Bay, Kelsen play Catamount way

BURLINGTON, Vt. – How to described this machine that is the University of Vermont women’s basketball team….

Descriptions that come immediately to mind are somewhat militaristic: hell bent for leather; damn the torpedos; full steam ahead; shoot when you see the whites of their eyes: a Sherman tank crashing through hedgerows.

That surprised the heck out of me.

It surprised me because two of its players I have covered as high school players in Maine. Both made the Bangor Daily News All-Maine team.

Sharon Bay of Portland, and Missy Kelsen, who played for Deering of Portland, are the two I remember so well.

I remember two gentle, soft, quiet young ladies with flowing hair that gleamed under the bright lights of the Augusta Civic Center and the Cumberland County Civic Center.

I didn’t recognize either of them when I first saw them at Friday night’s North Atlantic Conference semifinal against Delaware on the Vermont campus here. I had to wait for the introductions and match names with numbers before I recognized Bay and Kelsen.

That’s because they are no longer the girls they once were: they are Catamounts.

There is a Catamount walk – a swagger, almost. There is a Catamount scowl – a fierce determination, evidenced by a facial expression so intense and contagious you can feel it on the sidelines.

There is a Catamount hunch – a rounding of the shoulders that lets you know they are ready for a fight. And there is a Catamount body-set that signals the start of it.

I hesitate to use the word “clones,” because they are not the same in all physical respects, but they are the same in attitude. And that, perhaps, is what made them winners and NCAA tournament material. Vermont, at 29-0, is the only undefeated Division I basketball team in the country.

Sharon Bay. Missy Kelsen. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I saw it with my own eyes. Two quiet young ladies now integral parts of a fierce fighting machine. Their black-sneakered feet jump out at you; Catamounts ready to pounce in the blink of an eye.

Run, run, run. Pass, shoot, jump on the fly. Never stop. Whirling dervishes that leave spectators breathless as they charge up and down the court, playing their heart-pounding game of strength, speed and stamina.

Sharon Bay. Missy Kelsen. Human dynamos, ready to assault the foe. They overcame the personal foe of injury, each returning after ankle sprains, to lead Vermont to its first NAC title and earn national respectability.

As a team, they overcame the foe of pressure, as opponents worked to end their streak. They overcame the biggest foe – a not-so-strong schedule – by beating everyone in sight, making it impossible for the NCAA to ignore them.

They did all this in a do-or-die fashion that would have put less gutsy individuals on the sidelines games ago. Bruises are badges of honor.

Sharon Bay. Missy Kelsen. Fighting it out with their teammates to prove the Catamounts are no fluke. There’s one post-script, however.

Perhaps these young women have changed outwardly, but it may be they are the same as I remember inwardly.

Following games, it is customary for players to meet the media. Not once, I was told, has Vermont assistant sports information director Gordon Woodworth been able to get Missy Kelsen to speak with the press.

“I just can’t get her to face reporters,” he laments. “But she always gives me a smile and says, “Hey, thanks for asking, anyway.”

After Saturday’s game, a smiling, bright-eyed Missy Kelsen was quietly talking with her good friend, University of Maine Black Bear Carrie Goodhue. The two shared a quiet moment, one offering congratulations, the other condolences. Missy Kelsen as I remembered – quiet, gracious, happy, smiling.