A Bosnian trade college student who dominated high school basketball courts for two several years in Mineral Wells is bringing her prodigious expertise to Weatherford.
Hena Spahic signed a letter of intent to attend Weatherford School on a total scholarship that features tuition, guides, foodstuff, shelter and transportation.
“Hena is a terrific scholar, a wonderful ballplayer and has a superb character,” reported Doug Jefferson, administrator at Local community Christian College, wherever Spahic attended in her junior and senior many years. “I’ve been executing this for 13 years, and she is one particular of the most magnificent persons to at any time graduate from below. She is an remarkable youthful lady.”
Spahic grew up in Zenica, Bosnia, located in southeastern Europe. Natives there converse Bosnian but commence studying English in third quality. Spahic speaks English and a 50 percent-dozen other languages with relieve. She commenced participating in club basketball at age 8 and exhibited a all-natural potential along with a stout perform ethic.
“I had coaches at a youthful age that observed some thing in me and gave me the ball,” she mentioned. “It occurred kind of the natural way. Due to the fact then, I’ve been doing the job seriously difficult. It is not just expertise, it is also the really hard operate you place in.”
Modern day technological innovation fostered the girl’s aspiration to arrive to The usa and engage in qualified basketball in the WNBA. She invested her early decades browsing the online and viewing video clips about American metropolitan areas and basketball.
“When I was minimal, YouTube was a large offer,” she reported. “I would go to YouTube all the time and glance up distinct international locations and metropolitan areas.”
Videos about everyday living in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other vivid towns fascinated her. She became a common follower of men and women who posted movies about American daily life.
“The persons, the culture, just almost everything variety of opened my eyes,” she claimed. “I just liked it. I’m a big lover of foods. The foodstuff was anything that attracted me.”
She uncovered the WNBA, as properly, and commenced observing video games online.
Her mom wished her to attend a college in Germany, but Spahic resisted. She informed her mother, “I’m heading to go to the United States and enjoy basketball and get a excellent profession and have good income.”
Hena Spahic normally takes purpose from the free throw line.
At the time she begun large college in Bosnia, Spahic looked into turning into an trade college student. Her aunt and uncle reside in Burleson and agreed to develop into her host loved ones while she attended a private university there and performed basketball beneath Mentor Brian Rodricks.
Rodricks, on the other hand, still left that school and approved a position at Neighborhood Christian.
“He brought me with him,” Spahic reported.
In 2019, she turned Community Christian’s to start with international exchange pupil in about 25 several years. The university located a community relatives to host her. Since then, the college has taken in two extra exchange pupils and broadened its software.
“We would enjoy to get the term of God into everybody, and if that indicates bringing college students from other nations around the world, we would really like to do that,” stated Lisa Ballenger, the assistant basketball coach.
Spahic was 16 when she headed for the fantastic unfamiliar. It was August. The temperature was in the 40s when she boarded a plane in Bosnia. She landed in Texas, and the 100-diploma heat and humidity hit her like a two-by-4 to the facial area.
“It was terrible,” she stated.
She’d never ever lived in a residence with air conditioning. Bosnia temperatures rarely go larger than the 70s. The cold air blowing on her at night manufactured her sick.
“It took about a 7 days to regulate,” she recalled.
She uncovered that Mineral Wells didn’t resemble people films she’d observed about New York Metropolis and Los Angeles. She was not dissatisfied. She identified that persons in Mineral Wells and in Texas are eager to supply guidance and like to a stranger from a weird land.
Quite a few Bosnians have survived tough instances and are inclined to be a lot more clannish and careful, she explained.
“In Bosnia, enjoy is not really a substantial thing except from households,” she said. “Support isn’t that significant, possibly. Everyone focuses on them selves. I was not utilised to remaining surrounded by folks that liked other persons equally. Coming below was definitely a adjust for me.”
She hopes to stay right here endlessly.
“Taking that move and coming to the United States pushed me and gave me hope,” she said. “I’m heading to get the job done tough and make my way up to staying in this article and becoming a U.S. citizen.”
Her do the job ethic, currently remarkable, went up a notch when she settled in Mineral Wells. She lifts weights and jogs on a common foundation, eats healthful food items and plays basketball day-to-day.
She was one of the far better players in Bosnia and remained so at Neighborhood Christian, which competes in the Texas Christian Athletic Fellowship league. She was not confident how she would evaluate up to her new friends but figured she’d hold her possess.
“I am a confident individual,” she reported. “That doesn’t signify I’m not nervous about enjoying and coming to a whole new surroundings, but I was assured I would do good.”
She was proper.
Hena Spahic, reduced still left, and the Girl Warriors rejoice their state title.
All through her time at Mineral Wells, Spahic averaged 24 points and 7 assists a video game. The Woman Warriors came up short on a point out title bid in 2020 but won it all in 2021.
“Last calendar year, we were being fantastic but not as excellent as this 12 months,” she explained. “We labored more challenging independently around the summer months. We received better.”
Commonly, the best basketball gamers take into consideration it a milestone to arrive at 1,000 points throughout their a few or 4 yrs invested playing varsity ball. Spahic achieved 1,000 details in two several years. Also, she achieved an incredible feat by getting named the Most Worthwhile Player of her district, her league and the league’s all-star team in both of those seasons she played.
Texas Tech, UTA, Texas State, Tarleton and Weatherford College or university took recognize and dangled provides. Spahic could have gone to a person of the more substantial educational institutions as a freshman but decided to “take the time to acquire as a participant, a particular person and a scholar and get far better at what I do and then go on to a even bigger college.”
She will main in kinesiology.
“Physical treatment has been a big deal for me due to the fact I’ve experienced some injuries in the previous, and I have been as a result of a good deal of actual physical therapists,” she said. “I’m fascinated in how my physique is effective and how to protect against accidents and mend them and how to support other athletes when it will come to that.”
In August, Spahic will transfer into a dormitory on the Coyotes campus and get started her school occupation. Ballenger has no question that her star player from superior school will glow just as brightly in college or university.
“She works hard each and every single day,” the mentor reported.