“Born to Play ‘Ball,’ and Serve”

An outsider looking in. Can easily perceive the game of basketball to be all about individual accomplishments. Everyday, the media praises individual players, for high flying dunks, massive endorsement deals, and a never ending debate about who the G.O.A.T is. Which is why it is my pleasure to introduce this month’s feature athlete, “Samantha LaFon,” a young lady, who jokingly tells her peers, she “knew how to run a scoreboard before she could write or spell her name.”

From being a player, to being a coach’s daughter, to being a fan, to being an injured player that needed to cheer/coach her team, to even coaching kids at camps/recreational leagues. Her entire body of work, which is still in its infancy phase, is a reminder that basketball is a TEAM game, and the game is meant to mold strong families, it is not simply about an admiration towards individual accolades. The current junior on the Appalachian State Women’s Basketball team has had an exemplary career on and off the court.

Firstly, let’s talk about what she has done on the court. Samantha grew up in Chesapeake Ohio, a village that sits across the river from Marshall University, the institution in which she started her college basketball career. Coming from Ironton High School, a program that has been described as a “family-like” atmosphere. In which her father “Mark Lafon,” coached some of the top men’s…