or something down there."
After the season, Burns decided to leave ASU. Needless to say, her best friend was not happy.
"I was mad, actually, (that Brittany left)," Ross says. "I understood that I didn't have to stay, but I didn't want to stop playing ball. But I knew I was going to leave after that season, so I stuck it out."
Even though she was unhappy at ASU, Burns says her decision was not easy.
"We didn't want to leave," she explains. "The day that I left, I didn't want to go, but I just knew it was best for me. We never imagined leaving there."
Burns wasn't simply quitting the basketball team to go play somewhere else, either; she was done with the sport altogether. Or so she thought.
"Basketball was so overwhelming that I thought it would be best to not play anymore," she says. "So I left (ASU) assuming that I wasn't ever going to play basketball again."
She came to SVSU to take classes during the Fall '05 semester and planned to transfer to the University of Michigan a semester later to be "straight books" and complete her pre-med studies.
But SVSU coach Vonnie Killmer, who coached Burns at Arthur Hill the one season she played there, heard from her team manager that Burns was back in Saginaw, and set out to change her former player's mind.
"I told her, 'I don't really want to play basketball anymore, I really had a bad experience and I don't want to do it anymore,'" Burns says. "About a week into it, I was like, 'Man, I miss basketball.'"
Burns made the team, but because of eligibility rules, was not allowed to play last season. Killmer, in her second year at SVSU, felt she needed more post players to compete in the GLIAC.
"Coach said, 'We're really looking for a post player, we can't find anybody,'" Burns recalls. "So low and behold, my best friend was a post player, and she wasn't happy, either."
Burns told Killmer about Ross. The coach watched some tape, liked what she saw, and invited Ross up to Saginaw for a visit. She agreed to transfer to play with her best friend.
Starting over
Ross and Burns both start for the Lady Cardinals this season. Their arrival pushed junior Kara Kinzer and senior Kali Briggs, both starters a year ago, to the bench.
"I'm not looking at it like I took their spot," Ross says. "But I came here planning on playing."
"I don't think it feels anything like that," Burns adds. "We just go out there and play hard and do the best that we can."
The two are having to make several adjustments.
"I think there's still some kinks to figure out, but towards the middle of the season we should definitely be alright," Burns says.
Killmer, speaking after her team's 82-71 loss on Saturday night, agreed.
"We've got some new kids," she said. "We need to form a nucleus. We have some kids who are freshmen to the team, but not to basketball. Everybody has their habits. They just haven't learned each other's habits."
Burns says her and Ross are still getting used to each other, too. After all, even though they played significant minutes at ASU as freshmen, it was only for one season.
"I think we still haven't figured each other out," Burns says. "I was just getting on her (Friday in practice)."
There are other differences the two are experiencing, as well.
They agree that the style of play in the GLIAC is much different than in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, where the games are much more physical.
"Down there, you kind of had to fight a little bit on the court," Burns says. "Here, there's no touching."
That isn't to say, though, that the play is worse.
"It's more fundamental up here," Ross says. "We ran some plays (at ASU), but we didn't do too much fundamental stuff down there."
"Where we came from, it's based more on your raw talent," Burns adds. "More spread the floor, one-on-one play. Here there's more set plays, more pick-and-roll, ball fakes."
Burns and Ross are also adjusting from playing in a winning culture much of their careers to an up-and-coming one at SVSU.
Freeman-Jackson, the coach at ASU, has a 143-88 record as the Hornets' coach. Burns' Saginaw High teams were perennial contenders in the Saginaw Valley League, while Ross says her Opelika teams were also successful.
"There's definitely a big difference here, but I like it," Burns says. "I like being the underdog."
"I don't mind (being the underdog)," Ross adds. "I've never been the underdog, but now we can go out and upset teams."
More than just friends
Needless to say, when Burns and Ross met during freshman orientation week, they certainly did not expect to be playing at Saginaw Valley State two years later. Yet, they have no regrets about their decisions.
"I'm a little home sick now, but it's okay," says Ross, who made the move up north in May. "But I'll be back. I'm not running away to where I gotta stay home."
The two have been living together as roommates at Saginaw Pointe Apartments since Ross moved.
"At Alabama State, we were good friends. We were pals," Burns says. "Now, we live together and we pay bills together, as opposed to just playing basketball together. Now, we're sisters."