Idaho’s Geraldine McCorkell: ‘I’ve always dreamed of this’

More than most of the Inland Northwest Aussies, Idaho sophomore Geraldine McCorkell had an idea what she was getting into.

The Melbourne native had toured Texas and the Pacific Northwest with a youth team, and she had three other Aussie Vandals waiting to embrace her.

“That’s really what drew me here: the way the other girls welcomed me,” said Brown, speaking of the entire Idaho team.

Like fellow Australians Brigitte O’Neill, Tayla Corrigan and Renae Mokrzycki, her dreams of playing in America were forged in high school. They became a reality when Idaho coach Jon Newlee saw her highlight films and sent assistant Jordan Green (now with Gonzaga) to Australia.

McCorkell adapted well enough, though she thought Moscow would be bigger. “That’s all right, because a lot of my family is from a small town.”

McCorkell, a 6-foot post, has been a success story at Idaho. She played in 28 games as a freshman, then became a starter this season.

She not only leads the Vandals in scoring with 14.4 points a game, she’s helping them surprise the rest of the Big Sky Conference. Picked to finish eighth in the preseason polls, Idaho is in the running for a league title.

On the court, McCorkell said, “The intensity and the physicality was more than it was at home – that took some getting used to.”

But when the work is over, “That’s when something funny happens. A few times we’d go over to a coach’s house, play “Shark Tank” and everyone was having a great time.”