Michigan State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Senior Stories: Lauren Aitch
2/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2010
As the 2010 women's basketball senior day approaches, MSUSpartans.com will feature each of the team's four graduating seniors in the weeks leading up to the Feb. 28 Breslin Center finale. Finally is senior center Lauren Aitch.
By Nicole Marble, MSU Athletic Communications Student Assistant
When you look into the stands of a seventh grade basketball game, what do you see? You expect to see parents, grandparents, some students and maybe a few teachers. When MSU women's basketball senior Lauren Aitch looked into the stands at her seventh grade basketball games, she saw scouts. Michigan State University and University of Michigan started scouting Aitch when she was just 11 years old.
"They both came and watched me when I was in seventh and eighth grade, and they were always there throughout high school," said Aitch.
While you may assume that a girl who grew up in Waverly would only naturally pick MSU as her college of choice, you would be wrong when it comes to Lauren Aitch.
"The summer before my senior year of high school I was going to the University of Michigan," Aitch said.
She fell in love with Ann Arbor and had a friend who was also going to play for the maize and blue. So how did she end up at MSU? It wasn't head coach Joanne P. McCallie that was recruiting her; it was the brand new assistant coach, Al Brown, who McCallie brought on.
"When I met Coach (Al) Brown I knew that he was going to teach me something," Aitch said. "I knew my time spent in college was going to be worthwhile."
After that, there was no question. Lauren Aitch was a Spartan.
Following her senior year of high school, in which she led Waverly to the state title, Aitch had high hopes for her time as a Spartan basketball player. She played almost every game of her freshman season, and spent the summer preparing for her second season. That all changed during an early November practice while Aitch was practicing a pick-and-roll play. She went up for the layup and came down - hard. She tore her ACL and spent her sophomore year as a medical redshirt.
"I never had any injuries up until the ACL tear," said Aitch. "I was a very healthy person."
While Aitch thought she had overcome the worst thing to happen to her, just a few months later in April her father, former MSU basketball player Matt Aitch, passed away from an allergic reaction to medication.
Up until her sophomore year of college, Aitch's parents had managed to keep her life very steady.
"I went to Waverly kindergarten through high school," she said. "I knew it was me, my mom and my dad. I knew they were always going to be there, and it was never really anything different."
Then, later in April, Coach McCallie announced she was leaving. Not only was Coach P headed to Duke, she was also taking Coach Brown to Durham, the coach that Aitch was so excited to learn from and had sealed the deal on her decision to play for MSU.
"When I went through my ACL and my dad and then Coach P and Coach Brown leaving, I was just in a shocked state," said Aitch. "It was just so much change at once."
In order to get through everything, Aitch relied on a support system. Players and friends were there for her, but the one person who kept pushing her forward was her mom, Karen.
"I love her to death," said Aitch. "I probably wouldn't be where I am at right now if it wasn't for her."
While Karen now lives in Chicago for her job at Office Depot, she was able to transfer to the Detroit office after Matt's death for a short amount of time to be there for Lauren.
When Karen lived in Minnesota, before Matt's death, she would drive to Lansing every other weekend to be with Lauren and Matt.
"I think my mom is probably the strongest woman I know," said Aitch. "She always keeps her head up and keeps doing what she needs to get done."
When Lauren was young, her mom pushed her to never give up.
"I played soccer for awhile, and I ended up breaking my toe," Aitch recalled. "It was at the end of the soccer season and I just wanted to quit; I just wanted to be done, but my mom never let me quit anything I started."
She definitely hasn't given up on her basketball team. After losing the first two Big Ten games of the season and five of the first seven, the Spartans have roared back, winning nine of their last 10 games to sit in second place in the conference standings.
"Our team right now is really focused," she said. "I really think with the people we have and with our seniors, if we are going to do something it's going to be right now and we have to do it right now."
Aitch will play her final game in the Breslin Center on Sunday against Minnesota. She spent this season focused on bonding with her teammates and making memories from their trips.
"We carry around little Flip videos," said Aitch. "We always take videos of where we were at and what we did. Every moment we took the time to sit there and enjoy...take the time to just think about it because it's going to be the last time we do a lot of this stuff. It's sad it's coming to an end, but I think I really enjoyed this year. I really had a lot of fun and did a lot of things that I didn't do my four years before."
Following in her father's footsteps, Aitch was voted a captain for the first time this season.
"His way was very calm, and I'm not really like that," she said when comparing herself to her father. "I'm intense about basketball; I'm kind of a different person on the court. But one thing that I like to think I took from him is just being sincere, treating people the right way, and helping people when they need help. That's what he taught me."
Aitch wants everyone on the team to have a good time and be happy. She is the "go to" person for anyone who needs to talk and she will be the first to dial down an argument.
"I think that anyone on the team can relate to me," Aitch said. "There are games where I haven't played at all and there are games where I've played 25 or 26 minutes and been a game changer. I can relate to anyone on the team.
"I don't like problems, I don't like issues, and I don't like drama so I try to down play a lot of the things that people get mad about. I kind of bounce around and make sure everyone is all right."
With the season ending shortly, Aitch has some hard choices to make.
"There are a lot of things I want to do," she said. "The only thing I'm worried about is if I choose one door, all of these other ones are going to close."
Aitch plans to keep playing basketball overseas, although she doesn't know where yet. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in advertising last year, she is now focusing on finishing her master's degree in public relations. What usually takes a student two years to finish, Aitch is doing in just one year. While she will have a few classes left to take over the summer, that is when she plans to start making her plans for the future. First will be hiring an agent and deciding where overseas she would like to play. She also wants to travel just like her dad did after college.
"I want to do the same things that my dad did," she said. "I want to take his kind of journey. He talked about traveling through Europe, backpacking. He did a lot of things that I want to do and going overseas is going to be one of them so I'm excited about it."
What will she do once she's done with basketball?
"I want to have my own clothing line," she said. "That's a big dream for me."
Standing just over six-feet tall, Aitch says it's hard to find clothes, especially pants, that are long enough for her. She also loves shoes, but wearing a size 11 makes it difficult to find stilettos in her size.
"Even with Nike and the stuff that they give us, sometimes it's too short - we have to wear the men's line for our pants," said Aitch. "I think that women should have more colors and more choices. My line is going to be more tailored toward that, but high fashion."
One thing is for sure - we haven't seen the last of Lauren Aitch. Whatever she does, whether its basketball or creating her own fashion line, she is sure to remember her friends, fans and supporters at Michigan State University.
