By: Andrew Sischo
AMHERST, NY: Success isn’t given, it is earned. This is something that many college freshmen find out the hard way. Success in high school may come easy, but college fame is earned every day.
Katie Titus, a freshman on the Daemen College Women’s basketball team saw this happen to her the same way many freshmen have before. Once a star at Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women in Rochester NY, Titus found out that she must work for every second she would get in her first season for the Wildcats.
At 6’0”, Titus was one of just many touted freshmen that Head Coach Jenepher Banker had signed for the fall of 2019. Before signing with Bankers Wildcats, she was committed to the Golden Griffins of Canisius College, just a few miles down Main Street here in Buffalo. When the coaching changed was announced, Titus announced her move as well. Starting just one of her first eight outings at Daemen, Titus was puzzled.
“Coming in to college I knew that everything I wanted was going to have to be earned,” said Titus. “It was an adjustment, but not playing as much as I wish I did the first few games, gave me the drive to want to get better.”
Then December 18th, 2018 hit. Titus would not look back from there. Starting 19 of the last 20 outings she had, changed the course of her season. Turning typical freshman role player status into the go-to-player the rest of 2019. Finishing as the leading scorer on one of the top teams in the East Coast Conference.
Titus did a little bit of everything for the number two seeded Wildcats in the ECC playoffs. With team bests of Points Per Game, Rebounds Per Game, Three-Point Field Goal Percentage, Three-Point Field Goals Made, as well as blocks.
Though her journey was not ideal, the things Titus did for the Wildcats were immeasurable. Playing on a previous knee injury for the entirety of the season, she never complained. As one of the leaders of the star-studded Wildcats squad, Banker found the best ways to incorporate her star freshman.
As any freshman does, Titus went through the ups and downs in her first season. Although it wasn’t always easy, the work load that she took on did not go unnoticed. Voted First-Team All East Coast Conference as well as Rookie of the Year, Titus was the first major award winner at Daemen since the Wildcats joined the ECC six seasons ago, as well as the first freshman to be named First-Team All ECC since Queens College star Madison Rowland in 2013-2014.