By: Zahid Ozgur
Introduction to Journalism
Courtney Luongo is an eighteen year old with dreams for her future as an owner of a cake shop.
But her name hints to her current sweet success as Camden County College’s starting center on the women’s basketball team.
While this may be her first year as a college player, sports are not new to Luongo.
She graduated from Overbrook High School and played basketball, track and field, field hockey and softball. She started playing basketball in her freshman year of high school.
She thought because she was tall, her height could offer power to the team.
Her most successful season was when she was in 10th grade. The team almost won against Delsea to go to finals.
According to Courtney in both basketball and softball, you have to be, “relaxed, use common sense and ‘go hard.’
As a Cougars player, she recalls her highest scoring game was this year, when the Cougars beat ACCC, 71-38. She considers their strongest competitor to be Passaic County College.
The weakness of her team, in her opinion, is losing players. On playing with six players as a team, she says, “It was hard at times but with the work that coach did for us, it got us through games.”
She personally believes in the acronym, “‘TEAM’ means that Together Everyone Achieves More.”
Her team’s strategy is to fight hard. In her words, “Whoever wants it the most, wins it.”
Her formula of success is to do what ever you need to and to learn from one’s mistakes.
Three words she uses to describe herself in relation to the sport are, aware, big, and committed.
Her favorite team in the NBA is the Cleveland Cavaliers. But since LeBron James no longer plays for them, she’s a Miami Heat fan. Her favorite WNBA team is the New York Liberty and her favorite WNBA player is Janel McCarville.
In her free time, when she is not playing basketball, she plays other sports, including running; Xbox, and enjoys the classic evening of dining out for dinner and a good movie with friends and family.
She also likes to meditate to clear her mind. She thinks it is a key to being healthy and to keep her mentally focused.
As for her plans beyond College player, Luongo aspires to go to culinary school and hopes of owning her own cake shop in New York in the next five years. She sees herself married with two kids and living in New York City since she loves city life.
But whether destiny has her sprinkling baking or baby powder, basketball will always be a part of Luongo’s life.
“It’s what I could turn to when nobody else was there. I like it because it just gets me away from stress and it’s relaxing,” she said.
With a pause, she adds, “To me, basketball IS my life.”