A profile of women in A-State athletics

M.J. Desbiens Shaw

She watches as her player takes a swing. As the player makes the hole, she can’t help but feel a sense of pride. Her coaching helped get the player here. 

Head Coach Marie-Josee “M.J.” Desbiens Shaw is the longest-tenured women’s golf coach at A-State, entering her 15th season this year.

Coming from Quebec City, Canada, Shaw knew little English when she first arrived at the University of Oklahoma (UO) to play golf. She only knew elementary-level English, but two to three years later, she grew more comfortable speaking the language. 

When first on the green, Shaw would be asked questions such as “Do you want the pin out of the hole?” and she wouldn’t know how to respond to the question. 

“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t even know these terms. I know them in French but I don’t know them in English.’” Shaw said. “People think your accent is cute but then over time you’re like ‘OK, well people make fun of me, they’re not just thinking it’s cute.’” 

Her language barrier did not stop her from becoming a four-year letter winner for the women’s golf team or captain of the team at UO. It also did not stop her from earning a bachelor’s of business administration in 1995.

Shaw said being on the green can be emotional. Coaches have to know when to help push a player if they have had a few bad holes and when to provide support.  She said watching on the sidelines is both exciting and excruciating, as all she and the players can do is wait. 

“There’s so many hats,” Shaw said. “The first one, obviously, is going to be a coach and then it’s going to be a mentor, it’s going to be a teacher. I would say the last one can be like a second mom, because those kids are away from their families.”

Her love for golf grew out of an initial distaste for it. She said when she was 10, her dad had wanted her to be outside during the summer and he suggested golf.

“The more I played, the more I realized it was such a challenging sport,” Shaw said. “You never have the same shot, you never have the same lie, you never stand the same over the ball. There are just so many things in golf that are new, every single time you play.” 

She said playing with her family helped her fall in love with the sport as well. 

Shaw has tried to get her daughter, Lillian Grace Shaw, to play golf. However, her daughter preferred to take a different route. 

“She likes every sport but golf. Her first love is softball, which is what I played when I was a kid, all the way up until sixth grade until I switched to golf,” she said. 

When she is not on the green with her team, she is attending another sporting event for her daughter with her husband, Justin Shaw. 

She said the most rewarding part of her job is getting to see her players grow. 

“You know they grow in four years as adults, you see them succeed and fail,” Shaw said. “That is what drives me to every day be a better coach.”

Haley Cunningham

She’s not a cheerleader, she’s not a dancer. She’s a Diamond Doll. 

The Diamond Dolls are an extension of the baseball team, there to help the baseball team and their coach anytime they can. 

“We help out with their grand slam banquet. At games we’re the ones to get foul balls, we try to promote crowd entertainment and we really just assist Coach Raffo when he needs us,” said Haley Cunningham, a senior strategic communications major from Senath, Missouri. 

Cunningham joined the Diamond Dolls because of her love for baseball, which began in high school. She added that the Diamond Dolls were a way for her to connect with other people on campus who also had a love for the game. 

“I wanted to continue to make friends and connections on campus and I knew that the Diamond Dolls would probably bring in girls that I don’t get to talk to every day. I decided to join to kind of meet new people honestly,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham added that while there is an overall stereotype of women in sports, the head coach of the baseball team, Tommy Raffo, does a good job at making sure the Diamond Dolls are included and treated fairly. 

However, the overall fear of being stereotyped does linger in the back of her mind, Cunningham said.

“I think there’s a stereotype of when you see a woman in sports, that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I have an issue with that because I think that women are just as capable of learning information and talking about a sport, even if it’s a sport they may not play.” 

When she isn’t in the dugout, Cunningham can be found in the Communications building or her sorority house, Chi Omega. Even if the Diamond Dolls aren’t required to be there, Cunningham will still attend the baseball games.

When she is off campus, Cunningham enjoys the outdoors and hunting with her family and boyfriend. Normally, she is out at Craighead Forest Park, most likely walking her dog, Blue. 

One of Cunningham’s favorite parts of being a Diamond Doll is meeting all of the girls who join. 

“Some of these girls aren’t in sororities, so you’re not seeing them at a sorority event or anything like that and you wouldn’t normally meet them on campus but you get a ton of laughter seeing them enjoy something that they love,”Cunningham said.  

Izzy Higginbottom

A girl sits in the stands of the gymnasium, the junior high boys are playing on the court and all she can think of is how fun the game looks. 

Izzy Higginbottom (#23), a junior psychology major from Batesville and a guard for the Red Wolves, was that little girl sitting in the stands. 

The guard has broken her own Sun Belt Conference record for most consecutive free-throws made with 53. She also has the team record for the most free throws made in a game with 19. 

Higginbottom’s dedication is not just from her watching a game in fourth grade, but also her love for competing and the sport itself. 

“To me, basketball is kind of like an art. You gotta master your craft to be really good at it,” Higginbottom said. “The fact that I can go out and control what I can control, which is always working and focusing on the process and then seeing how that pays off is why I do it.”

Higginbottom tries to be a leader for her team, both with her voice and by example. 

“I just kind of tend to speak out in the locker room if I feel like the energy is low,” she said. “If I feel like people are kind of down, I try to speak life into them as much as I can because I know I’ve been there.”

She said the women’s basketball team is a close-knit one. 

“We’re a pretty tight team. That all started in the summer, building chemistry, on and off the court. I think our locker room atmosphere is pretty good.” 

When preparing for games, Higginbottom tries to keep her mind focused and clear.

“I’m pretty chill, like I just am laid back before the games. I try to get to a state where I’m just really kind of loose, having fun with it, but also focused and locked in on the goal. I’ll do visualization techniques and just breathing exercises,” Higginbottom said. 

Higginbottom does not have  any solid career plans yet; however, she has considered coaching.

“It’s something that I’ve been told I would be good at, and I think it is something that I’d be interested in,” Higginbottom said. 

Off the court, Higginbottom can be found at Barnes & Noble, since she is an avid reader. While she couldn’t pick her current favorite book, she said her favorite as a kid was “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan. 

“I love to read. I was excited that Barnes & Noble opened up recently because I like to go in there and just honestly hang out,” Higginbottom said. 

When with her friends, Higginbottom loves to just spend time around Jonesboro. She enjoys driving around, seeing movies, snacking and shopping.

Higginbottom told any girls who, like her, fell in love with the game, to dedicate themselves to basketball.

“Follow your heart but make sure you put in the work because that’s what it takes at the end of the day,” Higginbottom said. “But also just play because you love it and don’t care what anybody else thinks or expects of you.”

Categories: Sports