Sports, like life, is full of ups and downs. Over the last three years, Samford women's basketball redshirt senior, Shauntai Battle, has felt the full force of these peaks and valleys. From being a part of a historic 2019-20 run for the women's basketball program, to a global pandemic that put a halt to almost everything, including sports, to a career altering injury and a journey back to the game she loves.
 
Battle, who hails from Mobile, Alabama amassed over 1,500 points in her career at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, averaging 19 points per game in 2016-17, her senior campaign. The First Team All-State selection, and three-time All-County honoree, wasn't recruited by Samford until the spring of 2017.
 
"Crazy thing," Battle said, "I did not start getting recruited from Samford until April of my senior year of high school. So, I was literally about to graduate, basketball season was basically over with…I came on a visit and talked to Coach [Mike] Morris."
 
But it was a former Bulldog that convinced Battle that Samford was the place for her. Cassidy Williams, a former standout guard from Peachtree City, Georgia, went with Battle to a trampoline park when she visited The Magic City. "She just sold me." Battle recalls, "She is the reason I am at Samford University."
 
Battle played in 50 games during her first two seasons, averaging 24.5 minutes per game as a sophomore in 2018-19. But after her sophomore season, long-time women's basketball head coach Mike Morris, retired and in his stead, Director of Athletics Martin Newton, hired rising star Carley Kuhns, who had enjoyed great success at her alma mater, Valdosta State.
 
"But when Coach Carley came in, I was scared, I'm not going to even lie. I was so scared, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know how things were going to look, how things were going to be. I was just so used to the same thing every single day, and I just didn't know what it was going to be like."
 
Battle's love for her team and for its coaching staff is palpable, and the smile on her face when talking about what head coach Carley Kuhns has done for her personally, and the program, is evidence of just that.
 
"She is just absolutely phenomenal, how intentional she is, and she made us feel so comfortable and at home when she first got here so it wasn't like one of those coaches who was like 'This is what I want'…and I don't know, I am just so happy she came."
 
Battle's junior year (2019-20) was an unforgettable one. Samford faced a number of challenges in its nonconference schedule before opening conference play, but then the Bulldogs never looked back. Samford earned a share of the Southern Conference regular season title for the first time in program history, and the Bulldogs made the trip to Asheville, North Carolina for the 2020 Southern Conference Tournament as the number one overall seed.
 
"I don't even think we knew that we were going to win, to me it felt like we were just going down there just to play, because the past couple years we were used to going to the SoCon Tournament and losing in the first round."
 
But the Bulldogs dispatched the eighth seeded Western Carolina in the first round, ran away from the Furman Paladins in the semifinals, and secured a historic win over the UNCG Spartans in the final moments to punch their ticket to the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
 
"I was just kind of like, did this really just happen?" Battle recalls, "We're on the court all the attention is on us, all the funfetti and strings, and Charity [Brown] adding our ticket to the poster. I was like this is real, this actually happened."
 
Cutting down the nets, locker room water showers, memories to last a lifetime, and then on to the NCAA Tournament; an honor that athletes work and strive an entire career for… But what came next was an unexpected halt to a season of dreams.
 
"Well at first, to be honest with you, I wasn't paying attention to COVID. I remember travelling and stuff, and seeing stuff on the news, but I didn't pay any attention to it at all. I just remember leaving Asheville, and we were on spring break, and they canceled the SEC Tournament, and Paige [Serup] was like it is going to happen."
 
Battle recalls the moment she found out the NCAA Tournament was canceled, and their extraordinary season came to a standstill. Two SoCon titles, eight veteran seniors without the celebratory sendoff they deserved.
 
"Coach Carley sent the message and was like that's done. Like basically everyone go home and hopefully sooner or later this might change; ended up going back to Mobile, and just sitting at home. It was absolutely terrible. How can you end the season like that? We were on the most high then boom, it's over with."
 
The desire to get her team back to the top of the Southern Conference and to the NCAA Tournament drove Battle to new heights as she started her senior season, picking up a larger offensive role in addition to her notable defense. In Samford's first three games of the 2020-21 season, Battle posted 21 points in 40 minutes against Alabama, 19 points in another 40 minutes in a close game at Auburn, and led Samford scoring against nationally-ranked Indiana.
 
