Erin Buescher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erin Buescher (born June 5, 1979 in Santa Rosa, California) is a professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) currently with the Sacramento Monarchs.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
She grew up with her parents in Rohnert Park, California, and attended Rincon Valley Christian high school in Santa Rosa, California.
[edit] College years
She attended University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) during her freshman, sophomore, and junior years from 1998 to 2000. She helped lead its women's basketball team, nicknamed The Gauchos, to an 83-14 won-loss record in her three years at the school, with UCSB winning the Big West Conference title and making appearances in the NCAA tournament all three years.
Buescher also played on the 1998 Jones Cup team, a squad which consisted of selected and highly-ranked female collegiate basketball players, and traveled to Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan.
In September 2001, Buescher, a devout Christian, transferred to The Master's College, a small Christian college located in Santa Clarita, California. She explained that she based her decision to transfer to a smaller school on her deeply religious convictions.
During her senior year at Master's, Buescher helped lead their team (nicknamed The Lady Mustangs) to a 26-3 won-loss record and a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) tournament appearance. Additionally, she was an NAIA first-team All-American and was voted the National Christian College Athletic Association player of the year.
She graduated in 2001.
[edit] WNBA career
On April 11, 2001, she was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in the second round (No. 23 overall) of the 2001 WNBA Draft.
She spent her rookie year with the Lynx and played all of the team's 32 games that year, while being on the starting lineup for 19 of those games. She led the Lynx team with 29 blocked shots.
During the 2002 WNBA Draft, the Lynx traded Buescher to the Charlotte Sting in a multi-player deal. She spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons for the Sting, playing in a utility role.
Buescher decided to take a year off from the WNBA for personal reasons, and played overseas in New Zealand and Greece.
The Sting traded Buescher, along with teammates Nicole Powell and Olympia Scott-Richardson, to the Sacramento Monarchs in exchange for Tangela Smith and a second-round draft pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft. Although Buescher was used in a utility role, the trade greatly helped the Monarchs, who went on to win the WNBA Championship, defeating the Connecticut Sun in a best-of-five series, winning three games to one.
In the early stages of the 2006 WNBA season, the Monarchs used Buescher more often after teammate DeMya Walker went on maternity leave. Buescher went on to lead all the WNBA players in field goal percentage (.537) during the regular season and eventually was named the recipient of the 2006 WNBA Most Improved Player Award.
[edit] Trivia
- An avid surfer, Buescher is a member of a Christian surfers organization.
- In interviews, she has said that she is interested in doing missionary work after her playing career ends.
- In a Sacramento Bee article in 2006, she revealed she purchased land near a beach in Costa Rica, and said that she dreamed of owning a coffee shop in the area.
