Freedom Fighting: Coach Howard Incentivizes Players to Do Right

As a coach that likes to have fun, women’s basketball head coach Anita Howard has a special way to celebrate a win.

For every victory, she and the other coaches present the Freedom Fighter Player of the Game to the player the coaching staff believes made the greatest contribution toward that win.

“It could be a big rebound, a huge defensive stop, it’s just someone that we feel contributed to a win that night,” Howard said. “We’ve given the Player of the Game to somebody that didn’t even play that was just positive on the bench and someone who just kept everybody upbeat. It’s not just necessarily the MVP as far as stats go.”

The origin of the Freedom Fighter award comes from her first college head coaching job at Salem College. To commemorate her first victory, she gave a pair of sunglasses to the player of the game and called them the ‘Salem College Shining Star Game Stunner.’

As she moved from school to school, Howard continued to present the award in different forms, thinking of different names based on the mascot of the school she was coaching at. Influenced by Georgia Southern’s mascot Freedom, she thought of freedom fighting and used that to name the Player of the Game award.

With every win, there is excitement and anticipation to see who the coaches decide who the Player of the Game was. There could even be two recipients based on the day. It all boils down to who the coaches deem worthy.

“Fans think if someone scores 20 points, that’s gonna be the Freedom Fighter. Not necessarily,” Howard said. “I think that the players do like that extra incentive after the game… it’s just a fun way to showcase someone who did something really great for us that night.”

Previous Freedom Fighters have varied greatly. For example, current senior captain Tsubasa Nisbet in 2019 providing infectious energy and effort to propel their team to a 31-point win all the way out in Las Vegas in her first start. Even recently, sophomore Terren Ward this past weekend turning in a double-double with 17 rebounds, an Eagle best since 2013, and shooting a perfect seven-for-seven at the line.

Whether it be an unstoppable force on the court, or a motivating presence on the bench, the coaches have fun celebrating every win by choosing a player to don the golden boxing gloves.