RallyNorth.net

Pentucket's Daamen becoming a force for the Sachems

Tuesday, February, 05 By Alan Siegel
Staff writer

Pentucket Regional's Kirsten Daamen remembers the moment when her basketball career truly began. It was moments after a seventh grade travel-team game, and John McNamara, who was filling in while her coach was on vacation, wanted a word. He asked her to come out for the spring squad, the one he'd be coaching.

"That's how it all started," Daamen's mother, Jill, said. "He really was the catalyst to get her starting to play." Until then, she considered hoops a hobby. She wasn't yet aware of her physical gifts. Blessed with height and long arms, she was built for basketball.

Now 6-foot-3, the junior center has become a force for Pentucket (14-1).

"She's probably the best big-girl defender in the state," said McNamara, now in his second year coaching Pentucket's varsity squad. "Not just at blocking shots, but altering shots. I've seen kids take jump shorts with her running at them, and you don't know where the ball's going. Her reach is incredible."

She's averaging 11.1 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.5 blocks per game for the Sachems who, so far, have only lost to Division 2 power Masconomet.

"I don't think we're surprised," Daamen said of this season's success. "But this year's a lot harder. You have to work for everything."

At this point, she's used to it.

Daamen was 5-years-old when her father Carlo, who's Dutch, got a new job and moved the family from the Netherlands to the United States. She knew little English, but started school without trepidation.

"It's a big change," said Jill, who grew up in South Africa. "But kids adapt to it quickly. It's amazing how quickly they adapt."

Looking back, Daamen admits that she was too young to realize just how different things truly were. "I didn't really know what was going on," she said. "It was a big change, now that I think about it."

Growing up, she didn't immediately embrace basketball. The Daamens, after all, were a soccer family. Justin, 19, played at Pentucket and, when possible, everybody followed the Dutch national team.

As a teenager in South Africa, Jill swam competitively, played field hockey and netball (a sport derivative of basketball, minus the dribbling).

Basketball may have been foreign to the family, but Daamen was fortunate. She inherited her mother's height | Jill is 6-1.

When middle school came along, she began playing hoops for fun. That's when McNamara, who was coaching the Pentucket sixth-grade team at the time, noticed her for the first time.

"She was athletic, tall, and had good hands," he said. "She was new to the game. You could see a lot of potential." McNamara, who took over at Pentucket last season, watched Daamen come into her own during the Sachems' run to TD Banknorth Garden.

She averaged 10.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.6 blocks last season, and swatted 13 shots in a 41-39 defeat of Wilmington in the Division 3 North title game.

Suddenly, the Daamens were a basketball family. These days, Jill and Carlo attend as many games as they can.

"They absolutely love it," Kirsten said.

All the while, she's tried to immerse herself in the game. She watches a lot of college hoops and counts University of Tennessee's Candace Parker and University of North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough as her favorite players.

Something about the way the 6-9 Tar Heel plays defense fascinates her.

"He just always knows what to do," Daamen said. "I don't know what the word is | he's never out of control."

Admittedly, Daamen is still learning to harness her own talents. Being a composed and ferocious defender isn't easy. "I stay pretty calm," she said. "I know I have to be more aggressive."

"She's kind of quiet, I wish she wouldn't be," McNamara said. "I'd like her to walk into the gym like she owns it." The thing is, she's only a junior. There's plenty of room to grow.

The ceiling, McNamara said, is high. Whether it's at a Division 1 or Division 2 school, he expects her to have a great college career.

At the moment, Daamen is not sure what her plans are. "It's hard," she said. "It depends what you want to do, if you want (basketball) to be your life or go have fun. That's where the decision is."

Just four years after picking up the game, she has options. Impressive, to say the least.