Forrest senior Carissa Curtis has experienced the ups and downs of being an elite athlete, excelling on the basketball court as a Lady Rocket, competing as a high level travel ball player, and being an integral member of the Forrest golf team.

Curtis, who transferred from Eagleville in her eighth-grade year and scored 18 points in her middle school debut at Chapel Hill, has scored 1,266 points in her Forrest high school career, averaging 14.7 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game, 2.8 assists per game, and 2.4 steals per game.

Curtis has been the Lady Rockets’ leading scorer all three years and after the upcoming season, Curtis will take her talents to Freed-Hardeman University at Henderson, TN on a basketball scholarship.

“I’m thankful and grateful and definitely proud, I put a lot of work in, but I couldn’t have done it without all the coaches that helped me and the coach at Freed that noticed me, so I’m very happy,” Curtis said.

After winning the coveted World Tournament title with the FMS Lady Rockets in 2017, Curtis became a starter as a freshman on the varsity team that has compiled a 58-33 record with three consecutive region tournament appearances in three years.

In her freshman season, the Lady Rockets finished fourth in the district tournament, but pulled off a huge upset in the region tournament opener when they knocked off host Creek Wood by one point before taking Nolensville to the limit in the semifinals, losing 40-38.

The Lady Rockets began the following season with renewed confidence and were 16-10 going in to the final week of the regular season when disaster struck as Curtis suffered a torn ACL before the final regular season game versus Murfreesboro Central Magnet (MCM).

Forrest won that game and then beat MCM in the first round of the district tournament before suffering three lopsided losses in a row without Curtis and their season was over.

The rehab was long and hard, but Curtis put the same drive in to recovering as she had done all those years on the basketball court and on November 19, 2019 she was back for the season opening Hall of Champions game versus Cascade.

Curtis scored four points that night and as the season progressed she got stronger and stronger and her confidence returned to the pre-injury level.

Forrest went 21-10 last season with Curtis leading the team in scoring (15.8 pts. per game), rebounding (200), 3-point field goals (64), and steals (90), while she was one assist (99) behind Jaide Langley.

“I definitely love being here, it was hard getting through knee surgery, but I still had all these teammates that backed me up and the coaches that helped me get through it, it was definitely mentally tough, but I would not want to play for another team, it has all been good memories,” Curtis said.

Curtis and the Lady Rockets will go through another big test this season as coach Jeremy Jean resigned after 12 years on the bench, compiling a 254-125 overall record with seven 20-win seasons.

“It was awesome seeing her come back from her injury, because I knew she wanted to play college basketball, but with her determination and her want to, she came back stronger, quicker and faster,” Jean said. “She was always good, even as a freshman because she handles the ball really well, she shoots it well, she scores it well, she was too unselfish at times, but as she got older she understood what I wanted and she took over and did a great job of that. She is very heady and she is just a good kid.”

Corey Bishop, who guided the Rockets last year in his first year as a coach at Forrest, decided he wanted to take the double duty and coach the Lady Rockets as well this season and he knows Curtis will be the key to their success in the 2020-2021 season.

“I think as a senior the culmination her game from her freshman year all the way until now is just going to go to a different level and we couldn’t be more excited for her to able to continue her college career at Freed-Hardeman,” Bishop said.

Curtis will team up with fellow senior Laura Mealer in a dynamic duo for what could be an exciting year in Chapel Hill.

“The good thing about Carissa and Laura is that they have played so many games together, it goes all the way back to four years ago when I coached Community and I coached against them, so that experience factor and the leadership factor that they bring to the team is crucial and they are both doing a great job of that so far.”

Curtis has one last chance to lead the Lady Rockets deep in to the postseason and she feels that Forrest has the squad to make it happen.

“We definitely want to win, but nothing is better than having teamwork and everybody trying their best,” Curtis said. “It all comes down to whether you give it your all or not, so we just have to have that as a team this year.”

After graduation in May, Curtis will join a stellar Freed-Hardeman program that won the 2018 NAIA title under longtime coaching legend Dale Neal, who coached the Lady Lions for 26 years and compiled a 673-176 record while guiding the squad to 22 consecutive NAIA National Tournaments.

Joshua Epperson took over last season and the Lady Lions continued their success as they posted a 27-6 record and a 23rd consecutive berth in the NAIA National Tournament that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are excited because she is not only a competitor on the floor, but off the floor as well and a person that is a good example for the school here and the community here, but also will be a great example we believe at Freed Hardeman as far as standing for high standards in every aspect of her life,” Epperson said. “We believe she may have been a player kind of under the radar because of her injury, so we think she has a high ceiling for us as a player.”

“In the past, I’ve sometimes even recruited some players because they have been injured, because of what is required to come back and that desire to show I’m even better than I was before and I think Carissa is a great example of that because she has done everything and anything she could do to come back better than she was before.”

Curtis, who sports a solid 3.7 GPA at Forrest and will study sports management at Freed-Hardeman University had this to say to all the young athletes that want to follow a dream of competing on the collegiate level, “Never give up and be yourself and always put God first.”