Eastern Washington’s Grace Kirscher leaves it all on the court for the Eagles

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”

Assuming Gandhi’s assertion was correct, Eastern Washington junior Grace Kirscher is undefeated.

“Grace is feisty and competitive in everything she does,” EWU women’s basketball coach Wendy Schuller said. “She is determined.”

That determination has been critical in what has been a great, but somewhat disappointing, start to Kirscher’s college career.

The 6-foot guard was an honorable mention all-Big Sky Conference selection following the 2018-19 season. She averaged 10.4 points and set an EWU freshman record with 54 made 3-pointers while helping the Eagles reach the championship game of the conference tournament, where they dropped a 61-59 thriller to Portland State.

But that loss was a harbinger of the adversity to come.

“I just really haven’t had an offseason, and that has affected where I am at today,” Kirscher said of her college career.

An MRI after the tournament revealed a torn patellar tendon. Hoping to avoid surgery, Kirscher was given a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection, which was unsuccessful. Ultimately, she underwent a debridement surgery but spent the summer and fall in the training room recovering, rather than in the gym working on her game.

Kirscher averaged 10.7 points during a somewhat disjointed sophomore campaign, showing flashes of the player from a year prior on a team that took a step backward with several player lost to graduation and injury. She scored in double figures just once in the first six games but finished with three 20-plus point performances, including a career-high 31 with seven 3-pointers in the regular-season finale against Weber State.

Following another loss to Portland State in the conference tournament, this time in the first round, an MRI revealed a torn lateral meniscus which required another surgery and, again, a lost offseason.

“She still hasn’t been 100% this season,” Schuller said.

Kirscher contemplated taking a redshirt year but ultimately chose to play this season, in some part due to the fact the NCAA granted athletes a free year of eligibility as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. She’ll likely have another PRP injection when this season ends. Before that however, EWU opens the Big Sky Conference tournament Monday against – you guessed it – Portland State.

“She’s fiercely loyal and sometimes stubborn,” Schuller said. “But stubbornness can be a positive personality trait. If Grace gets something in her head, she’s going to do everything in her power to get it done.”

Those characteristics are immediately evident when you watch Kirscher play. She plays as if every possession is the most important of the game and gives up her body, banging with larger players in the post or diving for loose balls with a reckless abandon that is infectious.

“She is extremely competitive, and she’s willing to put her body on the line,” close friend and teammate Milly Knowles said. “She will do anything she can to benefit the team.”

Kirscher has done just that this season, her first at EWU as a captain. She has taken roughly the same amount of shots per game this season (9.7) as she did as a freshman, about one fewer than a year ago as sophomore Kennedy Dickie and freshmen Maisie Burnham and Aaliyah Alexander have taken on scoring roles.

“She takes team and commitment seriously,” Kerry Pickett, Kirscher’s club basketball coach in high school, said. “I have coached a lot great players – including John Stockton – and Grace can stand in that group as far as commitment.”

Kirscher seems to pour her heart and soul into everything she does on and off the court, and she also excels in the classroom and beyond, largely due to her insatiable capacity to give 100% effort, regardless of the task at hand.

“Watching Grace dance is really funny,” Knowles said. “Grace really goes for it.”

Kirscher’s appreciation for the process of preparation, selflessness and all-out energy in the moment help to make a leader who can affect change in basketball and in life.

When her playing days are done, Kirscher wants to be a third-grade teacher, where she can work with children and hopes to “stop bullying before it starts.”

“She is strong-willed, especially when it comes to her making a positive impact,” Pickett said.

EWU’s Burnham named top Big Sky freshman

Eastern Washington forward Maisie Burnham has been named the Big Sky freshman of the year, the conference announced Sunday.

A standout at Liberty High School, Burnham made her collegiate transition look effortless, averaging 14.3 points in her 21 games – 17 of which she started.

Burnham also was named to the All-Big Sky honorable mention team.

Idaho’s Beyonce Bea and Gabi Harrington earned first-team distinction, guard Gina Marxen was named to the second team, and former Central Valley standout Hailey Christopher was named the reserve of the year.