Meet Joanna McFarland

Sept. 4, 2009

2009-10 Preseason Preview

Sept. 2: Meet Lyndsey Cloman

Sept. 4: Meet Joanna McFarland

Sept. 9: Abi's Time to Shine

Sept. 26: A.T. One Step Ahead

Sooner Women's Basketball

OU Video Library | Women's Basketball Archives

2009-10 OU Women's Basketball Schedule

NORMAN, Okla. -- For Sherri Coale's women's basketball team, the preseason is under way as the team recently began its strength and conditioning workouts with Tim Overman.

SoonerSports.com met with incoming freshman forward Joanna McFarland in the second part of several features that will be published leading up when the season tips-off in November.

McFarland, a 6-3 forward from Derby, Kan., is the third from her family to play women's basketball in the Big 12 following older sisters Jessica (Kansas State, 2003-06) and Jackie (Colorado, 2005-08). Sooner teammates are already impressed by Joanna physical play, which she'll need as she helps OU overcome the departure of the Paris twins.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to OU, Joanna. What should we know about you?
I'm from Derby, Kansas. It's a suburb of Wichita and a really nice city. It was in the top 10 of best places to raise a family. The schools there are really good. It's got a small-town feel just outside of a bigger city.

I'm the youngest of five children and my brother and sisters say I'm spoiled.

Women's basketball aficionados know about Jessica and Jackie, but they don't know your brother. Tell us about Jacob.
Jacob is a big dork. He was actually the first of us to play sports. He started wrestling so we were all dragged to his wrestling meets when we were kids and just found our own ways to entertain ourselves. He played football and wrestled and could have gone to a couple smaller division schools on a football scholarship, but received a full-ride academic scholarship to Kansas State. He's starting his senior year this fall.

Do you think he had any influence on you playing sports?
He did. We always went to his games, tournaments or whatever and my parents were like, `Well, what can we get the girls in to?' There's this league called Bitty Basketball in Wichita run by the Salvation Army. They started Jessica when she was in sixth grade, Jackie a couple years younger than that and me when I was 5 years old. So, I started basketball really young.

Not much of a stretch to put a bunch of tall girls in basketball.
No, not really. We played some other sports, but basketball is what stuck.

What's your personality like?
I like time to myself, but I also like being out with friends and making people laugh. I'm not really serious.

So if someone had to describe you in one word, what do you think that would be?
I don't know. Probably, funny. Hopefully.

Coach Coale is direct with freshmen about what she expects to be their role. What did she say to you?
She said that we only have 10 (student-athletes) this year, you know, and Abi's our only returning post. She said I didn't have the luxury of a freshman year where I could sit and watch the upper classmen. I had to come out and give her good minutes, not make freshman mistakes.

I'm sure that helped you stay motivated this summer.
It really did. I don't want to let her down. I really don't want to let the team down. I don't want to let myself down. I'm my hardest critic, definitely.

In your limited time at this level, what have noticed to be the greatest difference between high school and college basketball?
The speed and the intensity. Every single play is 100 percent. And if you're not, your man is going to score.

What's been the toughest adjustment outside of basketball?
Nothing too bad yet. I've been on top of my schoolwork, so it hasn't been too stressful.

What classes are you taking this fall?
Calculus II, General Chemistry, Introduction to Sociology and Government. I'm a chemisty, pre-med, major.

What's special about your number?
In high school, I wanted to be 50. A senior had it. My second choice was 55, but another senior had that. I chose right in the middle - 53 - and then I figured I was the third McFarland to wear a `5' in their number because Jessica had 50 and Jackie was 45.

You set a lot of records in basketball, but you also played volleyball and track. How were you in those sports?
I made All-Metro in volleyball, but we never made it to state. Track wasn't my passion and the funny thing is I made it to state two years in a row in track in discus throw and shot put.

Joanna McFarland Profile

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors