Initially, Ali Anderson looked at her time at Mott Community College as bonus basketball. She loved the game and was excited to have two more seasons of playing after graduating from Powers Catholic High School, but didn’t think it would continue beyond those two seasons.
“I honestly thought I was going to go to Mott for two years and be done (with basketball),” Anderson said. “It was like, ‘Oh, cool, I still get to play basketball, but I’m getting my education.’ I didn’t really think it would continue after that.”
But Anderson, a 5-10 frontcourt player, had two remarkably consistent seasons for the Bears, starting 46 of the 48 games she appeared in and averaging 8 points, more than 5 rebounds, and an assist per game in her career.
That consistency is even more impressive considering the program was in a transition period. Legendary women’s coach Letitia Hughley stepped down just before Anderson’s freshman campaign, catching the players off guard.
“It was hard my freshman year,” Anderson said. “Coach Letitia stepped down before our first game and so that was, not quite a culture shock, but it was hard. As a freshman you’re kind of like, ‘Wow, what is this? What is going on?’ But we made the most of it. My freshman year obviously wasn’t the best year for Mott basketball, but I do think we bonded as a group.”
Mott hired a new coach heading into Anderson’s sophomore season, and it happened to be one she was familiar with. Ryan Trevithick coached Anderson at Powers, so she was excited to get to play for him again. Not only did he and his staff steady the program, he also opened Anderson’s eyes to the potential she had to play beyond Mott.
“When Coach Ryan called me and said that he had gotten the job, I was excited,” Anderson said. “I felt good knowing that this coach coming in was gonna push me to work my hardest. He’s gonna be really good for the program. And that’s when it kinda clicked for me that, okay wait, maybe I could go on and play somewhere else. When he came in he said, ‘I think that we can get you offers to go play somewhere else after this.’ So I grinded my butt off last year. I worked as hard as I could and sure enough it worked out for me.”
Anderson will suit up for the University of Michigan-Dearborn’s women’s team this season. UM-Dearborn competes at the NAIA level, and Anderson connected well with the coaching staff and players she met. But the school was also a great fit for her education and professional goals.
“I had lots of offers coming out of Mott, but it came down to my education,” Anderson said. “I’m going into pre-law and I want to go to U of M Law School. So for me, finding the best fit that was going to meet all my needs to finish school to get into law school, UM-Dearborn had it all. It had the program exactly that I needed. So for school it was perfect, and then when I got around the team and the coaches, it just felt like home. The coaches are amazing. All of the girls, out of all the visits I took, I felt so welcome and just part of the team. It was perfect academically, but then also it felt like a family.”
Helping players unlock their own potential and find the right opportunities to play post-Mott is exactly what Trevithick and his staff are trying to build within the program. He thinks Anderson’s talents make her a great fit at UM-Dearborn.
“ That was one of our goals here when we came was to give them a glimpse of what a four-year experience would look like,” Trevithick said. “Ali’s earned the opportunity to keep playing, and she’ll have a great coach and great staff that she’s gonna be working with. They’re gonna be able to use her strengths as a focal point around the basket, but also stretching the floor and facing up. I had the pleasure of coaching Ali in high school too, so it’s been really cool to see the growth and transition for her.”
When she was younger, Anderson didn’t have a “main” sport, her parents encouraged her to try a little bit of everything. But she says around middle school is when she really fell in love with basketball.
“That’s when I started to think, ‘Oh, I think that I like this a little bit more than everything else,’” she said. “And then going into high school is when it really clicked for me, ‘Oh, this is my sport.’ It brought me so much joy just going out in the driveway and shooting hoops or playing against my little brother in 1v1 and hanging out with my friends. Basketball was just my thing and so it always just brings me joy. I love it so much.”
As a player, she’s developed a versatile offensive game, but she really makes her mark on the glass – she loves rebounding.
“One of my favorite things to do is try to go after and get the ball, just watching it come off the rim and going to get it,” Anderson said. “I just try to focus on being a good teammate. I might be having a bad game, but not letting that affect my mood or anything with all my other teammates. It’s more important to get the team win than your individual stats. I’d rather get wins and just be someone that my teammates can count on.”
Throughout her career in Flint high school and college basketball, Anderson has also been impressed by the growing amount of women’s basketball talent the area continues to produce. Women’s basketball doesn’t always get as much recognition in Flint history as men’s players have, but several up-and-coming players are helping change that.
“I think it’s really cool to be a part of,” Anderson said. “It’s hard sometimes, because people are like, ‘Oh, you play basketball? Are you any good?’ And I mean, I’m playing in college, you gotta be somewhat decent. But some people only think of the boys. Everyone knows the Mott boys team was really good for a while but they kind of forget about us. There’s a lot of younger girls I know coming up through high school right now that are just great players and they deserve the recognition that they worked for. We all work our butts off. We had some open gyms this summer at Mott actually, and it was just girls from all over the area and it was crazy how much talent was in the room.”
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