In her first two years on the Adams State University women’s basketball team, 2013 Dolores graduate Cydney McHenry was barely getting any playing time, and it was frustrating.
She could have quit.
She could have transferred.
“Those thoughts definitely crossed my mind,” McHenry said. “I’m sure it crosses a lot of freshman athletes’ minds, because it’s hard and it’s nothing like high school. You’re kind of in your comfort zone in high school and then you get to college and you have to learn something completely new.”
McHenry averaged 18.1 points per game and was an all-state selection in her senior year at Dolores, but after walking on to the Grizzlies squad her freshman year, she played fewer than 6 minutes per game under head coach Rebecca Alvidrez.
Alvidrez left ASU after just one season, and Larry Joe Hunt was named interim head coach, and although McHenry received an athletic scholarship entering her sophomore season, she still played less than 8 minutes per game.
“It was another learning process,” she said. “Learning what a new coach wants and what he runs, and his offenses and his defenses. So again, rode the pine.”
“I talked to my parents about it, and my parents just kept telling me, ‘You gotta stick through it,’” she said. “Both of my parents played college sports, so they understood what it was going to take and they understood the pain that I was going through.”
McHenry’s parents, John and Joye, competed for Adams State University from 1988-1992. John was on the track team, and Joye played volleyball for the Grizzlies over the same time period.
“I said, ‘Just do anything you can to get on the floor. Take on any role,’” Cydney’s father advised. “That first year, they were short on posts, so she started playing post. She learned a bunch of post moves, and of course that helps her now.”
McHenry coached Cydney for three years in high school at Dolores, and is now the head coach for the Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panthers, who are currently 5-1. While he still gives Cydney occasional advice, he’s settling into more of a role of proud parent than coach.
“He still talks to me about, ‘Are you getting your ball-handling in? Are you going in and shooting?’” Cydney said. “But, he’s definitely there as a parent as well. I think we’ve both created a very good relationship through it that is supportive and helpful to both of us.”
“There were times when it had to be tough love between us for her mother and I,” McHenry said. “We said, ‘You’ve got to stay with it, you’ve got to stay focused. You might not ever see the floor your freshman year, but the rewards will come your junior and senior year.”
Cydney laughs, saying, “You never want to say that your parents are always right.”
But in this case – they were.
Now in her junior year, Cydney is enjoying a breakout season and has taken on a leadership role.
After struggling to get on the court in her first two seasons, she has started every game this year and leads the Grizzlies in playing time, averaging 30.5 minutes per game.
She also leads the team in assists per game (2.7), is tied for most rebounds per game (4.7), is second in steals with 19 and second on the team in scoring, averaging 10.6 points per game.
The Grizzlies are just 2-8 overall, but McHenry is optimistic.
“Right before the break we played Western State, and that’s our rival school, and we beat them,” she said. “That was really exciting because it gave us our first conference win and pumped us up. And then the next day we traveled to CSU-Pueblo, and they’re ranked number 17 in the nation right now, and we were winning at half.”
ASU eventually fell to CSU-Pueblo, 71-56, but McHenry said that the team continues to improve, and that she hopes they can get things rolling in the second half of the season.
“I would like to see us win at least one game every weekend,” she said. “Because we’re playing two games a weekend, and it would be really exciting for us to start building momentum and start winning games.”