Feeling like a senior Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Trio of Cowgirls will be honored Wednesday Ben Hutchens Staff Reporter
The first time Kassidy De Lapp felt like a senior was during preseason conditioning this year. Tori Garza, a freshman on the OSU women’s basketball team, was excited for the seemingly endless running. “(Conditioning is) just this like, this very dreadful thing that nobody likes to do,” De Lapp said. “And she was like coming in like, ‘I want to be in your group, I want to be in your group.’” De Lapp is an encourager. She said she is always trying to uplift her teammates with high-fives and positive words because the conditioning is brutal. The fact that her teammates identified that and gravitate toward her, showed De Lapp she is no longer the wide-eyed freshman who stepped on to campus in 2018. “I was like, “‘Oh, I think I’m in a role this year’” De Lapp said. “Just like having girls come to me for advice or wanting me to be a part of their workout or something. And so, I thought it was really cool.” De Lapp, forward Brittany Reeves, and forward Abbie Winchester are seniors who will be honored Wednesday before OSU’s final home game this season against Oklahoma. De Lapp is graduating this year with a major in university studies and a minor in marketing, management and entrepreneurship. She doesn’t yet know if OSU will grant her a scholarship to play an additional “COVID year.” The Cowgirls have 16 scholarship athletes this season but will be forced to shave that number to 15 because the NCAA is no longer granting teams additional scholarships. Regardless of if its De Lapp’s final home game in Gallagher-Iba Arena, on Saturday she will have additional support in the stands. Her parents, Kathy and Keith, are making the 1,700-mile trip from El Dorado Hills, California to Stillwater. Kathy and Keith have traveled to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Antonio to watch the Cowgirls play, but have never seen a regular-season game in Gallagher-Iba Arena. “(It’s) not as many as we would like, thank God for ESPN+,” Keith said. He said watching his daughter play in person is much better than watching online because he can yell at her and tell her what she is doing wrong. Both parents will be in the stands wearing custom-made orange De Lapp jerseys with their daughter’s number stitched on the back. De Lapp said she will cry when she is handed her framed jersey in the ceremony before the Bedlam matchup begins. To her, the jersey represents more than all the points, rebounds and blocks she has accumulated. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs with my time here,” De Lapp said. “And not a lot of people have survived I would say, like, we’ve had a lot of transfers. But to be able to fight through everything and be here for my team and be here with coach (Jim) Littell I think is definitely an honor. To have had these years here and to have something to represent that I think would be really special for me.”
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Abby Smith OSU senior forward Kassidy De Lapp will be one of three girls honored on senior night against Oklahoma.
Chloe Hatfield Brittany Reeves dribbles during Oklahoma State’s game against Kansas State inside Gallagher-Iba Arena on Feb. 17, 2021.
Ben Cohen Abbie Winchester sizes up the defense on the perimeter.