A Basketball Player from Harvard

~ The Old Sachem ~

  Maura Healey was a very good hoops player. After her parents divorced when she was 10, her mother sold her diamond wedding ring to build a half court out back where Maura could practice.

  Every evening she would do fingertip pushups to strengthen her fingers, to better handle the ball. When she attended junior high school at 14 in Hampton Falls, N.H., she started her dedication to basketball; she chose the number 14 because her idol was Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics. She became a point guard like Cousy.

  At Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, N.H., she became a star and a member of the team as a freshman in 1998 and received the Governor’s Award as the New Hampshire high school athlete of the year. She continued as a first team all-star in both basketball and soccer in high school.

  As a 16-year-old, she was invited to try out for the U.S National team, but was cut after a few practices. While in high school, she also played for an Amateur Athletic Union team and was named an All-American in the AAU. During summers Maura worked as a waitress at the Hampton Beach Casino.

  She chose Harvard after high school and was a point guard from 1988 through 1992. She contributed mightily to the squad that won the Ivy League title as a junior. Maura became a co-captain as a senior at Harvard. In the 1991-92 season, she led the Ivy League when she averaged 6.5 assists per game and averaged 7.4 points per game. Maura was named Harvard’s best defensive player. She graduated in 1992 with a degree in government. She finished her college career as the third among Harvard’s all-time assist list.

  Maura was offered a chance to play professional basketball in Europe by teams in Austria, England and Turkey. She chose Austria, where she played for two years. After her sojourn in Europe, she returned to the United States to attend law school. After graduation she worked as a lawyer and was elected Massachusetts Attorney General in 2015.

  Now she and her adjunct, Kim Driscoll, who was a star basketball player at Salem State, will soon take Massachusetts upward and onward as they again swish through problems.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” is back after a hiatus from writing his weekly column about sports.)