University of Oklahoma Athletics
Black History Month: Ana Llanusa
February 28, 2020 | Athletics, Women's Basketball
Ana Llanusa scored her 1,000th career point at Oklahoma on Feb. 5. She Euro-stepped her way down the lane and laid the ball in off the glass almost effortlessly. But what looked like an easy bucket for the Choctaw, Okla., native was the culmination of more than a good pass and an open lane; her 1,000th point was years of determination coming to fruition.
Llanusa started playing basketball as a second grader in Choctaw, Okla. She'd previously been a gymnast alongside her siblings, who fueled her competitive fire. From a young age they'd compete to see who could learn a new skill first. But Llanusa was the first of her siblings to try a new sport, joining an AAU team after seeing her best friend, Reina start playing basketball.
"I started in second grade... That's where I started falling in love with it," said Llanusa.
And it wasn't just the game itself that Llanusa fell in love with through AAU basketball. When she was in third grade, her team took a trip to Norman to watch the Sooners play, and from that day forward, she was determined to play at OU.
"I instantly knew I wanted to play for Sherri Coale," Llanusa said. "I talked about it all the way up to high school until I got offered by OU... I used to dream about playing for her and playing for OU and just having the opportunity to get to do that was really, really amazing."
By the time she had reached high school, Llanusa was invited to play on an Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) team, which she says prepared her for the college game.
"You're playing with bigger and better people and it just gives you the experience; it's just like playing in college. That's where I really learned a lot."
Her developed skillset attracted the attention of the OU head coach who Llanusa had wanted to play for since she was a mere third grader. Coale came to watch Llanusa's games as early as her freshman season of high school.
"We were playing Midwest City at Sapulpa. We won the game – I fouled out though – but I saw her in the stands," Llanusa remembered.
"We won the game and I got a call after the state tournament and Coach Coale asked me to come to a practice. So I went to the practice, went into her office afterwards and she was just asking if I'd like to play [at OU] and I said of course I'd like to play here. She told me to think about it because I was so young."
Had Coale allowed it, Llanusa would have committed then and there; but the coach wanted her to think it over and be sure of her decision.
"I remember driving home and I was so upset I had to think about it because I already knew the answer," Llanusa said, "If any other school called me, I would be honored, but that's not where my heart wants me to go.
"As soon as I walked inside the house, I called her back and that was it."
After Llanusa's commitment to the Sooners, Coale began to send Llanusa handwritten notes in the mail.
"Those notes meant a lot to me," Llanusa recalled. "It just goes to show what type of person she is and that she cares more about you as a person than about basketball. It wasn't always about just basketball and I think that was what meant more to me."
She kept each one in a box next to her bed, along with her more treasured possessions: her Bible and a photo of her and her grandfather.
A few years after her commitment to the Sooners, Llanusa was playing in a tournament when her family's life was changed. Llanusa walked out of the arena after her final game and looked for her family.
"Usually my dad was always the first person to come over and give me a kiss on the head and I couldn't find my dad. My brother was home from the Navy too, and I hadn't seen him."
She turned the corner and saw her parents and her brother. Her dad was on the phone and suddenly, her mom gasped. When he hung up, he informed the family that their house had burned down while they were at the tournament.
"After that, there was lots of crying," said Llanusa. "My teammates were all there for me. We drove home – it was a long drive home. We didn't know what to expect, if it was going to be a complete loss or what it was going to be like. We got home and my house was still on fire. My room, specifically, just lit back up."
An electrical fire had started in the attic while the family was away and quickly spread through the house. The fire department later informed the family that if anyone had been there when the fire broke out, they likely would not have had time to escape.
"The whole way home, all I could think about was what I was going to be losing," Llanusa said. "But I think that was the biggest lesson – anyone in my family could've been in that house and could've been gone and that the material things didn't matter if I still had my family."
It was a few days before the family was allowed back on the property to pick through the rubble of their home and try to salvage some of their possessions, but little remained; the house was deemed a total loss.
But, perhaps miraculously, Llanusa's three most valuable possessions were unharmed.
"The main thing I was worried about was my Bible – I got it when I was 3, maybe – [my siblings and I] all had one – and it had my name on it. I did so much work in it and it was just something that was really personal to me. And I had a picture next to my bed of my Abuelo and me and it was one of the only pictures I had of him. I got both of those things back."
The third was the box of letters from Coale and the basketball team – almost completely in tact save for a few charred edges.
"Having those letters of encouragement, just someone being in your corner – it was just like a little build-up after losing my house," Llanusa recalled. "[Coale and the Sooners] were the first people to send me letters after my house burned down. It was a boost of hope."
That boost of hope from the team in Norman helped Llanusa through that difficult time and her final season of high school basketball. As she and her family rebuilt their home and their lives with the support of their community in Choctaw, as well as from around the Oklahoma basketball community, Llanusa thrived on the hardwood.
She led Choctaw High School to the Class 6A Tournament Championship and finished her prep career as the all-time points leader in Oklahoma's Class 6A Tournament. Llanusa was named the 2017 Jim Thorpe Female Player of the Year by the Oklahoma Basketball Coaches Association and recognized as a WBCA All-America honorable mention selection and the 2017 Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year.
Llanusa enrolled at OU determined to make an impact. Knowing how much the Sooners and Coach Coale had empowered her throughout her life, both as a kid with a dream and the victim of a tragedy, Llanusa knew that she could offer that same hope to her community.
"When I came to that first OU game, I fell in love with Courtney Paris," said Llanusa. "I just fell in love with how hard she played and she was just amazing. I remember going upstairs and getting a poster and standing in line for her to sign it and now it's so full circle for me to be sitting there signing posters. Just a little bit ago I was a little girl dreaming of playing here."
Llanusa also remembered how much support the basketball community had given her family following the fire and wanted to give back to them.
"You can see it in the fans – especially in women's basketball – they're always going to have our back. They're there for us 24/7. Those are the people I want to play for."
Play for them, she has. In three seasons with the Sooners, Llanusa has been a force on the court. She played in 30 games (started 22) during her freshman season, and as a sophomore led the Sooners in scoring despite missing 10 games due to injury. Now, as a junior, Llanusa scored her 1,000th career point to etch her name into the record books as one of just 36 players in program history to achieve the feat.
Her determination carried her to that milestone. Llanusa reached 1,000 despite missing 16 games due to injury – about half of one season – across two years. Despite missing that many games, her competitive nature drove her to flourish in the face of adversity once again.
