Keeping Haggard name safe and secure

By Rich Hardwick
Staff Writer

Shooting guard Breane Haggard is one of the many factors that has contributed to the Georgia College & State University Lady Bobcats recent successes.
Haggard attended Northwest Whitfield High School in Cohutta, Ga. While there she earned All-Region and All-Area honors, and ranked fifth all-time in scoring. Haggard was also the Valedictorian at NWHS and was honored with a US Navy Scholastic and an ESPN Academic All-American.
Haggard had a respectable freshman season. She played in every game and started at guard four times last season. She was named to the Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll for her outstanding academic efforts.
“She’s about as close to perfect as a coach could ask for,” said head women’s basketball coach John Carrick. “You don’t have to worry about her going to class. You don’t have to worry about her making anything other than an A. When she plays she gives it her all.”
Haggard has already noticed some differences in her sophomore year. She expects to see more playing time this year and take more shots.
“I’ve handled the ball more this year than last year,” said Haggard. “The main thing that has changed would have to be my confidence in shooting the ball. I’ve realized that they do rely on me for scoring more so than last year.”
Haggard got off to a slow start this season, but she has provided a spark off the bench in the second half of the season. She entered last week as fourth on the team in scoring with 8.6 points per game. She is also third in the Peach Belt Conference in three-point field goal percentage with 40.4 percent and fourth with three-point field goals made with 40. Since January 12, she is shooting 59 percent from the floor and 59 percent (20-34) from three point range. She recently scored, a career high, 22 points against Armstrong Atlantic State University on January 23. In that game she hit six out of nine three-pointers.
An important trait for players to have is a good working relationship with their coach and teammates. Haggard had the benefit last year of playing with her older sister Brett, who graduated last Spring. Some teammates and conference players or coaches knew Breane only as ‘Brett’s younger sister’ at the beginning of last year, but she didn’t mind.
“I liked being known as ‘Brett’s younger sister’ because Brett is pretty much my role model.” said Haggard. “I would love to be held up to her standards because she is such a great person.”
Haggard has played in every game so far this season and has already started in twice as many games as last year. Haggard and Carrick differ on reasons why she has changed from her Freshman to Sophomore year and why she has improved from the beginning of the season.
“She’s gotten softer,” said Carrick. “When she first came here, Breane was the tough, nitty-gritty, run through the wall, dive on the floor kind of player. She was aggressive, but she could still put the ball in the hole, she is an out and out pure shooter. Her shooting went south at the beginning of the year, but approximately four or five games ago, she improved statistically, she has gotten back to a more aggressive style of play.”
“Earlier this year I was putting a lot of pressure on myself,” said Haggard. “I was thinking too much about what I was doing. Now I’m just playing instead of thinking. I’m following my instinct more now than I was earlier this year.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 15 2002. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry