The basketball court has been home to Kristen Fuery for the past decade, but the Upper Dublin senior admits she was decidedly nervous in last Tuesday night’s game against Springfield.
A weight was lifted off the senior standout’s shoulders when – with 3.3 seconds remaining in the third quarter of her team’s game against Springfield – she scored off the elbow, a basket that vaulted her over the 1,000-point plateau.
Fuery entered the game needing five points to reach the historic milestone.
“I was really nervous – I’m not going to lie,” she said. “It feels like I put a lot of pressure on myself. I was trying not to, but at some point you realize, ‘Oh god, I’m five points away,’ and I let it get to me.
“There’s no way around it. That’s why I struggled the first half.”
Things got a whole lot easier for Fuery after that as she scored seven points in the fourth quarter of the Flying Cardinals’ 35-26 win over the Spartans.
“She’s always been a shooter, but she brings an assortment of things to the table,” coach Vince Catanzaro said. “She can be a shot blocker, she steals the ball, she’s a good rebounder, and she’s aware of what’s going on – what defense teams are playing, what zone they’re playing.
“A lot of kids can’t recognize things like that on the floor, but she does.”
Fuery, who was honored after the game, was looking forward to leading her young Flying Cardinal squad into the district playoffs.
“The season isn’t over until we don’t have an ounce left to give,” she said. “We’re not running out of steam anytime soon.”
Three days after scoring her historic basket and expressing her eagerness to finish the season strong, Fuery went down hard after landing on someone’s foot in the opening minutes of Upper Dublin’s game against archrival Wissahickon,
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I came down and inverted my ankle. I went down pretty quick.
“Usually, if it’s just mild, I can get back up and jog it off, but I stood up and my ankle wouldn’t support me enough.”
The initial examination on the sidelines confirmed the severity of her injury.
“That’s when it started to kill me,” Fuery said. “At that point, I realized, ‘This is a little more serious than I thought it was. This could change a few things.”
It changed quite a few things.
One day later, Fuery was walking on crutches with an air cast on her severely sprained right ankle, and she acknowledged that a best case scenario would see her return for the district playoffs.
“Right now it actually looks like I have a grapefruit inside my ankle,” she said. “I’m probably out two weeks, but nothing is ever guaranteed with an injury.
“We’ll see how it plays out. I’m still hopeful that I’ll be able to play again, but you never know.”
Although her circumstances have changed, Fuery’s attitude has not.
“I’m still looking for my team to do awesome things,” the senior standout said. “They’re going to win games, they’re going to play well.
“The only thing that’s changed is my role on the team. Instead of being out on the court and leading the way, I’m going to be on the (bench) cheering my heart out and making sure I support them that way.”
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Fuery began playing competitive basketball at the age of eight. Four years later, she was playing for a Renegades AAU team that won a national championship.
It was a speedy journey.
“I’ve always had an interest in sports,” Fuery said. “I played soccer, I did the t-ball thing, and I was a gymnast for a little while – which I don’t usually admit to people.
“Initially, I wasn’t very good at basketball, but when I was nine, my parents came into contact with some people from the Renegades where Vince is a coach. I got involved in skill sessions there.”
At the age of nine, Fuery joined the AAU circuit
“I still didn’t love it at that point,” she said. “I was working, I was getting better, and I was seeing myself improve.”
One year later her Renegades team advanced to Nationals.
“That’s when I really started to love it because I saw you could go from picking up a basketball two years before and then going to nationals,” Fuery said. “I think my 10-year-old self said, ‘Hey, we like this.’ That love has just grown through the years. I can’t imagine my life without basketball. It doesn’t work.”
When she was 12, Fuery’s Renegade squad won a national championship.
“We got back from nationals, and in my mailbox was a letter from Duke,” Fuery said. “It was your normal questionnaire they send out to tons of people, but it made my day.
“I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I have a letter from Duke, I’m going to play basketball at Duke,’ and I made this whole deal out of it.”
The following year, Fuery switched to the Philadelphia Belles AAU team, and in ninth grade, she made another switch, opting to attend Springside School. One year later, she returned to Upper Dublin.
“As far as going back to Upper Dublin, it was a bit awkward at first because when I went to Springside I repeated a year,” she said. “That’s the recommendation they make for most transfers, so when I went back to Upper Dublin, I wasn’t with my grade anymore.
“I was in my brother’s grade because he’s only a year behind me.”
If it seems as though that might have been a problem, guess again.
“I just made new friends,” Fuery said. “I like meeting new people, and I like interacting with a lot of people, so I think that’s part of what made the transition a bit simpler to me.
“I think of the people in my grade as my class, not my brother’s class. I have no regrets whatsoever. It ended up for the best. I had a great run at Springside, and I’m having a great run at Upper Dublin. Hopefully, I’ll carry that on to Holy Cross.”
Holy Cross won out in the battle for Fuery’s talents from an impressive list that included Penn, Navy, Colgate, Stetson, Rider and Bucknell.
“As I got older, I started thinking, ‘What do I want out of a college? Do I want basketball to be a big part of that?’” Fuery said. “When I really started to think about it, I realized that basketball means a lot to me, and I want to go somewhere where I can impact the program in one way or another.
“I’m also a very academic person. I love to learn, so academics were really important to me too.”
In the end, it came down to Holy Cross and Rider.
“As much as I loved Rider – I loved the coaches there, and I think they’re doing an amazing job with their program, but at the end of the day, Holy Cross just felt right for me,” Fuery said. “I got along great with the team.
“I loved the coaching staff, and I think the campus is absolutely beautiful. It just felt like a perfect fit, and I had to go with my gut on that one.”
Fuery is projected to play some forward at the collegiate level.
“I’m also going to be playing on the wing, so a shooting guard-power forward combo,” she said. “I kind of like the sound of that actually.”
In the classroom, Fuery is considering a pre-business major with her sights set on one day becoming a college coach.
“It’s something I’ve been telling my parents and my AAU coaches for years now,” she said. “I love coaching.
“At some point, you have to stop playing, and coaching is the whole other side of it – it’s the teaching side, the explanation side, and that appeals to me.”
Fuery’s experience working for her AAU coach, Mike Flynn, who runs Blue Star and USJN Nationals has sparked an interest she hopes to pursue as well when she’s through coaching.
Catanzaro acknowledged that Fuery is a natural to pursue coaching. She is the undisputed leader of a young Flying Cardinal squad that includes several freshmen and sophomores occupying key roles.
“This year she’s become more of a leader, helping the other kids get better, constantly trying to instill in them the importance of being a team player,” Catanzaro said. “She’s been much more of a person who speaks out and tells the kids what needs to be done.
“She could be a coach later on. She really loves the game that much.”
Fuery admits she relished the challenge of working with a young squad.
“I’m the type of person who likes to grab the bull by the horns,” she said. “I like to be a leader, so when I was given the opportunity this season, I kind of ran with it.”
Fuery – one of the tallest players on the team – was often asked to take her game closer to the basket.
“She was our leading rebounder,” Catanzaro said of his leading scorer. “When she doesn’t rebound, it’s very difficult for us.
“She’s always willing to work hard. I never really had to tell her to work hard.”
That hard work allowed Fuery to reach a milestone few athletes attain. She is the fourth athlete under Catanzaro to reach the 1,000-point plateau, joining an impressive list that includes Lisa Harchut, Kathryn Stockbower and Rory Yerkes.
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