With a face mask protecting her broken nose as she posts up against a 6-foot-5-inch opponent, Columbus Lady Wings center Caitlin Chiaramonte wishes she could have had this much fun the past two years.
“I never want to stop playing, it’s just too much fun…even if it’s with a mask I can’t see out of,” Chiaramonte said.
Until this year, Columbus did not have a women’s semiprofessional basketball team. The Lady Wings joined the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League for its inaugural season and currently hold a 2-3 record.
“It’s a really good league with the level of play,” Chiaramonte said. “There are a lot of former and current pro players who play in Europe in the winter and here in the summer. Anyone not in the WNBA would play this league.”
Now it seems Chiaramonte, who played professionally in Europe from 2006-2008, has found herself back in a comfort zone, playing the sport she loves while pursuing a career as a judge advocate general officer in the U.S. Army Trial Counsel.
Mike Davis, who manages the Pop Austin Gym on Alexander Street in Columbus, said he met Chiaramonte when she walked into the gym during a Lady Wings practice.
“She came into my gym one day, just shooting around and saw I was practicing,” Davis said. “The girls were looking at her as she was shooting and they inquired about her.”
Chiaramonte played for the All-Army and All-Armed Forces teams in 2009 and again in 2011, but a shattered nose sidelined her from the All-Armed Forces game in April. Though disappointed, Chiaramonte fought through the injury, determined to not let it keep her from playing for the Lady Wings.
“It’s just good to be able to compete again and compete at such a high level,” Chiaramonte said. “I was down when I got hit (in the nose). Whenever I think it’s the end, something always springs up. Luckily, I had the Lady Wings to look forward to.”
The mask is a hindrance Chiaramonte hasn’t gotten used to. It’s like Detroit Piston star Richard Hamilton’s, she said. It fogs up easily and strips her of her peripheral vision.
“I’m still playing, I’m still starting, but I don’t feel like I’m playing like myself with that on,” she said. Saturday’s 75-68 loss to the Gulf Coast Storm marked the first game of the season in which Chiaramonte elected to play without the mask, fitting since her fellow soldiers came to support her as part of military appreciation night.
“I felt like the last couple of games, I haven’t played well,” Chiaramonte said. “I knew it was a risk … but I can’t wear that thing. I tried not to think about it and tried not to limit myself.”
Chiaramonte scored seven points in that game and grabbed three rebounds, but only saw 16 out of a possible 40 minutes of playing time.
Chiarmonte said the Lady Wings home games have seen attendance average several hundred people, however both of the team’s wins have come on the road.
“The community has shown they will support us, now we just need to win,” Chiaramonte said.
Chiaramonte is scheduled to PCS to Fort Bragg, N.C. in early July and is unsure whether she will be able to play the next scheduled Lady Wing home game on July 9.
Davis said Chiaramonte’s loss will put a dent in the Lady Wings’ frontcourt depth.
“We will miss her as a whole because she is part of our basketball family,” Davis said. “We’ll be missing a big part of our offense.”
Chiaramonte said there is a semi-professional team near Fort Bragg she may be able to play for, but she will miss the teammates she’s gotten to know from the Lady Wings.
“It’s a very diverse group of females—we have teachers, correction officers and a hair dresser,” Chiaramonte said. “It’s helped me learn about the area and what these women do. It’s been good to know a different group of people. I know Soldiers, but rarely do I get to know people off post.”
