With a visit from her parents, Christmas will be a German one for ODU freshman
NORFOLK — Old Dominion center Marie Reichert was lying on the floor of Chartway Arena after getting elbowed during the second quarter against Richmond during the opening game of the Anne Donovan Classic.
Everything stopped.
Six rows up in the stands, Bernd Kasmann and Dagmar Reichert sat stunned and anxious. Only 30 hours earlier, their son Edwin drove them south after they arrived in New York from their home in Kassel, Germany, to watch their daughter play college basketball for the first time and offer her as much of a German Christmas as they could in the U.S.
“Thank God she didn’t get hit in the nose,” Bernd said after Marie got up shakily
with a red mark on her forehead. “Of course, we’re concerned. Any parent would be. When your kid gets hurt, it’s as though you were hurt yourself.”
She finished with eight points, seven rebounds, a blocked shot and one more step toward the Americanization of her game. By tournament’s end, she had 19 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks.
At the end of ODU’s nonconference schedule, Reichert leads the Monarchs in blocked shots (22) and shooting percentage (57.7). She is also averaging 6.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
A drive back north with the family Sunday brought more stories of her time at Old Dominion and family and friends back home in Kassel. Her hometown is slightly smaller than Chesapeake, but a city that dates back 1,000 years. Among its residents: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Brothers Grimm, who collected regional lore for their fairy tales early in the 19th century.
In Kassel, “Christmas lasts three days, the 24th, 25th and 26th,” said Dagmar, who works in human resources for an insurance company.
“The 24th, dinner is fondue,” offered Bernd, a dispatcher at a trucking firm associated with BMW automobiles. “A filet (mignon) is cooked in oil in small pieces, and you have sauces for the meat and salad and bread. You exchange presents.
“On the 25th, your (extended) family meets at a place for a buffet and more presents. On the 26th, the kids see their friends. They don’t want to stay around with the adults. We rest, recuperate and recover from the family.”
The entire U.S. trip has been about family. The fact that Christmas was being altered because of geography is not an issue.
“I‘ve looked forward to this since we started planning it in September,” Marie said. “I’m very close to my family. I’ve missed them.”
After playing for Germany in the Under-19 World Championships in Thailand, Marie arrived at Old Dominion in August. The Monarchs needed height and offense at center, where Ashley Scott and Dejah Carter focus more on rebounding. At 6-foot-3, Reichert offered the height, augmented by “a 6-foot, 6inch wingspan.”
“I have trouble buying winter coats. The sleeves come here on me,” she said, while placing her hand halfway between her wrist and elbow.
Rene Spandauw, a Dutch coach who had worked with Reichert at the Bender Baskets club team in Gundberg, Germany, told Keith Freeman, ODU’s associate head coach, about Marie.
“She wasn’t really an offensive player in Europe,” said Freeman, “but we felt like she could be here.”
“For us, she has to be a scorer,” insisted coach Nikki McCray-Penson. “She knows she has to score for us. She has to be a force on the inside.”
From day one, Reichert faced adjustments.Classes were difficult because of language. Though Reichert speaks fluent English, American idioms and slang can be problems. Still, Reichert managed a 4.0 grade-point average at mid-term, earning the university’s “ScholarAthlete of the Month” award. She finished her first semester with a 3.9 GPA, slipping slightly because “I had an A-minus in Philosophy.”
McCray’s three-hour-aday practices were another change. Reichert practiced on Tuesdays and Fridays with Bender Baskets, and each involved a two-hour, 15-minute train ride each way between Kassel and Gundberg.
“It’s hard work here at Old Dominion, but I like that I can walk 10 minutes out my door to the gym,” Reichert said.
Progress on the court has been two-steps-up, one-stepback. Her potential was immediately recognized in an early practice. Reichert rebounded the basketball at one end, turned it over to a defender, ran downcourt and blocked a shot, then took a pass back at the offensive end and buried a 3-pointer from deep in the corner, all within a 30-second span.
Freeman and McCray have worked on getting her more involved with the Monarchs’ slashing, drive-to-thebasket offense. Rebounding has come naturally enough. So has blocking shots. Reichert has an effective oldfashioned hook shot that scorekeepers keep calling a “jumper,” and she uses her long arms to keep rebounds alive against smaller players.
But, she struggles with passes from driving teammates, and she also has a proclivity for fouling. On Saturday, Freeman spent a timeout showing her to go straight up, rather than reaching for the basketball.
“He told me to play smarter, and I think I did after that,” she said. “I would say that in Germany the refs call fouls differently. Those ‘hidden’ fouls, they don’t call. Here, they see everything. They call those fouls, and I have to adjust.”
Reichert also has to adjust to the speed and physicality of the U.S. game.
“I think she’s already playing faster,” Freeman said. “She’s trying to get more physical, and she’s starting to ask for the ball a little bit more inside.”
McCray looks forward to watching Reichert’s future. “I’m so excited about her upside,” said the coach. “She’s just going to continue to get better each and every game, and she’s going to be a force for us, on our team and in this league.”
For now, the family wants to spend time out of the gym and together in Edwin’s apartment in Albany, New York, until Reichert is due back at practice Friday.
“It’s been a hard time this past month without them,” she said, “but right now it’s great to have them here. It’s the first time we’ve had Christmas with Edwin in 10 years.”
Her half-brother, who encouraged her to go to school in the U.S., will be a more frequent presence in her life after taking a Homeland Security job in Washington in January.
And the Reichert family is going to answer more questions back in Kassel about the “ODU” on the blue gear they get for Christmas.