‘ICE’ PLAYS COOL FOR DONS
Cathedral star has seen it all, will take her game to UConn
In her three basketball seasons at Cathedral Catholic, Ice Brady has played a lot of games for the Dons.
The 6-foot-4 center has 90 games under her belt along with three appearances in the San Diego Section Open Division championship game.
The Dons, behind the play of Brady whose first name is Isuneh, have collected a pair of Open titles, including one last spring.
“I woke up yesterday and swore I was still a freshman,’’ Brady said. “Last year was such a struggle just to keep your sanity. It would have been easy to fall into a slump because no one could see anyone until practice or games because of the coronavirus. I hated the lockdown.”
But when Brady is in the gym, either with the Dons or her club team, she is home.
She’s not just good because she’s tall.
Her individual talent is unmistakable.
Her influence on teammates can’t be ignored.
The results at Cathedral speak volumes.
So do her statistics, which include 1,493 points, 1,035 rebounds, 184 blocked shots, 226 assists and 86 steals.
The Dons are 67-23 with her in the lineup.
“This group of five seniors is such a special group, I’m trying to spend as much time as I can with them,” Dons coach Jackie Turpin said. “Classes like this one don’t come along very often.”
Neither do players like Brady.
“There is no need for her to prove anything,” said Turpin. “She is, after all, still just a teenager going
through all this attention. She gets where she’s at.”
In her career, Brady has battled against almost every defense.
“We’ve seen a lot as a team because of her,” Turpin said. “A lot of zone defenses, box-and-one defenses, man-to-man, traps, diamond-and-ones. Teams really like to junk it up on defense against us. The pressure is on this team to make defenses deal with Ice before they go after the rest of us.”
When Brady finishes at Cathedral, her next assignment will be at the Center of the Women’s Basketball World — the University of Connecticut, better known as UConn.
“In high school, I think I’ve checked all the boxes,” Brady said. “The jump from here to college is a big change, bigger than going from eighth grade to Cathedral.
Two years ago, I felt like a little kid when I first got here. I was just 15 and freaking out every day. Going to college feels so much more real. I’m still shocked how close college is now.’’
Brady is unsure of what major to pick at UConn.
It’s a tossup between psychology or journalism.
“An athlete’s time never goes forever,’’ she said. “Time flies too fast. What to do after basketball is over for me is something I have thought about. I know I definitely want to stay as close to sports as I can. I have too many good times to walk away forever.”
As a teammate of Brady, you notice almost immediately how different she is as a player.
Unlike a lot of players, Ice doesn’t run over to the scorer’s table to see how many points she scored.
She looks at the scoreboard
to see if her team won.
That’s all that counts for her and the other parts of what Turpin calls her threeheaded monster — senior point guard Izzy Navarro, senior forward Taryn Johnson and Brady.
“She came here tabbed as the No. 1 freshman in the state before she’d even played a game,” Turpin said. “That was never important to her. She just went to work on making us better as a team.’’
Her new assignment will be a long way from home in Storrs, Conn.
“I’m super excited,” Brady said. “This is a big chance. I’ll be OK no matter what because I trust the people at UConn.”
Just like she trusted everyone at Cathedral Catholic.