Amiyah Donaldson spent just one season at Western Nebraska Community College and in that one year she accomplished plenty.
One of the biggest things happened Tuesday night when the 5-foot-7 guard signed to continue playing at the University of Maine.
“I am going to the University of Maine and I am going there because I believe it will give me the best opportunity possible and really help me develop as a player and person,” Donaldson said. “I am extremely excited to be going Division I. It has been a blessing, and it has been a dream of mine.”
The University of Main Black Bears are part of the American East Conference and qualified for the NCAA tournament in March. Maine fell to No. 2 seed Ohio State in the first round. Maine finished the year at 24-10 and won the conference title over the University of Vermont.
Donaldson said she wanted to go closer to home and Maine is a 14-hour drive from her home in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I wanted to go closer to home,” she said, “This happened in about a span of a week in that they reached out to me. There were other schools I was talking too, but ultimately, when I got to Maine and got to visit them, I knew that was the school I should go to.”
Donaldson only played one year at WNCC after transferring in from the University of Charleston. Donaldson played in 32 games averaging 9.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists. She shot 36.8 percent from the 3-point arc and was a 90.2 percent free throw shooter. She knocked down 39 treys and was 37-41 from the free throw line.
Donaldson is only the second person in school history to make over 90 percent of her free throws for a season. Allysah Booth made 96.4 percent of her charity tosses (54 of 56).
Donaldson finished the year with 12 games of finishing with double figure scoring. Her best game was a 23-point contest against Miles Community College. She also had a 21-point contest against McCook Community College on February 6.
The point guard said she improved a lot in her time here, especially on the mental aspect of the game.
“I improved a lot,” she said. “I feel like I improved my IQ more and understanding the game.”
Donaldson is the second Cougar to sign to play Division I in the past week. Mackenzie Joseph signed last week to attend the University of New Orleans. Donaldson said that shows how much players get from the program at WNCC.
“It just shows the success of the program and just how much goes into the players,” she said. “It is just the growth that is brought out.”
What makes Donaldson unique is that she is athletic. While basketball was a sport that she loved since she started playing when she was five or six years old, she also played other sports in high school from track and soccer, and at one point she did softball and gymnastics. But, she said, basketball was her main one.”
“It is my everything. It opened the opportunity that I don’t think I would have had not playing basketball,” she said. “I have meant so many great and amazing people along this journey. It has presented me with a lot of opportunities.”
This Saturday she will be graduating from WNCC with a graphics art degree, and she said leaving the friends that she met will be hard.
“It will be bittersweet, and I will be very sad,” she said. “It will be very emotional. I have great memories here.”
