MOORHEAD, Minn. – Since she can remember,
Kaycee Charette has been passionate about sports. Whether it was shooting on the hoop out back with her brothers, Zach and Jake, or three-on-three tournaments in the summer, basketball has been a constant in her life.
Charette, a senior guard for the Dragons women's basketball team, says her life would be completely different had she never played basketball. It's become a routine. Going to practice and lifting weights has become a part of her everyday activities.
“As long as I can remember I have had to go to practice or a game,” Charette said. “I feel like if I didn't sports I would just go home and do nothing.”
The thrill of basketball could have been taken away from her at an early age, though. While in fifth grade, Charette got news that nobody wants to hear: She had a cancerous tumor in her knee.
Being so young she didn't think much of it. Just another bump that kids compile through their lives. It first popped up on Charette's radar when she was at her grandparents' house playing basketball with her cousins Brooke and Blake Bonney.
Charette went running after a loose ball and hit her knee on a shed. While looking at her knee she saw a bump, thinking nothing of it. After a couple weeks, though, the bump never went away. Dave and Beth Charette took Kaycee to their family doctor and the fast track through hospitals ensued.
“I don't really remember my parents trying to explain the tumor to me probably because I probably wouldn't have understood,” Charette said. “Thinking (now) how my parents felt is scary.”
The doctors performed multiple MRIs to find two osteosarcoma tumors in her left knee. Osteosarcoma is a bone cancer that usually develops in children around age 15. Charette discovered it at age 10.
Surgery was planned and a biopsy was performed on the tumors. It was after that the biggest scare was over as the test results showed the tumors were benign. One of the tumors was removed. The other was not because it did not cause discomfort and would have been complex to remove.
Three days on crutches and three weeks later Charette was back on the court taking part in her first traveling basketball season ever. The threat of cancer had passed and the thing that helped her find the tumors would become her future.
Now in her senior season at MSUM, she is looked to as a leader and role model on the basketball court; helping the underclassmen develop and acclimate to the increased pace of the collegiate game.
“We have pretty good chemistry off-the-court but on-the-court it's a bit different in the essence that we all haven't played with each other for very long,” Charette said. “At this point in the season I think we are better at playing with each other and knowing each other's strength, but we can always do better.”
Despite all the newcomers, Charette says team chemistry has continued to grow from the last seasons.
“There's not a lot of drama,” Charette said. “Everyone gets along and everyone respects each other.”
In season, the team practices four times a week with lifting twice a week. Games are typically on Friday and Saturday nights, giving the team an off day on Sunday. To keep the team active all year round, the coaches give the athletes a summer workout with lifting, running and shooting workouts.
“They give us a journal where we write everything we do: free-throws, specific workouts or a pick-up game,” Charette said.
Each athlete is expected to complete the workout whether in Moorhead or at home for the summer. But, if one chose to stay in Moorhead, athletes can participate in training sessions on campus with strength and conditioning coach,
Travis Anderson.
With her time spent mainly on basketball and schoolwork, eat, sleep, hoop and repeat might best describe her lifestyle. However, all this dedication and hard work pays off on the court.
“The best feeling on the court would have to be playing as a team and working together,” Charette said, referring to MSUM's buzzer-beater victory against NSIC rival University of Mary on Dec. 8, 2012. The Dragons trailed the Marauders by as many as 13 points in the contest, but battled back and claimed the win after junior
Morgan Zabel drained a 3-pointer as time expired.
“No one thought we would ever come back or be even close, but we came through and fought back and each person did their job,” Charette said. “It was a great feeling.”
Charatte bares a strong presence on the team, especially from the 3-point arc. She is averaging 9.4 points per game, 2.4 assists per game and is second on the team with 34 three-pointers made. But the road to her final season has not been easy.
“My freshman year was definitely my toughest year,” Charette said. “The transition from college to high school is difficult. It's faster and harder and there are so many more things to know.”
Besides facing the typical first year struggles, Charette suffered a torn ACL early in her sophomore season, which she thought she would never overcome.
“After surgery it was hard to walk, it hurt and I couldn't bend my leg,” Charette said. “That first month where I was in the brace and had to ice it all the time, in the back of my head I was like 'Oh my gosh, I am never going to be able to run as fast or do anything.'”
But after spending three hours a day for three months in the training room, physical therapy and hard work to recover, Charette built up her strength and was ready to come back.
“Over the summer I stayed in Moorhead and I went to physical therapy at Sanford two times a week,” Charette said. “By the time school came around I was ready to go and wasn't really timid to play.”
It can be tough to balance it all: schoolwork, a social life, practice and games. All of her classes are scheduled around practice times, but Charette says it's nice to have basketball.
“Its kind of a time to get your mind off things,” Charette said. “You're exercising and moving around. You kind of forget about everything.”
The time commitment of being a Dragon student-athlete can often mean less time to visit family, too, particularly on holidays.
“Its hardest freshman year, you're away for so long and you don't know many people,” Charette said.
However, Charette doesn't feel like she is missing out on anything in the long run, and found it got easier with time.
“It's only four years of your life,” Charette said. “And I have a lot of friends that can't go home either, so we're like a little family.”
Individually, Charette wants to finish her last season on a high note and continue to push the underclassmen to help them develop their game. For her team, she hopes for success.
“As a team, I want to be above .500 (winning percentage),” Charette said. “That's where we have been the last couple years. It would be great to accomplish that with such a young team this year.”
Charette is on course to graduate in May of this year with a degree in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and hopes to break into the creative side of marketing.
Charette's passion and love for the game will never leave, and she believes basketball will be a part of her for the rest of her life.
“After I'm done I will play in pick-up games and in leagues,” Charette said. “And then when I get older, just always being apart of it, maybe helping a high school team.”
With four years of experience under her belt and knowledge of the Dragon basketball program, Charette's advice to future Dragon student-athletes is to be ready: it's going to be hard, but worth it.
“There are going to be days where you think you're not going to make it, but tomorrow is another day,” Charette said.
