Former Islanders women's basketball player continues success off the court

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Through four years of college athletics, former Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi women's basketball player Uri Jolivette tackled one of the most challenging degrees of all, nursing, while playing the game she loves, basketball.

Jolivette arrived on campus as a prospective student-athlete with the educational goal of becoming a nurse. Paired with a family atmosphere that the coaching staff and team provided, along with a top-tiered nursing program, Jolivette was sold on the Island University.

What many schools had told her during the recruiting process was, "you will have to do nursing after basketball, it is too difficult to do both." This was not what she heard when it came to head women's basketball coach Royce Chadwick. The two sat down to discuss the possibility of doing both.

"Coach Chadwick and I agreed that we would keep each other in the loop," said Jolivette. "He promised me that when I got into the program that he would accommodate me the best he could, and he did just that." Jolivette enrolled at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, putting the plan into action.

After three years of perquisite courses, Jolivette applied for admittance into the nursing program her junior year and was accepted. The New Iberia, La., native began the program the fall of her senior year. Most days began early for Jolivette, with clinicals beginning at 8 a.m. and lasting until almost 11:00 a.m. The 5'10'' forward would then rush out of class and sprint over to the field house just in time for basketball practice. Practice would usually conclude around 2 p.m., but depending on the day, Jolivette would have to either leave practice early to make her 1 p.m. clinicals at the hospital or rush through the showers for 2 p.m. clinicals.

The days were long, and Jolivette admits that some days could be discouraging. She felt like she was letting the team down or not doing her fair share. She said the biggest challenge was overcoming the mental aspect of playing and taking nursing courses at the same time. However, she was reassured by both her teammates and the coaching staff that at A&M-Corpus Christi, you are a student-athlete, and the student part comes first.

Jolivette did not miss out on her team's Cinderella run in the Southland Conference Tournament in the spring of her senior year. The Islanders entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed and won three games in three days, including upsets over the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds and fell just one point short of winning it all and securing the NCAA automatic bid.

Jolivette would finish her four-year career playing in over 100 career games and logging over 2,000 minutes on the court. This fall, with her eligibility completed as a player, Jolivette will continue with her course work and is on track to graduate this spring. She will begin setting up interviews for potential jobs with hospitals in the Dallas and Houston area.

Jolivette found support in several people across campus that helped get her where she is today including; Program Coordinator Johanna Garcia DuBose who helped Uri prepare for her first semester in the program, Michael Warm, who served as her academic advisor and assisted Uri in coordinating classes, professor Amy McClure and of course Coach Chadwick.

"If this is something that you really want to do, keep pushing," said Jolivette when asked what tips or advice she could offer to others who would pursue this same career path. "It's hard and not meant to be easy, but if you really want it you just have to keep striving for it and work really hard." 

Jolivette has certainly proven that hard work, dedication and drive are the keys for success.

The team opens the 2019-20 season on Friday, Nov. 1 against St. Edwards University at 5 p.m. inside the American Bank Center. 

For ticket information, call (361) 825-BALL and to view the schedule, please click HERE.

For more information on Islanders Women's Basketball, keep up with the team via their Facebook page (Islanders Women's Basketball) and follow the program on Twitter (@Islanders_WBB) and Instagram (@IslandersWBB).