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People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Ms. Melissa Bratton
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Home Phone: -- Bratton seizes chance to play Bruce Brown When you’ve played basketball as long as Melissa Bratton has, all you want is a chance to show what you can do. Bratton got that opportunity last weekend, and promptly showed she could help Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns as they enter the stretch run of the Sun Belt Conference campaign. The 5-foot-10 forward from Kilgore Junior College had 14 points and a season-high 10 rebounds in Saturday’s 76-53 loss at Western Kentucky, not enough to reverse the outcome but an indication that she’s fitting in. She’s been doing much more than that for years. “I’ve played basketball since the third grade,” Bratton said during a break in Tuesday’s practice at Earl K. Long Gym. “I like competing against other good athletes. “I have an older brother, Eddie Bratton Jr., who played football, basketball, soccer … he did it all. I learned a lot from him. When I found basketball, it’s what I stuck with and I tried to get better.” The Mount Pleasant, Texas, product was a two-year All-Conference and All-Region choice at Kilgore, averaging 19 points and 8 rebounds as a freshman and 15 and 7 as a sophomore. She also averaged 5 assists per game in junior college, helping teammates to enjoy the game she loves. It didn’t take Bratton long to find a role model, focusing on former Tennessee standout Chamique Holdsclaw as one to emulate. “She’s always very calm when she plays,” Bratton said. “She lets the game come to her, and she gets the rest of her team involved. The game is fun like that.” When she’s away from the court, Bratton again relies on her younger days for guidance and inspiration. “I’m a church-goer,” said Bratton, whose father, Eddie Bratton Sr., is a church deacon back home. “Myself and a couple of teammates go all the time, and it helps us a lot. “When we’re frustrated with school or with practice, going to church calms everything down for us.” Bratton was a member of her church choir growing up, although she laughed and said that singing wasn’t one of her areas of talent. Not like basketball, anyway, although her Holdsclaw-like inner calm gained from church can translate to the court as UL prepares for the last eight games of the regular season. “It all comes within yourself,” Bratton said. “If you’re into it, it comes at a simple pace. If you can’t give 100 percent to anything, it’s going to be a rough road. If you just give your best, you’ll be OK. “It can get rough sometimes, but that’s what the team and your coaches are for _ to keep you going.” Apparently, this year’s UL squad is one to be on if you’re looking for support and encouragement. “This is the first team I’ve been on where everybody liked each other,” Bratton said. “We’re a lot like a family.” That atmosphere helped Bratton make the necessary adjustment from Kilgore to Division I women’s basketball. “The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is on defense,” Bratton said. “I really didn’t have to play defense in high school or junior college, but in Division I everyone’s good and you have to be able to defend. It took me a while to get it. “We play like a matchup man, and you have to learn all the positions. I’m used to playing just one person. But at this level you play every spot, whether it’s point guard or in the post. It requires a lot of thinking. “But I think defense brings your offensive game, and I’m getting better at it.” “Melissa gave us that dribble penetration and got to the line against Western,” UL coach J. Kelley Hall said. “That was our whole game plan. None of the others did any of that. You’ve got to take it to the basket, and she did that.” Bratton’s thinking process goes beyond one practice or game. The kinesiology major also has an eye for coaching in her future. “I’d like to have my own team one day,” she said. “I’d like to teach and coach. I’ve looked a the playbook on every team I’ve been on and picked out plays I like.” That’s a process that also began long ago, when her mother Jessie was her first coach. “I think if I were building a team, I’d go get the talent first and then fit the talent around my system,” Bratton said. “Like I’ve done with the defense here. “But I guess I’d have to see what the kids were good at at first, and it could be different for high school and college.” Bratton still has another year to build her playbook for her own coaching career. For now, she’s aiming to help the Cajuns win the Sun Belt Western Division and make postseason play. “I hope I can contribute to the team,” she said. “I was waiting for the chance and got a few minutes the other night. “Since I got the opportunity, I wanted to show what I could do.” Hall and the Cajuns like what they saw. Originally published February 2, 2005
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