The Runner Spotlight: Andie Easley
February 15, 2020
The Runner Spotlight this week is on graduate student and guard for the CSU Bakersfield women’s basketball team, Andie Easley.
Even though she was born here in Bakersfield, Easley was raised in Phoenix, AZ.
Easley lives and breathes basketball. While growing up in Phoenix, Easley claims that her love for basketball began while playing pick-up games against the other neighborhood kids. She started her collegiate career playing in Hawaii, but didn’t like it, so she finished up with the Eagles at Eastern Washington University.
Easley graduated from Eastern Washington University with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. While attending Eastern Washington, she met her boyfriend who was also was a student athlete.
“The only person I’m far from now is my boyfriend who is in Washington, so that’s who I missed the most. But he comes down for games and I go to his football games.”
While playing for CSUB’s basketball program, Easley is working on her master’s in healthcare administration.
Easley has just accepted an internship at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where she was born. Through the internship, she will be able to work in all different areas of the hospital’s administration, but Easley believes her concentration will be in improvement of quality care for patients
Growing up, Easley spent a lot of her childhood in various doctors’ offices and hospitals while her mother underwent kidney dialysis due to renal failure. Easley took turns with her siblings spending the night with their mother in hospital rooms and taking her to doctor appointments.
“So it is nicer, especially because my mom gets a lot of treatment at UCLA Medical Center, and so I get to see her a lot more often. Just drive down for the day go to doctor’s appointments with her on our off day or she comes down here for a game, so it’s really nice.”
When explaining about why she chose CSUB for her master’s, Easley said she felt a close connection to the coaching staff here. Being in Bakersfield has also allowed her to become closer to her aunt, uncle and cousins.
“I’m closer now than I ever was, like, at Hawaii or Washington to my family in Phoenix. So that’s nice, because now it’s just a drive away or a short flight away.”
Easley was also the hero in CSUB’s last game against the Utah Valley University Wolverines, where she hit the game winning three-pointer at the buzzer. “It happened so fast! I was just there, my teammates tipped it out to me, and I just didn’t think about it,” said Easley. “There was a second left and I had to catch and shoot it, so I didn’t even think about it. Most fun part was my teammates’ reactions and how happy and excited they were. For me, it was more surreal and out-of-body experience.”
Taking on the nickname “Old Lady,” Easley is teased by her teammates for being the oldest player on this year’s team at 22 years old. Easley states that her body feels old, but “this is really my second full season playing, so I’m still getting used to playing and practicing so much. Since I am older, I view the younger players as little sisters.”
Easley’s goal is to make it to the WNBA. When asked if she has a particular professional women’s basketball team she’d like to play for, Easley replies, “No, I just want to play.”
