Overcoming Obstacles
Jan 31, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - At some point in life, people reach a pivotal point, a defining moment that will shape or change their lives completely. For Tulane senior forward Lakethia Hampton, that moment came in the very early stages of her life.
Hampton, a New Orleans native, came face-to-face with her life-changing moment in the seventh grade. When other kids her age were frolicking on the playground, Hampton was coping with the loss of her mother, Elouise, who lost a battle with heart disease after her body rejected a heart transplant. But Hampton did not dwell on the loss, as she was more concerned about the well-being of her sister, Tenaj, who was nine at the time, and other members of her family.
"I didn't really have time to mourn because I had to be strong for all of the adults in my family," Hampton recalled. "I took to sports. That's how I dealt with it. Playing sports took my mind off of it. I tried not to think about it, I just shut it out. She was in the hospital for months, so I pretended she was still in the hospital and I couldn't talk to her."
At that point, Hampton found herself in a pivotal position, but her extended family was there to help her and her sister through the tough time. The two sisters were taken in by their extended family and ultimately by their mother's twin sister, Elise Hampton Hamilton, who also battles heart disease, and her husband, Julian Hamilton. For that, Hampton is grateful.
"I really respect and look up to my aunt. She didn't have to take me and my little sister, they could have just sent us off to the orphanage," Hampton explained. "Basically my whole family took us in. Wherever we wanted to stay, they supported us."
And that support has not waned one bit as Hampton, who turned 21 on Nov. 10, draws a very supportive cast of family members to Fogelman Arena when the Green Wave are in town.
"My whole family has been there for me," Hampton said. "They've been really supportive and try to make it to all of my games. They are proud of me, and even people my age from high school tell me how proud they are of me. That really makes me feel good that people see that I'm striving to be better."
And having her family to lean on during the transition from high school to college may be one of primary reasons leading to her success.
"It's been a real positive that her family has been so close," Green Wave head coach Lisa Stockton said. "They are so supportive of her and have enabled her to succeed. Sometimes it is better to go away to school, but I think in her case it was best for her to stay close to her family."
Hampton attended John McDonogh High School, roughly two miles from the Tulane campus. At McDonogh, Hampton was a Street & Smith's All-American as a senior and listed among the Top 30 players in the nation. She was active in softball, tennis, track, Student Council and was named the school's Homecoming Queen in 2000.
While extracurriculars took a considerable amount of time, Hampton knew that academics were the key. That's why she participated in accelerated programs, which allowed her to take advanced classes to prepare for college studies.
"To come from my high school or from one of the other public schools and make it at Tulane is really a blessing," Hampton said. "It's been hard and I've struggled. But if you want it in college and you strive for it, you can do it. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't. I've had people tell me that I couldn't make it at Tulane and that I would transfer. But I'm still here."
Hampton, affectionately known to her teammates and fans as "Country," will continue to be a fixture on the Tulane campus until December of 2005, when she is scheduled to graduate with a degree in media arts and a minor in business. She carries on a tradition for Green Wave players under Lisa Stockton. In Stockton's tenure, every player that has been in the program all four years has earned her degree.
"The main reason I picked Tulane was for the academics," Hampton said. "And since it is local, my aunt could watch me play even with her health problems."
In her four seasons with the Green Wave, Hampton, who also drew attention from the likes of Auburn, LSU and Kansas a prepster, has given her aunt and the rest of her family plenty of reasons to cheer. Entering conference play, Hampton has a career average of 8.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
"Each year, Country has matured and her game has advanced. She is very powerful and athletic and she uses that to her advantage," Stockton said. "She has a great desire to win. Last year was tough for her, even though she had a very good year and stepped into the role of `go-to player' easily. That's a hard jump to make in one year. I don't think she got the respect she deserved because our team had a down year."
As a freshman and sophomore, Hampton was a member of nationally-ranked teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament and the understudy of WNBA player Teana McKiver and former standout forward Gwen Slaughter.
The experience gained from watching and playing with the future pros was obviously beneficial as Hampton's numbers from her junior year are comparable and in some ways surpassed those amassed by McKiver and Slaughter during their junior campaigns. Now, as a senior, Hampton finds herself with the leading role.
"Country really learned from players like Teana and Gwen, and I think that is what has really helped her," Stockton added. "I'm very happy with how she's communicated with the freshmen on our team. She tries to teach them different things about the game, and that sometimes comes better from a peer than from a coach. She has a tremendous amount of respect for the freshmen, and probably sees more of what they can do than they see in themselves."
Hampton has embraced the leadership role, leading the team in scoring and rebounding with five straight 20-point games, and garnering her first Conference USA Player of the Week honor. But the enthusiastic forward with the outgoing personality has the utmost confidence in her young teammates.
"My first two years we were ranked nationally, but last year was a struggling season," Hampton said. "This year I feel as though we could get a lot of heads turning. Our team is the underdog. If we go in and play our "A" game, we will be fine.
"We've changed a lot since the first game, but the key is keeping our intensity up for 40 minutes. If we can keep it for 40 minutes we can be a great team. We're almost there, but not yet."
Hampton, an avid fan of the numerous CSI television series, looks for the Green Wave to shake things up a bit in Conference USA, where Tulane was picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll.
"Everybody on the team can score, and I hope we take advantage of that in the conference season," Hampton said. "When you have a team where everybody wants to score, that's a big threat. These games count. They determine where we'll be in March, and I think we could go far. We have a better team, and even though we are undersized, we have speed and we are athletic."
While the 2004-05 edition of Tulane women's basketball team-a squad with nine freshmen and sophomores on its roster-searches for its pivotal or defining moment of the season, Hampton, prepares to wrap up another chapter in her life story as her playing days come to a close.
"My book would be about a child who lost a parent at a young age and has to deal with different situations growing up without parents being there, but has aunts and uncles who help them out," Hampton explained. "It's funny, every time I go through something I tell people, `There's another chapter in my book.'"
If that book ever gets published and then turned into a movie, Hampton would like to see Vivica Fox or Serena Williams play her role.
"That would probably end up on Lifetime," she quipped.
Regardless of the publication or the filming of a movie, it could be a big seller as the main character overcomes adversity and finds herself coming out on top.
