© Clinton County News

Angela Brown towered over this defender in March as the Murray State Lady Racers defeated Tennessee Tech in a game at Cookeville. Brown has signed a contract to play professional basketball in Belgium. A reception to honor Brown has been slated for this Sunday, at the Clinton County Learning Center.

In Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 issue

Former Lady Dawg standout to play professionally in Belgium

Angela Brown is one of three players with a retired jersey banner hanging on the wall of the gymnasium at Clinton County High School listing a host of accomplishments during her years as a Clinton County Lady Bulldog standout basketball player.

She followed those storied high school achievements with a four-year Division I NCAA basketball career, three years with Old Dominion University, and a senior year with the Murray State Lady Racers that included an Ohio Valley Conference Championship title and an appearance in the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

For the majority of basketball players, the accomplishments Brown has put together would have been plenty to cap off a nice career before moving on to whatever she chose to do for the rest of her adult life, and in fact, up until a few weeks ago, she was ready to hang up her basketball shoes and probably head to the classroom to begin a career as a teacher.

Evidence of just how quickly things can change in one’s life is the fact that instead of looking for a teaching job this fall, Angela Brown has signed a contract that will see the 6’ 5” center become the first Lady Bulldog basketball player to take her career to the next level by becoming a professional basketball player.

After a whirlwind negotiation with an agent from Spain, followed by several proposals from teams in Belgium, Austria and Spain, Brown decided to give professional basketball a try and this fall will become a member of the “Belgium Boom” women’s team.

“I’m really excited about this,” Brown said Monday morning during an interview about her latest basketball endeavor. “I presumed I would go back to a normal life, working and so on, but surprisingly not.”

“Going back” to a normal life for Brown would have meant a return to a teaching career that she had begun as a substitute teacher two years ago, after finishing her college education at Old Dominion University.

After earning a degree in just three years, Brown left ODU with a year of playing eligibility remaining and during a chance conversation with one of her old high school coaches, former Lady Bulldog head coach Ronnie Guffey, she was able to work it out with Murray State University to finish her fourth year of NCAA eligibility with the Lady Racers.

During last season with the Lady Racers, Brown joined former Clinton County teammates Amber and Paige Guffey, and the Lady Racers captured an Ohio Valley Conference Championship title, advanced to the Women’s NCAA Tournament before being defeated by Duke to cap off one of the best seasons MSU’s women’s basketball teams had ever put together.

It was because of that decision to finish her fourth year of NCAA eligibility at MSU that this latest basketball opportunity came to light.

“It all came together pretty fast,” Brown said. “An agent sent out a feeler at the end of the season asking if I was interested in playing after college, and I said ‘yes’ ”.

From there, the agent, who is located in Spain, built a web-site around Angela’s college statistics, put together a highlight DVD and began sending information to overseas teams and leagues.

Within a matter of weeks, Angela was getting offers, and after looking over several, decided the offer from the Belgium based team was by far the most inviting.

She explained that all of the arrangements, as well as the conversations with her agent, had been done via email, which made working between the three “overseas” locations much easier than depending on telephone conversations and faxes.

She leaves later this month, flying out of Nashville on August 26, to New York where she will have a one-day layover before getting on another plane for the “across the water” flight to Brussels, Belgium.

The Belgium Boom is located in the Flanders region off the country, a province of Antwerp. With a population of about 17,000, Boom, Belgium is located on the Rupel River, which runs through the city.

Dutch, German and French are the national languages, but Brown noted the French is the language most spoken in the Boom area.

“I’ll certainly have to brush up on my French a little bit and I won’t have any idea what people are saying, at least for a while,” Brown said.

With a contract that goes through April 29, Brown will be “on the job” so to speak almost immediately after arriving in Boom, with several meetings, appearances, early practice sessions and pre-season scrimmages beginning a day after her plane lands on August 29.

An affiliate with the BBC league, the Boom will play a season that runs through April and includes a post-season tournament that is structured much like the NCAA tourney here in the United States.

Known as the “Dames”, the team that Brown joins will have very familiar surroundings, with team colors that are blue and white, a Bulldog mascot and a head coach whose first name is “Ronnie”.

Brown said that she will earn about $20,000 for her rookie season with the Dames, and the organization will also furnish her with anapartment, telephone, internet service and a car to use among other living expenses.

“That’s pretty good for that level,” Brown said. “I’m getting paid for playing basketball, so I can’t complain - that’s my job right now.”

Brown said she spent about 48 hours in Belgium during a previous overseas trip to London, and was very impressed then with the area.

The Boom also has a men’s team in the same organization, and the Dames share the gymnasium with the men’s team, as well as with a local youth basketball league. Her squad practices at 8:00 p.m. nightly, and most games on the schedule are also evening games.

The normal schedule calls for one game per week through the end of regular season play, and Brown noted that the routine would be easier than what she grew accustomed to with NCAA playing schedules.

“At Murray, we had one stretch where we played four games in seven days, so this is a much more relaxed schedule,” Brown said. “The country is roughly the size of the state of Maryland, so most of the games are within bus driving distance.”

She also noted that in addition to her weekly playing/practice schedule, her “off” time will also be about the same as it was during her college playing days, with about two weeks off during the Christmas season.

Working around the time difference and the jet lag factor, which is a six-hour ahead factor between Albany, Kentucky and Boom, Belgium, she expects she will be able to spend about a week back in the states during her time off at Christmas.

Although the team is furnishing her a vehicle for traveling use, gasoline expenses are not included, and for that reason, she expects the car will stay parked most of the time.

While drivers in the United States are currently suffering through record high prices for gasoline, the cost simply pales in comparison with the cost for “petrol” in Belgium.

“It would cost me about $20 to fill up a two-liter bottle over there, so I expect the car will be parked mostly,” Brown said.

Still, she noted that her apartment is located just about 200 meters from the team gymnasium, and about 50 meters from the club president’s home.

Brown was quick to acknowledge her gratitude to Murray State and the opportunity that institution gave her in bringing her on board with the Lady Racer program to finish her final year of NCAA eligibility.

“I was really, really happy to be able to go back and finish what I had started - it was a blessing,” Brown said. “I had already graduated, but to get to finish playing college was a good thing.”

Although she only played with MSU for a single season, Brown and the 2007-08 Lady Racer squad certainly left their mark on the MSU record books.

Brown started in a team-high 32 games for the Racers, who went 24-8 with an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the program’s first such invitation. The Racers drew the Duke Blue Devils in College Park, Md., and battled until the end in a 78-57 loss.

In a statement issued last week in a press release, MSU Head Coach Rob Cross said she was excited for Brown and this opportunity to play professional basketball overseas.

“We are thrilled that Angela has earned the opportunity to continue her basketball career,” Cross said. “A year ago, she would never have dreamt that she would become a professional basketball player. Through hard work and determination, she has found success on the court and rekindled her love of the game.”

In the Duke game, Brown led the Racers in rebounds (six), a feat she accomplished seven times throughout the 2007-2008 campaign. For the season, Brown led the Racers in field goal percentage (.541) and blocks (48), and was second on the team in rebounds (5.0 per game). Brown averaged 6.9 points per contest, but had eight games where she scored in double figures, including two career double-doubles (12 points, 12 rebounds on Feb. 2 vs. Jacksonville State, and 13 points, 10 rebounds on Feb. 23 vs. Samford).

The tallest player in the OVC last season, Brown ranked second in the OVC in blocks (1.5 per game) and third in field goal percentage. Although she only played one season in a MSU uniform, Brown ranks eighth in career blocks, and her single-season total is the second-highest ever in program history.

Brown was a stand-out player for Clinton County High School, graduating in 2003 after putting together a string of accomplishments that eventually led to her jersey being retired and earning a place on the “Wall of Fame” where banners noting championships earned are placed for all to see.

As a Lady Bulldog for Clinton County High School, Brown scored a total of 2,217 points which included a single-high scoring night where she dropped in 43 points in a contest against Boone County in 2000.

In addition to scoring, Brown was also known as a shot blocker in high school as well, finishing with 694 blocked shots. She also pulled down 1,569 rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs, made 975 field goals and 261 free throws while playing in 161 games

She was a part of a stretch of successful seasons for Clinton County Lady Bulldog basketball that was looked on as a model for small school programs across the entire state.

During her career, Clinton County captured 16th District Championship titles five consecutive years, from 1999 to 2003, and earned 4th Region championships in both 2002 and 2003.

In 2003, Brown’s squad advanced to the Saturday morning session, or “Final Four” round of the KHSAA Sweet 16, where they lost to Lexington Catholic in the semi-final game, ending the season with a 34-2 overall record.

All of those accomplishments are certainly a nice collection for Brown, but she also knows she can’t simply rest on her statistics and records of her career. Already, Brown has set additional goals for her overseas playing career, which include a “move up” to the next highest caliper of play overseas, the EuroCup league.

She said her parents, Mike and Debbie Brown, are both very excited and supportive of her decision to continue her basketball career, while her grandparents are also very much behind her, but have some concerns about her being so far away from home.

“When I was in London, there was a bomb scare around the airport, so my grandparents are happy, but somewhat cautious,” Brown said.

Brown said her friends have for the most part also been excited about her latest opportunity, adding that a few have also expressed their concern about her being overseas for such a long stretch.

She added that while she will enjoy traveling with the team, she expects her actual sightseeing will be somewhat limited because of her team obligations, and she would hope to take some extra time at the end of the season to do some traveling in the region then.

But with just about two weeks left before her next basketball career begins, the excitement is easily noticed in Brown as she talks about the opportunities that are in store as a member of the Boom Dames.

“It was supposed to be a ‘year and done’ with basketball after Murray, and now this,” Brown said, noting she has been playing basketball in an organized fashion for some 13 years. “I’m getting paid to play basketball now, and as long as they’ll let me play, I’ll play.”