ORONO, Maine — Richard Barron believes only one thing can stop Bella Swan from having a significant impact on the basketball court.
“I haven’t seen other teams stop her as much as I’ve seen her lose confidence,” Barron said as he prepares his University of Maine women’s team for the program’s first conference championship game since 2004.
“When she plays with a lot of confidence, she’s really in the moment, not distracted, she’s terrific,” he said of the versatile senior.
You’ll have to excuse Swan for some occasional lapses of self-confidence. She has spent the last several years working to prove herself.
The 5-foot-11 forward got a bit of a late start in the sport. After playing soccer through eighth grade, she caught the attention of the basketball coach at Viewmont High School in Bountiful, Utah.
“I was taller than a lot of the other girls,” Swan said. “The coach just said, ‘hey, you need to try out for the team.’ I did, and here we are.”
It was an inauspicious start to a career that ultimately led Swan to UMaine, where she has been a two-year starter for the Black Bears.
She has averaged eight points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and one steal this season to help UMaine post a 26-7 record going into Friday’s 4:30 p.m. America East title game at the University at Albany in New York.
“It’s exciting. We’ve been preparing for March all season, so to get this far already is, I think, an accomplishment, but we obviously want to get farther,” Swan said.
If the Black Bears hope to end the Great Danes’ run of four consecutive conference championships, Swan will have to provide the kind of intensity and aggressiveness that gained her a spot on the America East All-Conference Third Team.
“I think she is a unique piece of the Maine puzzle,” offered Binghamton University coach Linda Cimino. “She never gives up on a play and is always crashing the boards and hustling to loose balls.”
Swan admits not having given much thought to the possibility of playing college basketball until she attracted attention at some high school summer showcases.
“Every single year I would get most improved, most improved, most improved,” she said of year-end awards. “I was like, dang, I must have been really bad when I started playing.”
Her first major accomplishment came when she earned a scholarship to Salt Lake Community College. The Bruins advanced to the junior college national tournament during her second season under coach Betsy Specketer, who was pivotal in Swan’s development.
“She’s one of the most kind-hearted, sincere people I know. She taught me that as a team you always have each other’s backs,” Swan said.
“She’s someone who I can still talk to and someone who I love very dearly,” she added.
A friend of Barron who does scouting and recruiting suggested Swan might be a good fit for UMaine because of her athleticism and well-rounded game.
“She works hard at her game,” Barron said. “She’s a great teammate, and she’ll give terrific effort.”
Upon visiting Orono, Swan knew right away that UMaine was the right place for her. She appreciates how the Black Bears embraced her.
“Right off the bat I got along with everyone so well. It was not difficult at all to mesh with them,” Swan said.
It took time for Swan to make the transition from junior college basketball to Division I and Barron’s system.
“It was really different, but Liz Wood helped me a lot just because we both played each other’s position,” Swan said. “They all helped me a lot.”
Every day, Barron saw Swan’s skills and basketball IQ improve. The challenge was to help her understand how good she can be.
“When she’s locked in, she plays with a different level of energy and assertiveness and aggressiveness, and she can have good games like she did against UMBC [21 points, five rebounds, three assists in a 72-38 win on Feb. 4],” he said.
Swan has boosted her scoring by 4.7 points and her rebounding by 2.3 per game this season while averaging almost 11½ minutes more per contest.
“I’m scoring a lot more this year than I did last season. With that, in general, my confidence has boosted a lot because I’m playing well,” she said.
“She’s a difficult matchup because she’s a big guard who can post up smaller guards and a fast post who can bring a post defender away from the basket,” Cimino said.
Despite being a long way from home, Swan has thrived with her UMaine family. She is the oldest of David and Chandra Swan’s five children.
Bella Swan was adopted, then David and Chandra Swan had three children before adopting their youngest daughter, who is Bella Swan’s biological sister.
“My mom’s always been the primary caregiver, my support,” Swan said. “She was the main person that took care of us.”
Chandra Swan had maintained a relationship with Bella Swan’s birth mother, Brandee Hudson, whom Swan knew by sight but hadn’t met until last spring.
“When we were walking down the street I just happened to see her in Italy,” Swan said of UMaine’s team trip last May. “I just went up to her and we hugged. That was the first time I’d ever seen her, talked to her in person.”
The Swans and Hudson all visited Maine to help celebrate Swan’s “Senior Day” on Feb. 27.
The Black Bears will be tested on Friday by a formidable Albany team. They’ll need Swan to be at her best.
“It’s not how good does she want to be, it’s how good does she believe she is,” Barron said. “She’s very athletic, she’s skilled, she can shoot the ball.”
UMaine knows what it must do to beat the Great Danes for the second time this season.
“It’s just a matter of who’s going to work harder and who’s going to execute in your offense,” Swan said. “It’s all the little things that we need to focus on, but we can’t be nervous or worried.”
For Swan and the Black Bears, having the confidence in their ability to win may be the most important factor of all.