School: Cheltenham
Basketball
Favorite athlete: Maya Moore
Favorite team: Boston Celtics and UConn women’s basketball team
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing in the state playoffs last year. Even though we lost, it was still a great season, and we had an amazing time.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: One of my many slips from tripping over my own two feet!
Music on iPod: Drake, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, a little bit of everything
Future plans: Go to college, study abroad and graduate and maybe grad school or a job (depending on the job market!)
Words to live by: ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’ –Mahatma Gandhi
One goal before turning 30: Tour Egypt
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m terrified of heights! (Growing seven inches in two years was a little scary!)
Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer is not big on handing out compliments to his players. At least not during the season.
The veteran coach prefers to reserve his praise until the season is over, but Schaefer went away from the norm this week when he pulled senior Austen Hamler aside during practice.
“I said to her, ‘I just want to make sure that I don’t forget to tell you that I’m extremely proud of what you accomplished this year. You’ve improved more than anyone dreamed you could improve, and you contributed to this successful season in a leading way,’” Schaefer recalled. “She’s a player that came out of nowhere.”
Hamler literally did come out of nowhere.
Take away her playing days in a community rec league as a youngster, and Hamler did not get her first taste of organized basketball until she came out for the high school team as a sophomore.
“I played softball from first to eighth grade, and that was pretty much the only thing I ever played,” the Lady Panthers’ senior forward said. “I played softball forever really.
“I shot around with my dad every once in awhile, but basketball was never really a big thing. It was never on my list of things to do.”
That’s not to say Hamler didn’t have a feel for the game. She did.
“I’ve always loved basketball,” she said. “I played at the community center down the street from my house.”
Hamler was encouraged to come out for the team by Jenna Peoples, who was a senior on the team at the time.
“I never really thought about playing in ninth grade because I didn’t even play softball that year,” Hamler said. “Coming into the high school was a new experience, and I just wanted to get settled in.”
Playing basketball for the Lady Panthers under coach Bob Schaefer – as Hamler quickly found out – is an experience all its own. The bar is set very, very high for a team with a pair of state championships in the past decade to its credit.
“It was very intimidating,” Hamler admitted. “You look at the banners in the gym, and you see that Schaef has won all these things. He’s done it all pretty much.
“You see the list of thousand point scorers, and it’s like, ‘Wow, he clearly knows what he’s talking about.’ Coming in, I didn’t have the slightest clue. I wasn’t shell shocked, but it was surprising – just Schaef’s intensity and everything. I always listen to what he’s saying, and I try to put it to use. He knows what he’s doing.”
Hamler knew she had some catching up to do if she wanted to see playing time, and she was an eager student.
“She came in as a sophomore, learned an awful lot, played a lot of jayvee ball and did a pretty nice job for us,” Schaefer said.
One year later, Hamler was in the starting lineup for a Lady Panther squad that not only captured the American Conference crown but also advanced to the District One AAAA title game and the quarterfinals of the PIAA state tournament.
“She started, but often she played very little time,” Schaefer said. “Our sixth man – Liz Taliaferro - or CC Andrews would come in, and Austen would come out.
“Obviously, she learned a lot and paid attention. She got herself ready for this year.”
Hamler didn’t mind biding her time behind the seniors.
“It was really a learning experience for me,” she said. “I think it made me better this year because I had that year to work with everyone.
“I played with great people – Shayla (Felder), Monet (Constant), Liz Taliaferro and Kira Ogden. They all had the experience, and I was learning everything.
“I was happy we made it as far as we did, and the whole season was fun. I enjoyed being around everybody, and Schaef said that might have been his favorite team because we were always ready to go, and we worked so hard.”
This year Hamler and fellow captain Tiffany Johnson were thrust into the role of leaders of an inexperienced squad.
“It was definitely difficult,” Hamler said. “We lost Shayla, Liz, Monet and Kira, and last year they were the team. Luckily, we still had Tiffany. Tiff brought a lot of experience with her this year.
“A lot of people were saying we wouldn’t be as good because of all the seniors we lost. I was kind of worried, but I knew we were going to be okay.”
The Lady Panthers were more than okay, earning another American Conference title and winning 17 straight games after stumbling to three losses during a rough month of December.
“After those three losses, we realized how hard we would have to work and what we had to do to be the best team we could be,” Hamler said.
While Johnson – the Panthers’ savvy point guard – is the undisputed floor general, Hamler has been a presence in the paint, and that’s no small feat for a player that stands just 5-9 and is slight of build.
“No one expected us to have anything of any measure inside, and in many games, Austen dominated inside as a 5-9 forward,” Schaefer said.
In Cheltenham’s recent win over Upper Dublin in a playback game, Hamler finished with a double-double, pulling down 14 rebounds in a monster performance.
“It’s definitely hard because the girls I’m going against are always bigger than me,” she said. “I don’t think there’s been a team where anybody has been smaller, and I don’t think there will be.
“It’s more of a mental thing. I have to go in there thinking I’m 6-foot, six (inches) and 250 pounds. Once I get into a game, I’m ready to go, and I know what I have to do – get rebounds, get offensive rebounds and put it back. I just have to play as though I’m much bigger than I am. That’s just the mentality I have to go with because otherwise I will never be able to do anything out there.”
That mentality has taken Hamler to heights perhaps no one could have anticipated when she came out for the team as a sophomore, and her level of play has allowed the Lady Panthers to reach unexpected heights.
“She came on and played the last half of the season even better than the first half and really has stepped it up, and it’s just been terrific,” Schaefer said. “We have just kept on her, kept encouraging her, making sure she’s doing what she’s supposed to be doing, but I think she’s matured.
“I think she’s finally reached a point where she’s just not playing and doing the right thing for me because I’m yelling. It’s finally reached the saturation point where she knows what she should be doing is the right thing, and she’s not trying to second guess what she should be doing.”
Hamler has bought into Schaefer’s system, and she is reaping the rewards.
“What we do works.” she said. “Every day at practice it’s the same thing over and over again. It’s just repetition. It definitely works.”
Although she is a relative newcomer to basketball, Hamler has no intention of walking away from a sport she has grown to love.
“Basketball is always going to be part of my life, no matter what,” she said. “I know I’m not going to play when I go to college, but I’m going to play club or just go to the gym and play. I love basketball, I love playing. It’s always going to be there for me.
“Sometimes I wonder - what if I had played my freshman year. Where would I be now? With what I’ve done and the little amount of time I’ve played, I’m really happy where I’m at right now.”
A solid A-B student, Hamler places a high priority on academics.
“That’s always been the emphasis in my household,” she said. “Always get your homework done before anything else. You’re a student before an athlete.
“My parents – even from a young age – were always like, ‘Homework comes first. Do your homework before you go outside and play.’ That stayed with me because they instilled that in me at such a young age. I’m glad for that because I’ve gotten into some really good schools.”
Hamler, who is undecided on a major, has been accepted at Xavier and Penn State, and although she won’t be playing basketball, the senior captain has left her mark at Cheltenham as both a player and a person in her three short years on the court.
“She’s very grounded, and she seems to have a real good focus this year,” he said. “She’s just a nice kid – very polite and well mannered. She’s just a fun kid to have on the team.”
