Hobart senior Asia Donald is the Brickies' all-time leading scorer and an Indiana All-Star.
HOBART — When Asia Donald walked into the Hobart gym four years ago, she asked her dad, Darrian, about Amanda Corral’s white No. 12 jersey on the wall. He told her it was because Corral was an Indiana All-Star. Donald immediately decided she had to have one for herself.
After a career that saw her become the Brickies' all-time leading scorer, Donald learned last week that she’d accomplished that goal.
“That means a lot to me to be recognized, that people see me,” she said. “It means a lot to me that I’m the second person in history to have that.”
It’s just one of the many honors given to Donald this season. The Indiana State signee is also the Times Player of the Year.
“You can call it God-given talent, but I believe she’s put in the work to get to where she is,” coach Alaina Richter said. “That’s obviously what has gotten her to this point.”
Donald was a known scorer in the area for years, but she became a more confident and focused player this season. Foul trouble was a problem when she was younger, often forcing her to the bench, where she couldn’t help the team win. She made a conscious effort to stay on the floor this season.
Mentally staying in the game was as important. In the past, a missed shot or bad pass angered Donald and took her out of the next few plays. That’s changed.
“(Now) I’ll be telling myself, ‘I’ll make the next shot’ or ‘I don’t need to foul,’” Donald said.
Richter said another big change was Donald’s explosiveness and ability to quickly change from defense to offense. Her game became more polished, as well, with a maturity and understanding that wasn’t there before.
Times 2023 Player of the Year Asia Donald is signed to Indiana State.
“I talked a lot about her about being a leader on this team, not just in scoring but she has the most experience and the girls all look up to her,” Richter said. “I think she was aware of that. We saw a lot of that through her body language and the way she controlled the floor.”
Hobart ran more plays for Donald, sometimes even away from the ball. Her improved outside shot, both off the dribble and after catching a pass, had to be respected by defenses. That freed up space for her to drive.
Donald said her Euro step and floater were also tricks that weren’t in her back before her senior campaign.
“One thing that really impressed me this year is her unselfishness. Of course, she’s scoring for herself, but she’s also getting her teammates open. She’s setting screens, making some pretty great passes,” Richter said. “The girls saw that and recognized it. Because of that, they worked really well together this year.”
As a team, the Brickies (14-11) were over .500 for the first time since 2014-15, winning their first postseason game since the same year. Donald’s improvement is an obvious component to that jump, but the senior guard credits Richter’s first year as head coach, as well.
Richter, a 2017 Hobart graduate, was an assistant coach under Tim Feddeler last season.
“I was lucky to come in and have a player like that,” Richter said. “I wasn’t sure how things were going to go (in my first season), and she really let me coach her. It’s easy when you’re that talented to think that you don’t need to be coached, but she listened to what I said, got her teammates involved. I really appreciated that. It was fun to coach this year.”
Richter’s tutelage made a difference for Donald, too. She encouraged her to be a more vocal leader, which Donald believes helped improve other parts of her game. It helped all of the Brickies.
“She took things more serious and did her job,” Donald said. “People took it way more serious. They actually worked harder for her.”
The season wasn’t without a hiccup, though. Donald injured her hamstring Dec. 28 against South Bend Adams in the Lake Central holiday tournament. She missed three games.
“I thought it was a Charlie horse. I didn’t think nothing of it, but it wouldn’t go away so I started worrying,” Donald said.
She returned to the lineup against Lowell on Jan. 12. Unfortunately for the Red Devils, Donald took out her frustration with a 32-point game that the Brickies won 58-47.
“That felt great,” she said.
Brickies senior guard Asia Donald is The Times 2023 Player of the Year.
Lowell shouldn’t hang its collective head, though. Donald scored a lot of points against pretty much everybody this season. On a per game basis, she led the state with 26.7 a night. She put up 30 or more nine times. Excluding the Adams and Hanover Central games that she left early, only twice did she fail to score at least 20 – 19 against Kankakee Valley and 18 in a sectional loss to Portage.
She admits that she frequently checked the stats online to make sure she was still at the top of the list, holding off players nipping at her heels like Columbus East’s Saige Stahl.
“It’s important to me because I know I can score,” she said. “I should be one of the top scorers in the state.”
Despite that, Donald wasn’t a finalist for Miss Basketball. She will be the Region’s only representative with the Indiana All-Stars, though. She plans to put her game on display in those practices and games to show she really is one of the state’s best players.
“You can be working hard, and they don’t really see you if you’re up here,” Donald said. “It kind of makes me mad because I should be one of the finalists.”
No one can take away Donald’s statistics, though. Someday soon, there will be a No. 35 Donald jersey on the wall in Hobart. She’s the area’s player of the year, and folks supporting the purple and gold won’t soon forget her game.
“There’s just a certain energy that she brings to the floor, an excitement that she brings to other players that I know I’ll miss next year,” Richter said. “That’s going to be the adjustment, the energy that she brought to the floor, not just the points.”
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