By Kate Harman
TowsonTigers.com

TOWSON, Md. - Erin Batth has a passion for the game of basketball.

It's a passion that has taken her to a tiny village in Greece, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and courtside where she watched Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers practice.

Now, that passion has brought Batth to Towson as an assistant coach for the women's basketball team.

"Basketball is such a drug," Batth said. "When it is taken from you, it is hard. All I ever knew was this [basketball]. I've learned so much about life through it."

Animated and self-deprecating, the 6'3 Batth can tell quite a story but her body really lights up when she starts talking about basketball.

The Georgia native started playing in middle school because "it was the best way for me to make friends," she said. Despite being "the tallest thing out there" Batth claimed she was "absolutely the worst" and is still convinced she only made the team because of her height.

Sixth grade was when Batth started getting serious about basketball.

In fact, she says, from sixth grade to her senior year of high school she never had a summer off because of her participation in Amateur Athletic Union basketball (AAU).

"It was always something," she said. "It was never 'let's just go to the beach, it was let's go play ball'."

Her senior year of high school Batth tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and never got to step foot on a basketball court. She was highly recruited by Division I colleges anyway, and ended up committing to Clemson University.

As a sophomore at Clemson, Batth helped her team win an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship and made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament.

That entire year Batth played with a torn ACL, her second tear in three years, and waited to get surgery until the season was over.

"That was crazy, now I can't bend over," she joked.

Her experience at Clemson, where she says she matured under Coach Davis, helped her form her philosophy of coaching.

"This is the time when we are trying to influence these girls to not to be late, to take care of their bodies, to act right, to speak up, to stand up straight... and to develop them as women," Batth said.

As a Clemson Tiger, Batth admittedly "ran a lot of sprints" and worked hard, but also found that being a college athlete was a lot of fun. It was also where she realized how important the concept of team was.

"My teammates and I ate breakfast lunch and dinner together; we traveled together. We got in trouble together. We won basketball tournaments together. We lost badly together. Everything was always together," she said.

In 2001, Batth became the first Clemson player to be drafted by the WNBA when the Cleveland Rockers selected her 59th overall. Batth was driving when she got the news in the form of a phone call from Rockers' head coach, Dan Hughes.

"I screamed, pulled over and did this dance," she said. "Absolutely a dream comes true."

Batth showed up to camp "ill-prepared" and "nervous." Eventually she was cut, and would have to turn down an offer to tryout with the Miami Sol after learning she was pregnant.

In 2002, Batth joined the EuroLeague as a member of a team in Greece and was one of only two people that spoke English and "stuck out like a sore thumb."

While in Greece, where her teammates dubbed her 'Big Momma', Batth played in Spain, Albania, Yugoslavia and a variety of other countries, as well as starting a fashion trend. Back then she wore a bandana on the court and eventually people in the village starting wearing bandanas too.

"I'll never forget that," she said.

After a short stint with the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars and an assistant coaching position at Virginia Commonwealth, Batth moved to Istanbul to play for a Turkish team.

A broken foot caused Batth to return to the States, where she got a job working in basketball operations for the NBA's Sacramento Kings and the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs. In 2006, a spot on the Monarch's roster opened while forward DeMya Walker was still playing overseas.

Batth was asked to take her place.

"I took off my pantyhose and my pumps and put on my tennis shoes. I went in the back where the practice facility was and I got into practice with Ticha Penicheiro, Yolanda Griffith and Kara Lawson," she said with a laugh.

During this time, Batth continued to work as an assistant in both program's basketball operations department

"I went from the court to my office," Batth said. "It was absolutely chaos but so much fun."

Once Walker returned from her stint overseas, Batth was offered the opportunity to join the Monarchs as a free agent but declined; worried that she could be cut and picked up by another team at any time, resulting in instability for her daughter.

After three years working as the director of the University of Virginia women's basketball program, Batth found out about the opening at Towson.

Tigers head coach Joe Mathews impressed Batth with his work ethic, as well as how much he "genuinely cares about the girls."

While at Towson, Batth hopes to help "start something instead of just being a part of something."

In order to do that, the Tigers coaching staff must work with a roster that Batth calls, "a big bowl of gumbo" because of its diversity. It may be a challenge to get girls from Lithuania, Chicago, Las Vegas and Camden, NJ to come together as a team but if Batth has learned anything from her experiences it is how to work with all different types of people and players.

"Basketball is basketball all around the world," Batth said. "I've played with all kinds of people speaking different languages, but we all knew one thing. It's very powerful. I had all kinds of teammates, and the one thing we knew was this game."

"It's absolutely a cool experience, and that is sports to the height - just bringing people together. And that's what I love."

-- TIGERS --