LSU freshman guard Jeanne Kenney is living her dream.
Those are the words she used to describe her first season on the LSU women’s basketball team. The 2010-11 regular season is nearing its end with just two games left, and Kenney has made an impact quickly, as LSU coach Van Chancellor predicted she would at the team’s annual media day in October.
“I’m going to tell you right now, nothing bothers the kid,” Chancellor said. “Her mental toughness and her ability to make another play even after she turns it over or misses a shot are a positive influence on all our team.”
Kenney, a Baton Rouge native, has played in all 28 of LSU’s games this season, and she twice tied the LSU freshman record for 3-pointers in a Southeastern Conference game with five at Mississippi State on Jan. 13 and a week later at home against Ole Miss.
Kenney said her role with the Lady Tigers (17-11, 7-7) is not only to be a shooting weapon, but also to pump up her teammates.
“If there’s a tough moment in practice or we didn’t do the best in a drill, I say, ‘Let’s go, ladies! The next drill we’re going to kill it,'” Kenney said.
Tami Reynolds, Kenney’s basketball coach at St. Michael the Archangel High School, said Kenney’s enthusiasm and knowledge of the game always commanded the respect of older players.
“She was a leader from the moment she stepped on our campus,” Reynolds said.
Kenney’s young basketball career did not come without its sacrifices, as she made the trip from Baton Rouge to New Orleans on many weekends to play on her AAU girls’ basketball teams.
It was with the New Orleans Dominoes team that Kenney met Theresa Plaisance, with whom she would later reunite at LSU. Both players committed to the Lady Tigers in 2010 after winning seven straight state championships together in AAU play.
“Hanging out off the court and growing closer as friends made our game a lot stronger,” Plaisance said. “We would spend weeks at each other’s houses during the summer. … She had her own toothbrush at my house for a very long time.”
The second of Kenney’s back-to-back Class 4A state championships at St. Michael’s actually came at the expense of Plaisance and Vandebilt Catholic High School in 2009.
As much as Kenney was on cloud nine throughout her high school career, that came crashing down in January of her senior season. Kenney injured her left ankle in the second game of district play as St. Michael’s was aiming for a third-straight state title.
The original prognosis was Kenney’s high school playing career was finished. But she was far too determined to let her doctor’s word keep her out of the lineup.
Kenney persevered and returned to the floor for the playoffs, where St. Michael’s lost in the quarterfinals.
While Kenney couldn’t be a threat on the floor for the Warriors that season, Reynolds said she was an extra coach who always motivated and taught the other players. Kenney is studying kinesiology at LSU and hopes to be a P.E. teacher and basketball coach.
“She’ll be a phenomenal coach,” Reynolds said. “Just because you play basketball doesn’t mean you can coach the game, but she gets it.”
 
 
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Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]