Why Fairfield freshman Kaety L’Amoreaux is ‘never afraid of the big moment’
FAIRFIELD — In an era of specialization in high school sports, Kaety L’Amoreaux is a role model for anti-specialization.
Her experience playing different sports at the high school level has made the Fairfield University women’s basketball freshman guard’s adjustment to college easier and allowed her to play a big role in what’s been a special season for the No. 25 Stags, who will take on No. 5 Canisius, 5855 winners over fourthseeded Manhattan, in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament semifinals Friday at 11 a.m. in Atlantic City.
L’Amoreaux had 19 points — including her team’s final seven in the last 43 seconds — as top-seeded Fairfield (29-1 and winner of 27 straight) held off No. 8 Rider 57-51 in a quarterfinal game Wednesday.
“It’s definitely helped me,” L’Amoreaux said. “My parents were huge on that. They’d always say that they wanted us involved in some sport, any sport. They wouldn’t care if I switched and played tennis or did something different, but they wanted me involved in something.
“It was easy for me because I loved playing sports. It didn’t matter if it was soccer, or kickball with my friends, basketball, anything. It was something I enjoyed. In high school sports you build so many bonds and meet so many great people and there are so many great experiences to have. I loved it and my parents encouraged it.”
In 29 games with 22 starts for Fairfield, L’Amoreaux is averaging 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 26.7 minutes per game. On Monday, she was a unanimous selection to the MAAC allrookie team.
She’s hit double figures 14 times, scoring 20 points in
wins at Mount St. Mary’s on Feb. 17 and at Manhattan March 2. Against Mount St. Mary’s, she connected on game-tying and go-ahead 3pointers in the final 30 seconds in a contest won by the Stags on Emina Selimovic’s layup with 1.6 seconds to go.
“Kaety’s got that ‘It’ factor,” Fairfield coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis said. “It’s something you just can’t teach. One of the things my staff knows about me is that I love coaching kids who have that edge. She’s never afraid of the big moment. I think her first college 3-pointer was from 30 feet.
“We joke some times that she’s a wild stallion and we’re shepherding her in different ways. But she’s super-coachable so there are ways she’s been more efficient and knows what’s a good shot and a great shot and lives to see another possession and get someone else a shot.”
L’Amoreaux, like her teammate and 2024 MAAC Rookie of the Year Meghan Andersen, originally committed to Fordham while attending Maine-Endwell High in New York. But when Fordham fired coach Stephanie Gaitley in June 2022, announcing the change in a terse three-sentence
statement, L’Amoreaux re-opened the recruiting process.
She also reached out to Gaitley, who recommended Fairfield and Monmouth to her. Gaitley had coached Thibault-DuDonis at Monmouth
“Meg’s and Kaety’s stories are different as far as our connections,” ThibaultDuDonis said. “I hadn’t seen her. When she opened up her recruitment, Coach Gaitley had called me and said, ‘Trust me, you’ll love this kid. She’s tough. She’s gritty. She can score. She plays defense.’ Knowing me and having coached me, she said, ‘She’s wired just like you.’ So we started recruiting her and it was a quick turnaround.
“I was supposed to see her at the end of July but her appendix ruptured so she was out. But one of our assistants had seen her and said she’s perfect in what we want to do. We got her on campus in early August and she committed on the visit.”
L’Amoreaux got healthy and returned for her senior year at Maine-Endwell. She was named All-State in basketball and softball and allconference in soccer.
She finished as her school’s all-time leader in
scoring and assists on the basketball court. But how did basketball emerge as her favorite?
“I don’t know,” L’Amoreaux said with a smile. “I mean, I always got the jokes, ‘Oh, you’re 5-foot-4, why is it basketball the one you love?’ But there was something with basketball that just stuck with me. I liked the intensity of it, the competitiveness of it, the closeness you have with your teammates and the people around you. There’s only five of you on the court and that’s your family at the moment.”
Sure she loved basketball, and playing soccer and softball was fun. But when the opportunity to play a fourth sport arose, she wasn’t about to pass it up.
So she became the quarterback for the girls flag football team.
“There had been rumblings that our school was going to have girls flag football and that was something I would totally be interested in,” L’Amoreaux said. “Our men’s basketball team at school had this coach, Bill Ocker, and I watched how he was with his players and I thought, ‘I want to be coached by him.’ He was an amazing coach and he coached my brother and I would always watch my guy friends play for him.
“I would think, ‘It sucks that I’ll never be coached by him.’ But the springtime comes and they said we’re playing flag football. They said Bill Ocker would be the coach and the first thing I said was, ‘I’m playing flag football.’ Plus I was always one of those girls who could throw a football. My guy friends had taught me how to throw. So I knew I had to play quarterback.”
Flag football, she said, was just like playing point guard.
“The idea you want to take care of the ball but you still want to make those plays and be aggressive,” L’Amoreaux said. “At the same time you’re trying to facilitate to others. You have to make that decision: Am I going to throw it 50 yards down field? Am I going to throw it short? Am I going to run? It’s like in basketball: Do I make this fastbreak pass? Am I going to dribble and run a play?”
When she arrived at Fairfield for summer workouts, she made a quick impression on her teammates, including three fellow freshmen and three transfers.
Perhaps it was her football mentality.
“I noticed from the start that Kaety is tough,” Selimovic said. “She is willing to put her body on the line for this team. She fights in the post on mismatches. She takes incredible charges. She’s willing to sacrifice her body. That’s huge for this team because she is so tough physically and mentally.”
In one of the tougher games to play mentally, L’Amoreaux scored 16 points.
That she played different sports in high school plays to her advantage at Fairfield, Thibault-DuDonis believes.
“I love it. Honestly I do from a lot of different perspectives,” she said. “I think you get a different understanding of how to move and play without the ball. You have different body control. And I think, knock on wood, you stay healthy longer. Hopefully, that’s the case for Kaety.
“But overall you learn how to have different roles. You might be better in basketball than softball or whatever, she had a player going to play softball at Monmouth, so she wasn’t the best. You find out how to have different roles. That shows up in she can be our leading scorer one night, lead us in assists another night, be our best defender another night, just impact the game in so many ways.”
L’Amoreaux, whose given name is Kaetlyn, plans to be a business major at Fairfield. Her mother is a teacher and her father an assistant superintendent so academics played a role in her decision to choose Fairfield.
She’s fit in at school off the court. On the court, she’s been part of history as the Stags are in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time.
And there’s more to do and that continues Friday.
“The hardest part is missing people at home,” L’Amoreaux said. “Even though you love the people here, your mom, your dad, your siblings aren’t (here). Missing home a little bit has been a struggle but the people here are amazing so it’s all right.
“The biggest surprise? Nothing has been that crazy. A (27)-game winning streak? OK, that’s very surprising I will admit. I was expecting a great season from this team and I knew we were capable of great things but this has been special.”