By Jimmy Sheldrup |
Sara Zaragoza towers over the average woman in her home town of Madrid, Spain. At nine-years old, Zaragoza remembers crying outside of a Spanish dress shop. She couldn’t find anything in her size. The problem wasn’t that the store did not have a lot of dresses, there were plenty, but rather, she was too tall for anything in the store.
This wasn’t the first time Zaragoza remembers sticking out for her height, making her self-conscious.
“I was born tall, and have always been tall,” Zaragoza said. “Girls clothing was always too small, so I had to wear unisex stuff a lot… When I was little I would get embarrassed.”
Back in the dress shop, the store owner salvaged the dress, applying buttons that added some length to the dress. But the issue remained, Zaragoza was just over a foot taller than your average Spanish woman.
Zaragoza, towering over both boys and girls, didn’t have much of an outlet to put her height to use. She did karate for a couple years, but it simply wasn’t suited for her body.
Now, at 6’4”, Zaragoza plays center as a sophomore for the Pilots women’s basketball team. From the moment she stepped onto the court at 13, Zaragoza knew this was the sport for her.
“It makes me confident,” Zaragoza said. “Basketball makes me and my height different, but in a good way...I can’t imagine myself without basketball. It helps me disconnect from everything else.”
As soon as Zaragoza started to play seriously, coaches from the Spanish national team expressed interest. Her first year of basketball was also her first year in the national team program.
Zaragoza may have started the basketball development process late, but it hasn’t stopped her from becoming a skilled player. Her late start, and youth, give her an inherent potential most collegiate athletes can only dream of. But on top of the God given gifts of height, she is also a very determined hard worker.
“Sarah is very coachable,” teammate Sara Hernandez said. “She does extra workouts with coaches. She loves basketball.” Zaragoza has continued to play on the national team every year since. This past summer she played for the U-20 Spanish national team that competed in Russia, helping take home gold.
Zaragoza’s life turned around when she picked up basketball. Once uncomfortable with her own height, basketball has helped give Zaragoza a new-found confidence in herself.
Playing in Spain gave her an opportunity to play basketball here at Portland, and continue not just her athletic journey, but also her academic journey. She is studying business, with the hopes of one day running her own physical therapist clinic. “She works hard,” head coach Cheryl Sorenson said. “She is so hard on herself. But she has a great desire to be an impact player, to be one of the best post players in the league.”
Tomorrow, Zaragoza and the Pilots begin their 2015-2016 campaign against Warner Pacific in an exhibition game in Chiles.
Contact sports writer Jimmy Sheldrup at sheldrup18@up.edu.
