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Women's Basketball Drafts Former Marin Covenant Youth
SECAUCUS, NJ (April 21, 2001) - Erin Buescher, who attended youth group at Marin Covenant Church in California, was selected as the 23rd overall pick in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) 2001 draft at the NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Buescher, a 6-foot-3 guard from The Master's College in southern California, was picked by the Minnesota Lynx after scoring 17.9 points per game and grabbing 9.3 rebounds during her senior season. Buescher scored 2136 points in her four-year college career - which began at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), - and shot over 50 percent from the field.
Buescher's youth pastor, Gary Gaddini, now at Peninsula Covenant Church in Redwood City, California, said Buescher was a committed Christian. "It wasn't like she was a (basketball) prodigy in middle school," he recalled, "but she was a really, really fun kid, the kind of kid you go into ministry for. She comes from a great family - her parents took parenting very seriously."
After an All-State high school basketball career in Northern California, Buescher went to UCSB and had an immediate impact, averaging 17.1 points per game as a freshman and earning Big West Player of the Year honors. She was Player of the Year the following two seasons, scoring
19.9 and 17.3 points per game respectively while displaying the kind of basketball versatility seldom seen in a woman of her height.
Last fall she displayed a Christian faith that is seldom seen among college athletes, drawing national attention in the process. She transferred to The Master's College, a small Christian college that mandates chapel attendance and requires classes to begin with prayer. In an interview, Buescher told the Los Angeles Times that a Christian college environment is important if one desires to grow spiritually. "People are serious about God and about pursuing holiness," she said of her school.
Although the surprise transfer became a national story, Gaddini said he had talked with Buescher about her college choices following her graduation from high school. He said he knew then Buescher's faith was important to her, stating the college transfer was typical of the girl he knew a decade earlier.
"Even in middle school, you could tell she was able to express a sincere love for God," Gaddini said. "Erin would keep a journal every week and was able to express her faith in God through that weekly journal. She had a sense of self that was really healthy - she didn't care what others thought of her. The decision (to transfer) didn't surprise me."
Buescher continued her stellar play at Master's, leading the team to a 26-3 record by pacing her team in scoring and rebounds and dishing off 77 assists in 25 games. The team earned a trip to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) tournament, losing in the first round of the 32-team event.
The WNBA begins play May 28 and ends its regular season August 14. Playoffs are scheduled to begin August 16.
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