By David Driver, Special Consultant
FARMVILLE, Va. - Chelsea Coward was in the midst of an internship last summer when she came across a fishy e-mail while working with a colleague.
“My boss' e-mail was hacked,” said Coward, the top player this season for the women's basketball team. “So we let him know and sorted through it.”
While perhaps a minor matter, the incident while at The EmeraldPlanet, a not-for-profit in Washington, D.C., was a valuable lesson for the Hanover High School graduate from Mechanicsville, just north of Richmond.
Coward is on track to graduate in the spring and is majoring in information systems and securities with a minor in cyber security, forensics and policy.
“It is a broad field. There are so many things you can specialize in and I am trying to figure it out. I would like to get more into web design,” said Coward, who assisted The EmeraldPlanet with its database and social media resources.
Coward worked about seven hours a day for three weeks at The EmeraldPlanet, which according to its website was created in 1973 and works with research institutions, businesses, governments, universities, health care providers, clean water advocates, funders, non-government and community based organizations.
“They focus on green issues and helping the environment. I knew D.C. was great for internships and business in general,” said Coward, who stayed with her mother's cousin in nearby Upper Marlboro, Md., during her internship.
While Coward is unsure exactly what area of security she would like to work in, the 6-foot-1 guard/forward may have another career option if she continues to excel on the court – that of a professional basketball player.
“She would excel in Europe. There are plenty of opportunities over there,” Lancers head coach
Bill Reinson said.
After scoring 10.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game last season as a junior, Coward is averaging 15.9 points and 9.8 rebounds through the first eight games this year.
And she has performed superbly against big-time programs.
She had 29 points and five rebounds in a loss on Nov. 15 at North Carolina State, and 17 points and 10 rebounds on Nov. 26 in a setback at Pittsburgh.
“I may be biased, but in my opinion she was the player on the floor at North Carolina State,” Reinson said. “She is the type of person who earlier in her career was willing to give respect to older players. She knows she needs to step up this year. She understands the importance of her role on the team since we have a lot of young players.”
Coward is shooting 40 percent from three-point range and also has 18 blocks and 12 steals this season for the Lancers, who begin Big South Conference play at home Jan. 3 against Gardner-Webb.
“I think it is a big deal,” she said of the Big South. “Not being in a conference made it kind of tough. This is a good conference for Longwood.”
Reinson said Coward has the potential to play pro basketball, perhaps overseas, if she pursues that level.
“I have thought about that,” she said. “I want to see how this year ends. Hopefully I will get some looks and phone calls from someone.”
Former Lancers to play overseas include Odessa Williams, who finished her college career in 2008 and has played in Austria, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and last season in Romania. Keiva Small, who also finished at Longwood in 2008, played last season in Romania and Mina Jovano is playing in her native Serbia this season after playing last season for the Lancers.
Coward began playing organized basketball in a church league, Faith Landmarks Ministry on Chamberlayne Road in Richmond, when she was about 10. She had never thought of playing but was encouraged to try by her brother, Duane, when he came home from college and noticed she was getting taller.
“She was not into sports or anything. He said, 'Mom, you should let her play basketball,' “ according to Mary Coward, her mother.
Coward was a four-year player at Hanover High and was the Capital District Player of the Year. She averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds per game as a senior and scored more than 1,000 points in her career. Coward also played three years of volleyball in high school and was also all-district in that sport.
She attracted attention from American, Hartford and Memphis, among others. Coward felt Hartford and Memphis were too far from home and once she heard from Longwood and paid a visit to the Farmville campus she was sold.
Her cousin, Randy Johnson, played basketball at Longwood, but Coward said that did not figure much into her decision. Johnson was teammates in the 1980s at Longwood with Jerome Kersey, who went on to play in the NBA. Her mother is a regular at games in Farmville.
She started 16 of 28 games as a freshman and averaged 11.4 points and five rebounds per game. As a sophomore Coward averaged 8.6 points and 3.6 boards per contest. Now she knows what is expected from her by Reinson.
“He has made it clear he needs me to be a leader on and off the court by what I say and by example,” she said. “We have a lot of young girls. I go out to win every time and that is how I play. In high school it was a lot of easier. The girls are a lot bigger and I am not the biggest player.”
And at the same time she is a solid student. “I am really good with writing everything down. I know the things that I have to do,” she said.
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Editor's Note: Special consultant David Driver is a Virginia native and has covered college sports in the state for more than 20 years. He has been a staff writer for newspapers in Arlington, Springfield and Harrisonburg and has contributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Washington Post, Stafford County Sun and The Potomac News in Woodbridge. He was also the first sports editor for the daily Baltimore Examiner. He will continue contributing special feature content to longwoodlancers.com throughout the upcoming 2012-13 academic year as well. A former Division III baseball player at Eastern Mennonite University, David can be reached at www.davidsdriver.com.
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