Chelsea Harrison, a senior financial management major from Lowell, Mich., is the captain of the women’s basketball team. She holds the school record for most 3-pointers in a season and has led the 2011 Charger women to their current 3-3 record.
What is your greatest athletic accomplishment?
I’d have to say coming in my freshman year and we won the GLIAC championship up at Michigan Tech[nological University] in the UP. I’d say that was our greatest accomplishment as a team. My sophomore year I broke the 3-point school record with 83 threes in the school. I’m working on breaking the career record. Last year, I broke the 1,000-point record. I think I was the fourth player in school history as a junior to break that mark.
As team captain, what do you think is leadership?
Leadership is someone that sets an example for the others that are following you, whether on the court or off the court. There are different kinds of leaders. There’s ones that lead by example, there’s ones that like to talk. I think being a leader is setting an example for others to follow.
What brought you to Hillsdale?
Well, I knew I wanted to play a sport in college. I didn’t know whether it was basketball or soccer. And so, in the summer, I went through AU tournaments and I was contacted by Hillsdale College. I didn’t really know anything of [the school]. I knew my cousin went here and I was like ‘there’s no way I’m going to go to Hillsdale,’ but then the coaches contacted me. I came on a visit. It was beautiful here. I love small schools. It was the same size as my high school — 1,300. I came back for an official visit in September and I sat in on a class. I loved the team, loved the coaches, loved the atmosphere on campus. I fell in love, and so I signed a week later to play basketball.
What has been the best part of college so far?
Since Hillsdale’s so small, you know a majority of the students. I just think that being in a small school you build relationships that last after college. A good experience is just building relationships, and knowing those relationships will last your whole life.
Where do you hope to go after Hillsdale?
I already got a job offer, and I already signed. I have that out of the way so I don’t have to worry about anything. I’m working in Grand Rapids at Amway for Dick DeVos and Stephen Van Andel. Steve was an alumni here. So I’m working there in their finance department area.
You guys travelled to Hawaii over Thanksgiving break. How was that?
The weather was awesome. We played Hawaii Pacific on Thursday and it was really neat beating the home team in Hawaii. The following team we played on Friday — they were in the Elite Eight and we beat them. Hawaii was beautiful. We attended a Luau as a team. We had Thanksgiving dinner as a team. I think we bonded together really well.