Great Quotes Motivate Oenning

“Failure waits for all who stay with some success made yesterday. Tomorrow you must try once more and even harder than before.”

--John Wooden, “They Call Me Coach”

Jamie Oenning loves quotes. They’re written on pieces of paper spread throughout her house. She especially likes the motivational ones. They define her as much as anything. John Wooden’s is her favorite.

“That probably is the quote that means the most to me because it’s so true, not just in basketball but in every area,” she said.

Oenning, Woodbridge’s shooting guard, loves them. She can recite them, too, from Aristotle to Lincoln, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to F. Scottie Pippin.

And she lives by them. A naturally gifted athlete, she didn’t start playing organized basketball until she was a freshman at Woodbridge. Arriving from Colorado, she attended the last four days of a month-long basketball camp her neighbor was attending. She started for the frosh-soph team.

The varsity’s Southern Section title that season whet her appetite for things she hopes will come.

“I was blown away by how phenomenal the girls’ program was and how everyone associated with it was so high-class, and I wanted to be out there,” Oenning said. “My goal was to play varsity as a sophomore.”

She didn’t play much, but she made the team. She liked it so much, she gave up soccer, which she had played for 13 years.

“Everyone who has played for Woodbridge, I really respect,” Oenning said. “It gave me incentive to work hard and to become a starter; it really put the carrot out in front of me.”

Today, she knocks down carrots like Bugs Bunny. She has a terrific jump shot, and averaged 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.8 steals last year and was all-league.

“I expect us to carry on the tradition of Lady Warrior basketball,” Oenning said. “It sounds like the company line, but that’s how I look at it. I feel that is a responsibility for me and my team.”

Oenning carried injury-riddled Woodbridge (21-6) to 17 victories in its last 19 games in 1992-93.

Wooden’s is her single-favorite quote, but Oenning’s favorite speech comes from football Coach Lou Holtz in the book, “The Fighting Spirit,” about Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship season.

Her paraphrase: “He talks about how he wants his team and the individuals to strive for the best they can be and not to accept mediocrity--Why go through the motions if you’re not going to do the best you can? He tells them how they represent the university and they should only represent how they want to be looked at, that they also represent themselves and as individuals, how do you want to be seen?”

And the question takes Oenning by surprise, and she can’t answer without some thought to get her words just right.

How do you want to be seen?

“In whatever I do, I want to leave my legacy,” she said. “I want to make a positive difference from the time I arrived to the time I left.”