Eds. note: This week, the Winonan’s Matt Huss spoke with senior forward Amanda Reimer, a four-year starter who originally came to WSU to play volleyball.
WINONAN: You almost didn’t come to WSU out of high school. What happened?
REIMER: I still don’t know (laughs). I just remember coming here and being like, ‘I don’t want to go there.’ Then I decided that I did all of a sudden, apparently (laughs). I think everything happens for a reason, and I think that if I wouldn’t have played volleyball then I wouldn’t have had the chance to play basketball and things wouldn’t have ended up the way they are. I just think it happened like it was supposed to, kind of backwards, maybe, but it ended up OK.
WINONAN: How did you end up playing basketball?
REIMER: I got a call toward the end of July from Connie (Mettille). I had numerous conversations with her about how I missed basketball, so she called me up and said that they got a new basketball coach and was wondering if I wanted to talk to him. I end up meeting Coach (Scott) Ballard and doing some drills for him and he just asked if I wanted to play basketball (laughs). I had about a week to decide because volleyball was starting again, but I knew right away I was going to switch sports. In my heart I really missed basketball a lot.
WINONAN: It’s been well-documented by annoying writers that your team won only three games overall in your first season and just three conference games the next year before turning things around. Are you sick of talking about how bad those first two years were?
REIMER: Yes (laughs). I’ve probably heard more about it this year because, it’s like, ‘OK, you’re 16-6 right now. Remember when you were 3-25? How did that feel? How does it feel to have gone through that?’ It’s just like, ‘OK, I remember, and I’ll never forget what we went through, but let’s just focus on what we’re doing now and the rest of the season. Everyone knows how it felt, and how no one came to watch us and how no one supported us and all that, but let’s just focus on today, how about?’
WINONAN: I’m sorry.
REIMER: That’s OK.
WINONAN: What’s Ballard like? Does he do anything that just cracks you up?
REIMER: The stomping just kills me, and it kills me even more when he’s doing it at me. And it’s really funny because he doesn’t swear, and he doesn’t like us to swear, so he has all these other words he’ll use instead, like he’ll say, ‘Dag-nabbit!’ And he still kind of has his accent on some words, and the one word I always tease him about is, he says, ‘Vee-hick-al’ — I just think it’s so funny.
WINONAN: What are long road trips like with the kind of characters on your team?
REIMER: Bonnie (Bjorke), in particular, knits, so when we went on our Northern/Mary road trip, a bunch of girls decided they wanted to learn. So half of our team was knitting on the bus and, obviously, we lost both of those games, so in the locker room at Northern, Coach blamed us losing on everyone knitting. He was like, ‘Were you guys thinking about knitting during the game?’ So then the next trip we went on, people were like, ‘Can we bring our knitting stuff along? What is he going to say?’
WINONAN: Who on your team needs her own reality show and why?
REIMER: Jenny (Steffen), because she’s crazy (laughs). Kayleigh (Lutz) always says that she’d love to spend a day in Jenny’s head just because the stuff that she does and says is ridiculous sometimes. I’ve never seen her down or in a bad mood. The other night Coach yelled at her in the locker room after we won because she missed a free throw and she smiled (laughs). ‘Who goes to the free-throw line grinning after they just missed one?’ That’s just her personality. To get focused before games she’s goofy and dances around and does dumb stuff. It makes things interesting every day.
WINONAN: Do you do anything weird to get ready for games?
REIMER: I have to brush my teeth before I play. After I brush my teeth, I feel like I’m ready to go. And I can’t play without gum in my mouth. Also, I can’t set my alarm for 9:05 or 9:10. It can’t be a round number. I set it for 9:06 or 8:36 or 7:16.
WINONAN: Earlier this year, you answered four questions for our Pop Culture Grid. One of those questions was “Three things you’d want if stranded on an island.” You answered, “A guy, bobby pins and a good book.” Explain.
REIMER: (Laughing) A cute guy would be good for some companionship, someone to talk to. My hair is short, and if I’m not going to be able to take a shower and wash it I’m going to have to put it up, but it always falls out so I’ll need bobby pins. And I decided that I was going to read more. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Nicholas Sparks — he wrote The Notebook — but he writes love-story books, and I heard he was a good author so I started reading some of his stuff.
WINONAN: Yeah, the guy who raises the bar too high for regular guys? I know that fool.
WINONAN: What are your goals for the rest of the year?
REIMER: The top goal is to finish in the top four and host a first-round conference tournament game. It’s something that no WSU women’s basketball team has ever done. I think it would be awesome for us anyway, but it would be a crazy environment because, obviously, the guys are going to host and to have a double-header that night, we could get a great crowd. I’ll take it any way I can get it. That’s a big goal, but I’d love to make it to regionals and end my career on that. From where we came from, it was never even a thought.