People keeping track of Springfield basketball have surely heard the name Ava Culler. After an extremely impressive season, Ava Culler becomes just the 6th girl to reach 1000 points in school history.
Ava’s Life with Basketball
Ava has been playing team basketball for five years now. Her greatest inspiration is “[her] grandpa.” Ava said that “he was there at every game, always helping me through everything.” She said he would also always, “train with [her] and keep [her] motivated and inspired.”
Ava credits her success to her “family, friends, and teammates,” as well as her team, who always “gave [her] the support [she] needed to keep going, especially when [she] got hurt.” She says they would “always give [her] hope that [she] would get better.”
Ava has always found basketball somewhat of a release: “It was my escape from problems in life when I was younger.” When she looks back on her amazing career, she acknowledges that she has gone through “a lot that has shaped the player [she has] become.”
In total, she credits “the injuries [she] went through” and the support from “family, friends, and teammates” for making her the player she is today.
A Coach’s Approval
The Springfield girl’s basketball coach, Dave Giordano, describes Ava as “a very dedicated athlete,” saying “she has a great combination of wanting to work hard and having natural ability.”
In terms of her game, Coach Giordano thinks “she has worked hard on the offensive parts,” however, what impressed him more is that “she has the ‘It’ factor that few players have–that they enjoy playing defense, [and] working hard at rebounding.”
However, this talent didn’t all naturally appear: Coach G recognizes that “she worked hard during the off-season working on certain parts of her game to improve her shooting and driving to the basket.” This has made it so that “very few defenders can slow her down without giving up a basket or chances for her at the foul line.”
Ava’s talents haven’t just improved her game but also teammates as they “benefited because it gave them more freedom on the court to be more aggressive, offensive, and take more chances on defense.”
Coach G also talked about Ava’s leadership traits and how she always “leads by example both in practice and in games.” Although “[Ava] is not one to talk a lot on the court,” she “ just keeps her head down and works hard on both ends of the floor.”
A True Team Player
Ava’s passion and drive have also been evident to the teammates around her. Teammate and junior Maddie Decker had high praise for Ava and described her as “positive, super talented, and passionate.”
Mary Kate Garry, also a junior, adds that “she has such determination” and “encourages others all the time.”
“[Ava’s] passion really helped [the team] to lock back in during games,” Decker adds, “[she] always knew how to calm the team down and to take some pressure off.”
Both Decker and Garry look to Ava as “a leader.” Gary puts it best: “Although she helped [the team] a lot with getting points, [Ava’s] biggest contribution to the team was being the backbone…she was always reliable.”
Ava has had an extremely impressive season and an extraordinary career. She makes history for the Spartans and will be remembered for all that she brought to the program. Ava will continue her journey with basketball at Widener University.
