‘Mose’ the heart and soul for women

It’s the third day in April, a Saturday. As the NCAA Tournament rages on, office brackets falling faster than a broomball player in loafers, basketball dominates what many call the greatest time in the sports year.

With the college basketball season drawing to a Shakespearean ending for both the men and women, the NBA and NHL regular seasons ending with teams jockeying for waning playoff spots and the baseball season about to begin, the air is rife with promise.

For Marisa Moseley, who’s just picked up the round ball for the first time in more than two weeks, each spin and bounce of the soft orange rubber sphere is rife with memories.

The two-plus weeks are the longest break she’s had in years. For the last four years, Moseley, a senior forward on the Boston University women’s basketball team, has put in more work than a President Bush public relations person. In that time, she’s seen the program progress from a 10-19 record in her first season in 2000-01, to a 19-11 record and America East Championship appearance this season, thanks in large part to her efforts.

In just four years Moseley has developed from a freshman who could “barely run up and down the court” into the Terriers’ trumpet, rallying the team with every word – and every characteristic burst of energy – according to BU coach Margaret McKeon.

So, it was time for a break. Things needed to clear, especially after the Terriers failed to repeat as America East champs this year, falling to the University of Maine 68-43 in the America East title game. The memories needed to sort themselves.

And so did everything else.

“I had so much work and things to catch up on since the end of the season that I haven’t had the opportunity to do too much working out or go shoot,” Moseley said. “I could’ve made time, but it was OK to take a break for a bit. After four years, I think I’m due two weeks.”

But as she strides across the court, each bounce of the ball echoes through the annals of her mind. There are more than enough things to draw from. She’s started for four years at BU. This, after four years at Longmeadow High School in Springfield, where she was named to the All-Western Massachusetts team as a senior. She also played in Amateur Athletic Union and Christian Youth Organization tournaments, which robbed her of her weekends.

The games fade into each other in streaks of scarlet, white and gray. Save a few choice games, most of the 112 as Terrier come together into one warm buzz. They come together not from the 761 career points. Not from the 114 career blocks, nor from the 168 steals or 428 rebounds – all top-10 totals in Terrier history.

No, memories don’t come in ink form.

“It’s really hard to walk away, especially during Final Four time right now,” she said. “Watching the teams, seeing the excitement that comes with winning and heartbreak that comes with losing, being around a team for all those hours. Having experienced that and knowing what it feels like, I’ll miss that more than any specific game. I’ll miss those people more than any game.”

She remembers clearly that night after junior year in Washington, D.C., when she and her father James sat in their hotel room at an AAU tournament with the Western Massachusetts Cheetahs, fuming at each other. The Cheetahs had just taken on an AAU team from California, and the father and daughter had differences of opinions on the game. One phone call later, though, the differences became a sum.

The elder Moseley, who speaks with the warmth of a Cape Cod summer about his daughter, also remembers the night that he found out Marisa would be staying in the Bay State as part of McKeon’s first recruiting class.

“There were very serious basketball players on that [Californian] team,” he said. “But we discussed that they’re girls just like she is and if she goes out there and does her best, she’ll do fine. But, she was trying to be the consummate team player that she still is. When I thought she should be shooting the ball, she was looking for her teammates.

“When we got back to the hotel, we were very angry at each other,” he said, pausing as his words slowed and his voice sunk. “Then, when Margaret called, we cried together.”

The situation was all too typical for the pair. With the picturesque loyalty of two characters in a Norman Rockwell painting, both have taken their steps together in their 14-and-a-half-year “journey,” the older Moseley continued.

“I have traveled with her,” he said. “As a divorced dad, I’ve always been there for every game … It’s been an emotional ride for me. It’s been an enjoyable, sometimes disappointing, sometimes overjoyed ride.”

The following summer, that ride then came to its final leg. The 90-minute trek from Springfield to Boston covered 90 miles. But the distance, the transition from high school to higher levels of education, basketball and life – that covered ground no tires could tread.

