Cheryl Grant

This archived article was written by: Jennifer Jarrett

For as long as she can remember, playing basketball has been a family lifestyle for Cheryl Grant and her five older brothers. Grant, daughter of JJ and Cynthia, is from Orangeville, Utah. She comes from a family where everyone enjoys playing basketball together.
Grant graduated from Emery High School in 2002 and came to CEU the following fall. Even after growing up around CEU and knowing about it all her life, it wasn’t until CEU offered a scholarship and evaluating her options that she decided CEU was the right place to go and where she wanted to be.
The 6’4” sophomore plays CEU’s center position and has played this position all her life. Coach Dave Paur first saw Grant when he attended an Emery High game and watched her play. He knew she had other offers, but decided to try to bring her to CEU. “The first thing I noticed about Cheryl was her height,” he commented, “Post players are hard to find and there are definitely not a lot like her. She also had a great attitude and I noticed that right off, and liked that about her, too.”
Her teammates were all more than willing to comment on her attitude and athletic ability. Marcy Nielsen commented, “Cheryl always wants to work hard. She never wants to be the lazy one.” Veva Whitear said, “She’s a hard worker and really agressive. She is a good shot, and when we set her up, she hits anything.”
“She is a good defensive rebounder, can make the fast break, has a real ‘mean streak,’ gets aggressive with other players, and is great at her foul shots. She still has two years left and I know that she is just going to get better and better. There are lots of schools recruiting her and it’s not hard to see why. She is aggressive, a good student, has a good attitude, can mix it up in the post and she is such a good post player. She has decided to be good and is. Whoever gets her next year is lucky. They’ll get a good player,” Paur stated.
Grant has really enjoyed her time her at CEU for various reasons, “It is close to home so I always have family at the games. That is always nice to feel their support and to see their faces in the crowd. Also, among the girls that I play with, there is such a variety of girls on the team and such a mixture of personalities that there is never a dull moment.”
She, too, is really looking foreward to the SWAC region tournament and finding out whether CEU will be able to go to nationals in Kansas or not. After CEU, Grant will go wherever she gets the best offer and whichever school feels is right. She smiled and said, “Of course” she will play basketball wherever she goes and will also be continuing her study in sports medicine.