Cardinal achievement

MUNCIE — The Cardinal coaching staff was looking for players to show them they wanted to be a part of the team.
Lindsey Wellman did.
The Jay County High School graduate earned a spot on the Ball State University women’s basketball team after a walk-on tryout Tuesday.
The prospective players were told at the conclusion of the tryout session that the coaching staff would inform them of its decision by noon Wednesday. Wellman got her call just 15 minutes after driving back to her rural-Selma home.
“Awesome,” said Wellman of how she felt when she got the call informing her that she had made the team. “I cried as soon as I hung up the phone …  it was very emotional, very surreal.
“It was amazing.”
Wellman, a Ball State junior, picked out her number — 24 — on Wednesday and did some preliminary paperwork. She will sign her NCAA compliance papers today and then schedule a physical, after which she will be able to begin participating in team activities.
She said the tryout session, which included 15 players, started with an intense cardiovascular workout that lasted about 15 minutes. The players were then put through a variety of basketball drills before scrimmaging for the final 10 minutes.
“I felt very confident,” Wellman said. “I made the shots that I needed to make and I felt good in the drills.”
The opportunity for Wellman to play college basketball comes more than three years after she played her final high school game.
She averaged 14.7 points and 6.2 rounds in leading the JCHS girls basketball team to an undefeated regular season in 2008-09. But her career came to an end when she became pregnant with her daughter, Haley, during the summer prior to her senior year.
Wellman decided to try for the walk-on spot with the Cardinals while she and her dad, Rick, were watching her brother, Billy, play for the Ball State University baseball team in April. She spent the next four months working out with Billy, a 2009 JCHS graduate, to get back into basketball shape and said that time prepared her well for the workout and now to be a Division I athlete.
“I feel like it’s just going to get harder now that I start practicing and going through conditioning, but I feel like I’m ready for it,” said Wellman. “I feel good.”
Wellman said her first goal is to prove herself during practice with her fellow players, one of which, junior guard Jordan Huber, is a former AAU teammate.
From there she’d like to earn the opportunity to play in at least half of the games this season for the Cardinals, who were 9-21 a year ago.
The mom and nursing student knows she’s in for a challenge, but she’s ready for it.
“It is so worth it,” Wellman said. “I’m going to be so busy, but I’m very excited.”[[In-content Ad]]