Marisa remembers taking the ride, feeling equally excited and apprehensive at the “expectations” that came along with a full ride to a Division I program. Leaving her family behind, with whom Moseley – “not a huge social person in high school” – spent a great deal of her time, she and four other recruits – just BU’s all-time leading scorer Katie Terhune and Lashaunda Mitchell remain – moved to the Hub.

When she arrived, she encountered another family. At first, this one didn’t have quite the comforts of home. This one replaced warm sheets with sprints. This one replaced sleep with endless shooting drills. It replaced “goodnight” with “not good enough.” The intentions, though, were fresh-out-of-the-dryer warm.

Enter: Margaret McKeon.

“She would get tired after a minute and a half,” McKeon remembers with a broad smile. “Her conditioning wasn’t where it needed to be. With Mose, I always pushed her to the limit to make her the best player and person she can be … I remember she would just kind of shut down in her early years. After she got tired, she got like, ‘I can’t hear or think or do anything on the court.'”

“We definitely had our battles,” Moseley said, laughing harder than McKeon. “After Christmas break freshman year, I thought I was going to die that day. I thought a break meant you took a break, so I did. I just sat around my family and hung out. It was a rude awakening when I got back on the 26th and couldn’t breathe.”

By the time junior year rolled around, Moseley was averaging 30 minutes a game at forward. For every one of those minutes she put in on the court, she put in hours off of it to improve herself physically and mentally. Whether it was sending weights or twine skyward, she did it all under the watchful blue eyes of McKeon.

As Moseley pulled up and hit a jumper on Saturday, she reminded herself not only of the amount of work it took to get to that stage, but the amount of mental strength she had to employ. Women’s varsity athletes have the extra benefits of a job at CampCo. With a relatively small fan base and very few allowances made academically to help them out, despite a full course load, their sleep patterns are blank sheets.

“I’ve never really quit anything in my life,” she said. “I don’t like to give up, as many times as I went through my head, saying ‘You know, is this what you really want?’ Especially freshman year, a lot of us question, ‘Do we love basketball this much? Do we really want to play this much? Do we want to give this much time, this much effort?'”

She did. Much to the happiness of McKeon.

As time went on, Moseley’s minutes rose. Her energy rose. Her numbers rose. And, finally, her voice rose again. She was home. With a different cast around her this time, Moseley still played the same role, James said.

“That’s Marisa [to be a vocal leader],” he said. “One time, she came home and felt so strongly about a situation I was in. We were watching TV, and she said, ‘Dad, turn the TV off. I need you to understand this.’ She’s always been very vocal in her point of view.”

Soon, that voice rose right along with McKeon’s. Rather, when McKeon’s voice rose into one of what Moseley calls “tirades, in a loving way,” Moseley’s dropped. Something like the yin and yang of the Terrier system.

Resting for a bit from shooting, Moseley reflects on how lucky she was to have a relationship like that with a coach. Four years removed from the freshman who could barely drag herself around the court, she’s four years wiser – four years a better person, much thanks to her coach.

“We read each other well,” Moseley said. “We’re similar in our personalities as far as interacting with people … We have the same personalities and outlook on life and competitive nature … Her level of competition might even exceed mine. As far as both wanting to win and work hard, I think I’ve learned from her.”

If you ask McKeon, though, there’s something she’ll always remember.

“I always knew Mose was a good person with really great quality,” she said. “I was trying to strive to get those great qualities out of her and challenge her. I never let up.

“We can’t replace her,” she continued. “You find leaders and motivators in different ways. That was her personality, and it worked for her. She’s flamboyant. She’s a wonderful person … She’s the type of young woman you want to be your best friend.”

It’s now the fifth day in April, a Monday. There’s one game left in both NCAA basketball tournaments. Only a bit of time remains for the game to dominate the country’s sports scene.

For Moseley, though, her scene revolves around the game. And, with the fashion in which she carries herself, her air carries its own brilliant promise.