"I was just starting to figure it out, finally started to get my groove. I was shooting the ball well, I was getting to the rim well, finishing well, being a floor general for my team, not just offensively, but mainly defensively. So I was feeling great. *snap* Then boom."
 
Torn ACL, torn MCL, a lateral meniscus that needed cleaning, and a bone bruise on her femur. Battle paused a moment and let out a small chuckle when thinking about all she had to overcome. The injury left her coaching staff and teammates speechless, but she knew it instantly.

"Once I got on the side with Farris [Director of Olympic Strength and Conditioning, Jonathan Farris] I was just balling my eyes out with Farris, I was like Farris, this is it."
 
Battle credits her supportive coaches and teammates, as well as Samford's medical staff, as one of the only reasons she was able to make it through.
 
"It was hard, probably the hardest thing I have ever been through in my entire life, for sure. The hardest thing I have ever had to put myself through, mentally and physically."
 
Battle says that she had the best physical therapist, and acknowledges that John McBryde changed the course of her recovery, getting her back onto the court in less than a year after the catastrophic injury. But to simply say she made it back is ignoring the many ups and downs along the way.
 
"The hardest part was me getting my range of motion. I felt like I was trying to make my knee do something it didn't want to do. PTs are like 'we have to do this in a timely fashion,' so you have to get your range of motion back in two months. So, we are pushing, and pushing, and pushing on it every single day, and I felt like someone was trying to push my knee through a brick wall."
 
Battle cried nearly every day in her physical therapy sessions, as she fought to check off one recovery box, and then the next. Sometimes recovery is smooth. Sometimes it is not.


"It wasn't smooth at all. My range of motion threw everything off; it took me forever to get my range of motion back and my full extension. Then it took me forever to get my brace, so without my brace, I couldn't run or do anything. So, I really started straight-line running late, and everything was really thrown off because of my range of motion and getting my full extension."
 
But when that first day of practice came, Battle had both excitement and hesitation coursing through her veins. For the first few practices, Battle participated mainly in shooting drills. Finally, about a week after first official practices began, it was her time to step back into full participation.
 
"Super nervous when it was time for me to scrimmage, didn't want to get in the mix, didn't want to touch the ball.  When it was time to go rebound, I was the first one back on defense. The more and more I did it, it got easier."
 
But after a road matchup at No. 9 Iowa, it was time for Battle to return to the same court where she suffered her season-ending injury. As she was sitting on the bench with the rest of the starting lineup, waiting on her name to be introduced, all she could think about was being back playing the game. 
 
"Shauntai Battle is back! And it hasn't even been a full year, and I'm like 'you're here', it's finally here, it's literally what you have been waiting on, and it is finally here. Finally."
 
Battle credits John McBryde for kick-starting her confidence, showing her how to jump properly and land properly. Then having the support from her teammates and coaching staff going into this season.
 
"Coach Carley just being in my ear telling me how proud she is and how much she believes in me, basically telling me 'Shauntai you are taking on a new role'. Your old role was to go score, but now, the new Shauntai, you have a completely different role. It may not be to go score 20 points a game. Maybe it is for you to go be consistent, to be the floor general. Someone that your teammates can look to as in, we know Shauntai is going to do the right thing all the time on and off the floor."
 
The Bulldogs are heading into conference play once again, and Shauntai Battle is focused on being a veteran leader for this edition of Samford women's basketball. Although she doesn't know exactly what the future holds for her when she graduates with not one, but two Samford University degrees, one thing is for sure. She will have made a lasting impact on a program that continues to grow.
 
"I would want my teammates to remember me as a great teammate." She wants to be remembered as more than just a basketball player, but as a great friend and a great teammate that they can call for anything.
 
But Battle knows she is just one of many student-athletes that are juggling the pressures of school and athletic performance, in addition to overcoming an unexpected injury. And to all those who are in those down moments where they are fighting just to get back and putting in the work, day after day, she has this advice.
 
"Stay the course and stay patient. I would say that some things don't work out the way you want them to work out, but maybe that is what things need to be at that moment, right now. Keep working, everything you do matters. You may feel like no one sees it, or no one's watching you all the time, but it matters." 
 
And her story is all the evidence needed to see that what you do in those unseen hours of work, really matter.