Guard builds off community support for sophomore season

Freshman+Shamaryah+Duncan+poses+for+a+photo+during+media+day+on+Oct.+13+inside+Charles+Koch+Arena.

Mia Hennen

Freshman Shamaryah Duncan poses for a photo during media day on Oct. 13 inside Charles Koch Arena.

Sophomore Shamaryah Duncan is a guard for the Wichita State women’s basketball team. Duncan is from Waco, Texas where she played basketball at Midway High School. This is her second year playing for the Shockers, and she is eager for this season to begin.

Duncan said she learned a lot about being a student-athlete after her freshman season and is learning how to carry that with her throughout her college career. A tool that has helped her succeed at becoming a good student-athlete is having the help of an athletic advisor. 

Each athlete at Wichita State is assigned an athletic advisor. Their job is to find ways to help athletes manage their time. Student athletes have different schedules to manage compared to other college students. They need to manage time between jobs, school work, practices, games, jobs, and social time. Staying on top of this can seem overwhelming to athletes, so Duncan said she makes time to always speak with her advisor.

 “He [Andrew, athletic advisor] really helped me out a lot,” Duncan said. “We have meetings every Monday to see what I have for my classes throughout the week, so that really helped me a lot. I also have a planner on my phone where I put down my assignments for each of my classes and that helped me a lot too.”

Duncan has been working hard this off season to become a stronger athlete. Each day, she sets aside time to go shooting. Duncan does this daily, in addition to the offseason. Sometimes she shoots alone or with some of her teammates, including teammate Tanya Platonova. 

“I will go before or after practice or even at night,” Duncan said. “That way I can also keep my shots up.” 

A tip that Duncan said is also helpful as a college athlete is to communicate with your coaches. Duncan said she speaks to her coaches to let them know where her mind is at if she is having a rough week, or has a lot of schoolwork to get done. 

“I communicate with my coaches and I do not shut them out because that’s not gonna help me in the long run,” Duncan said. 

 Duncan said some of her personal goals for this season include being more aggressive, and scoring more. She also said she wants to have confidence in herself and her teammates, and to win more games. 

“You know last season we didn’t do as well as we wanted to, but hey, that’s last season it’s in the past,” Duncan said “We’re ready for this season to prove everybody wrong and show that we are the best team in the conference.”