As fall sports begin to wind down, rabid Bulldog fans are begin­ning to look for­ward to watch­ing win­ter sports.

For many, that means bas­ket­ball at FSU’s Wink Arena.

The women’s bas­ket­ball team is look­ing to explore new ter­ri­to­ries in the upcom­ing sea­son, start­ing Nov. 12 against Lewis University and fol­lowed by USC Aiken Nov. 19 in South Carolina for the Lander Lady Bearcats Tipoff Classic. For a suc­cess­ful sea­son, the Bulldogs look to sopho­more guard Sarah DeShone for leadership.

DeShone, an edu­ca­tion major, has been around the game her entire life and is now per­fect­ing her skills at FSU.

“Ever since I can remem­ber, I have been play­ing bas­ket­ball,” DeShone said. “My dad was a coach and my broth­ers played.”

According to DeShone, two of her broth­ers play col­le­giate bas­ket­ball for small schools in Indiana.

Although born and raised in Indiana, DeShone decided to move to Michigan to con­tinue her bas­ket­ball career because she likes how wel­com­ing FSU felt on her recruit­ment visit.

“I really liked the team atmos­phere here,” DeShone said.

Going into her sopho­more sea­son, the team looks to DeShone for lead­er­ship and moti­va­tion. Despite being an under­class­man, DeShone inspires her team­mates on the court.

“She is one of the best lead­ers on the team,” fresh­man guard Katie Mavis said. “She really pumps us up out there with her pos­i­tive energy.”

DeShone’s lead­er­ship extends beyond the bas­ket­ball court. Like every student-athlete, she has to bal­ance aca­d­e­mics and ath­let­ics while still mak­ing time for a social life. DeShone is also a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the women’s bas­ket­ball team on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

“Trying to bal­ance every­thing is just hav­ing your pri­or­i­ties right,” she said. “It takes a lot of time man­age­ment skills to do your best with every­thing your involved in.”

As the bas­ket­ball sea­son starts to heat up, DeShone has high goals not only for her­self but for the entire team.

“My goal for this year is just to get bet­ter every day because I feel like a leader out there,” DeShone said.

Her team goal for the upcom­ing sea­son would be to “win the GLIAC cham­pi­onship, make it the NCAA tour­na­ment and goes as far as possible.”

Mavis believes the team can accom­plish the lofty goals under the expert lead­er­ship of DeShone who she says is one of the best lead­ers she has ever looked up to.

“I think she is dif­fer­ent [from past team­mates] because she works hard every time she goes out on the court,” Mavis said.

Clearly, Sarah’s team­mates love her, and she feels the same way about them. When Sarah was asked what her favorite thing about Ferris State University is, she imme­di­ately answered her team.