University of Minnesota Athletics
Gopher Spotlight: Amber Dvorak
12/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Note: This is a feature story on redshirt freshman center Amber Dvorak that ran in last Sunday's Minnesota Basketball Game Program. Dvorak, a native of Hinckley, Minn., has played in four games for the Gophers and is averaging 1.3 points and 0.5 rebounds per game. She had a career-best three points, two rebounds, and a blocked shot in the Dayton game. Dvorak talks about her role on the team, as she works hard to earn increased playing time in her second year in the Gophers' program.
By Justine Buerkle, Athletic Communications student assistant
The 2009-10 Golden Gopher women's basketball team opened its season with exhibition games against Winona State and Minnesota-Duluth. These games do not appear in the team's win-loss record, and for most of the team, they were just a prelude to the games that counted. But for Amber Dvorak, they were the only games she played the whole season.
Last season was a redshirt year for Dvorak, a 6-7 center from Hinckley, Minn. She could do basically everything with the team - practice, watch film, attend meetings, or any other team activities besides playing in regular season games. The two exhibition contests were the only exceptions. After seeing action in both of those games, Dvorak was relegated to the bench for the remainder of the season.
"It was tough, but I knew my role on the team was to make my teammates better," Dvorak said. "[Head coach Pam Borton] always said - and I agreed with her - I had two seniors in front of me, and that I had some other people who were better than me and I was just not ready."
The players in front of Dvorak included seniors Ashley Ellis-Milan and Zoe Harper, as well as then-freshman Katie Loberg and then-junior Kristen Dockery. Ellis-Milan scored 1,281 career points and was third on Minnesota's career rebounding list. Harper was usually the second post in rotation, and then Loberg.
"I've learned a little bit from every post and player here on the team," Dvorak said.
In addition to practicing with the team and learning from her teammates, Dvorak also had individual practice sessions with coaches. Over the season and during the offseason, she worked on her entire game, from post moves to getting in a three-quarter stance on defense.
"You have to be a lot tougher - and also weightlifting and conditioning, getting myself in the shape that I needed to be, because I was not in perfect shape last year. I feel like I'm a lot better this year, but I still have a long way to go," she said.
This year, she has been working with assistant coach Curtis Loyd to continue improving her game. And this year, she has been able to get on the court on game days. This time, the exhibition games were just a preview of what was to come. Dvorak saw her first regular season playing time in the season-opener against Northern Illinois. She was only in the game for two minutes, but it was still a big deal for Dvorak.
"I was really excited," she said. "It was a chance to prove myself to everybody, saying that I can play on the court, and also the fans were just into it, and it was awesome. I just love the support that the fans give us."
Even though she still plays limited minutes, Dvorak believes she can help the team in other ways. She would like to play more, but also has team-oriented goals.
"My goals for the season are to get more playing time and being able to help my teammates to get better," she said. "During practice, I'm on the scout team right now and just trying to get my teammates better so we can win basketball games. We need a better season than we had last year. That's our main focus."
Dvorak's experience of being with the team last year has helped. Although she has been on the active roster longer than this year's true freshmen, she feels that she can use her experience from last year to help them.
"I know how Pam wants to run stuff. If I'm not in, I can see what's going on out on the court...just give them suggestions," Dvorak said. "If they take it or not, it doesn't matter. I'm just trying to help them out."
As this is Dvorak's second year as part of the program, she is quite familiar to her coaches, teammates, and other people in the women's basketball community. But not everyone around campus has gotten used to seeing someone so tall.
"I'm used to it," she said. Some people are still shocked. I walk down the same streets basically all the time. A lot of people get used to me. But I think it's still funny that [some] people still react like, 'Oh my gosh, she's tall.' But I've gotten used to it over the years."
At 6-7, Dvorak is in a tie for the tallest Gopher women's player ever. She is about three inches taller than Dockery and Loberg, the next tallest players on this year's squad. So if she wants to "look up to someone, actually," as she puts it, Dvorak spends time with the Gopher men's team, particularly 6-11 junior center Ralph Sampson III. The two have even played some one-on-one before.
"Yeah, and he kicked my butt one time," Dvorak said.
She hopes that her practice allows her to do better in future games against Sampson. Beating Sampson may be a difficult task, but Dvorak's hard work has allowed to her get on the court a few more times since her debut. She scored her first career points against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and scored again the next day against Dayton.
Dvorak doesn't always know when she will next be called on to check in to a game, but at least now she knows that she doesn't have to wait until next year. And that itself is a great feeling.
