ACC Legend: Clare Droesch
March 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Chestnut Hill, Mass. -
By Reid Oslin
Whenever a big game was on the line, Clare Droesch wanted the basketball.
The feisty and fearless point guard, who was a key contributor to a golden era of women's basketball at Boston College will be honored as an "ACC Women's Basketball Legend" on Saturday at the conference's championship tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
Her on-court accomplishments are indeed the stuff of legend: she played on four Eagle teams that qualified for the NCAA Championship Tournament; was the inspirational leader of the 2004 BC team that won the Big East Tournament championship - toppling top-seeded Connecticut along the way; co-captain of the 2005 club that knocked off No. 1-ranked UConn again in her final home game; and the sharp-shooting guard who earned All-Big East recognition with a dazzling career production of 1,136 points (including 158 3-pointers), 539 rebounds, and 314 assists in 126 games (BC won 92 of them.)
But even more importantly, Clare Droesch could play through the pain.
In her junior and senior seasons, she ignored an agonizing foot injury that worked its way up to her shins; every trip up or down the court was an ordeal. She never missed a game.
Today, Clare Droesch is facing down an even bigger and more dangerous opponent: breast cancer. And, as usual, she is determined to win.
"She's definitely a competitor," recalled former BC head coach Cathy Inglese. "This kid always wanted to win. I remember when we beat UConn in the Big East Tournament, she had the complete confidence and desire to say `I don't care what anyone else says or thinks, we are going to win this game.' It was contagious.
"She was a competitor from when the game started to when the game ended," Inglese continued. "She was very, very confident, very focused. She was the type of kid who, when the game was on the line, lived for those types of situations."
One night, against West Virginia, BC was down a point with seconds to play. Droesch drove the ball to the basket and drew the foul. She took the ball and calmly sank two free throws. BC won, 76-75.
"We used to have a little game at the end of practice where everybody took free throws," Inglese recalled. "If you made your shot you got a point, if you missed, you lost two. She always waited until the end, because she wanted to be the last person taking the shots, in case winning the `game' was on the line. That was just her personality."
Inglese also said that Droesch was also a superb passer, a heady, New York-schooled strategist who knew the game and could always find the open player. Whenever the ball was being brought inbounds in a critical situation, Clare Droesch got the call.
But it was her emotional leadership that really set Droesch apart as a key ingredient to the team's winning formula. "She brought an extreme amount of energy to our team," added Amber Jacobs, an All-America player who was a leading scorer for the Big East champs as a senior. "The team really depended on her passion, her enthusiasm and her determination. She was a competitor and a gutsy one.
"As a player, she would accept the role of not always being the star, and because of her unselfishness and willingness to play that role, I clearly see her as a vital part of helping us to do what we did," said Jacobs, who today is head coach of basketball at tiny Baptist Bible College and Seminary in Clarks Summit, Pa.
"One of the things that I loved about the teams in the last years that I played at BC was that we were a bunch of fighters," Jacobs stated. "We came to practice ready to kill each other, but it really made us a better team. We got closer because of it. We became a solid team.
"Now, with the breast cancer and everything that she is fighting through right now, she still will not give up," Jacobs said. "She has a great outlook on life."
Droesch grew up in Queens and starred at one of New York's most celebrated basketball schools, Christ the King. When it came time to make her college plans, she was quickly attracted to Chestnut Hill.
"I wanted to play in the Big East," she said, "and I knew that I wanted to go to Boston College as soon as I went up there to visit. I just loved Boston. I'm a city person and Boston is gorgeous.
"I also wanted to go to a school where I could make a difference," Droesch continued. "BC had never won a Big East championship."
The dynamic freshman was named to the All-Big East Rookie team and became the team's starting point guard as a junior. By March of that year, BC had its first Big East championship banner.
Droesch says her best BC memory was the final home game of her career - a thrilling 51-48 victory over No. 1-ranked Connecticut in a nationally-televised contest.
"The most emotional part of that game was that I think I helped get everybody excited to play that night," she said recently. "I just knew we were going to win that game. All of the emotions that you go through as a player over your four years came out that night. That was the last time I played on that [Conte Forum] court."
During Droesch's final two years of college basketball, she played through the searing pain of plantar fasciitis, a serious heel inflammation that spread into her shins as she tried to compensate for the condition.
"I just kept playing with it," she explained. ""I would not stop. I just loved playing basketball too much."
Droesch is quick to point out that Donna Bennett, an assistant director of BC's Sports Medicine staff, played a major role of keeping her in the lineup.
"Without her, I would have not been on the court for half of my senior year," Droesch insists. "She tried everything and did everything that she possibly could to keep me out there. It wasn't easy. Donna is pretty frickin' amazing," she emphasized in her best New York accent.
When her college career ended, Droesch underwent corrective surgery for the injury.
After graduating with a degree in sociology from the College of Arts and Sciences in May of 2005, she tried her hand at professional basketball in Europe, but found that her legs were still not 100 percent. "I just could not play at the level I wanted to. I came back and tried college coaching, working at UMass-Boston, Vanderbilt and St. John's. I just loved the whole teaching part of coaching," she said.
Inglese, now a member of BC's Varsity Club Hall of Fame, said that Droesch was a natural fit for the coaching profession.
"When she worked in our basketball camp, the campers loved her," BC's former coach said. "She was just a `free-wheeling' kid. All of the campers would hover around her. She has a certain way about her and the kids really liked her.
"When she came back to talk to the BC team recently," Inglese said, "she had the team in the palm of her hand. She talked about the tradition of BC, what it was all about, what we did years ago and what they could do now."
Still, Droesch felt that her coaching niche was not at the collegiate level, but with younger, more impressionable, high school players. She landed the job as head coach at her alma mater, Christ the King, a school that has sent legions of its graduates on to college hoops careers.
"My goal was always to go back to my high school," she said. "It's the highest level of high school basketball that you can be at. It's close to home, it's where I grew up. I could not be in a better spot. I love it."
Droesch also inspired her charges to be active in work for others - a mainstay of her Jesuit education at Boston College. She was heavily involved in numerous charitable causes, including fund-raising for victims of Hurricane Sandy and W.I.S.H. a local volunteer group that assists neighbors in times of need.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Clare turned her competitive spirit to defeating the disease as if it were another basketball opponent.
"I think that the competitiveness that I have is what gets me through every day," she said. "I take every day as a game, and I'll do anything to win.
"You can be frightened by a disease like cancer," she stated, "but it's winning each day - getting that extra day to live your life.
"I treat every day as another game."
