By JARED DAVIS Special to the Palisadian-Post When she was eight years old, Alexsa Grant first stepped into the Palisades Recreation Center gym for a basketball game and instantly fell in love with the sport. ‘I just like the game,’ says Grant, now a junior at Brentwood High. ‘I love the competition, the adrenaline, and the team aspect.’ After playing one year in the Palisades Rec League, Grant joined Hoopmasters Basketball Club, where she first met Lauren Edwards and Marissa and Rachel Cohn, her close friends and current teammates at Brentwood. ‘I love the team’we’re like a family,’ says Grant, a lifetime resident of Huntington Palisades, who spent the week visiting colleges on the East Coast. ‘We’re like really, really good friends and we love to work together.’ To promote teamwork, the girls have continued the tradition of going to the school semiformal together. They also frequent the large gym at the Rec Center gym to shoot around, play pick-up games and perfect their post moves. Brentwood finished 19-7 this winter and finished first in the Olympic League with a 9-1 record. The Eagles’ season ended with a 64-60 loss to Oxnard Pacifica in the CIF quarterfinals on February 24. Grant, who has started on varsity at small or power forward since her freshman year, looks forward to next season, when her on-court leadership will net her the role of captain for the third year in a row. This year, Grant scored 113 points, grabbed 101 rebounds, made 35 steals, had 11 assists and blocked four shots in 26 games. ‘Alexsa is the heart of the team,’ Brentwood Head Coach David Smith says. ‘She does all of the things that don’t make it in the paper, a lot of intangible things for the team.’ In addition to basketball, the 5-9 played club volleyball for Sports Shack and Santa Monica Beach Club for several years, and played on Brentwood’s varsity squad as a sophomore. She also participates in a singing company called Bella Canto that visits nursing homes and hospitals. Grant enjoys performing for community service and she takes voice lessons. Grant’s career has not been without its share of setbacks, she just hasn’t let them keep her off the court for long. She ruptured her appendix and was hospitalized for nine days last summer, forcing her to miss her travel season last year. Just when she recovered from that, she broke her foot–forcing her to sit out the volleyball season last fall. This summer, she will travel with her current club basketball team, Got Game, which practices in Westchester.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
