By Chris Boline

Nevada women’s basketball player and Galena High School product Emily Burns has been named team captain for her second consecutive season under head coach Jane Albright. Kaitlin Oki/Nevada Sagebrush

University of Nevada, Reno athletic director Doug Knuth once told me that, “leadership cannot be defined because it has over eight million definitions.”

For junior basketball player and Reno native Emily Burns, the transition to finding that leadership niche has been taking place since she first stepped on campus. As one of the most storied players in northern Nevada high school history (she was named all-region player of the year in her sophomore through senior seasons and was all-state for the final two), she stepped onto the court her freshman season at Nevada with a big reputation. However, as the years progressed, the self-proclaimed “most sarcastic girl” on the team will look to put another role on her resume: a vocal presence on the court.

Her freshman season at Nevada, Burns played in all 30 games and recorded three starts. She also recorded two double-doubles against Western Athletic Conference competition.  However, she still had her setbacks in acclimating to college.

“The biggest thing I had to adjust to was listening to the older players,” Burns said. “Back at Galena, I was able to just be a lead-by-example player, but I have to focus on different things now.”

As a freshman, Burns looked up to the team’s leading scorer, Kate Kevorkin, because according to Burns, she was similar in both personality and playing style to the impressionable freshman.

After her freshman season, Burns achieved a much bigger role on the team as a sophomore. She started in all 31 games on the season and led the Wolf Pack in rebounding (6.5) and blocks (1.2). However, the team floundered with few veteran leaders and finished with an 8-23 record.

This season, Burns has dedicated herself to working on her defense and to helping to keep the other players focused.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is to be able to keep other people in the game,” Burns said. “Our biggest goal is to finish games. Off the court, we all just want to work together by being a family and that goes with changing the culture of the team.”

According to her mother Pam Burns, Emily has always been a lead-by-example player, but her attitude on the court was different from the one she has off of it.

“She definitely is very serious and very direct on the court,” said her mother. “But, she is pretty entertaining off the court. When she was at Pine Middle School, her best friend (Alexa Youngberg) and her family would go to games. They would always see Emily being very serious, and then she would go to her friend’s house, and they were amazed at how amazing her personality is off the court.”

According to Burns, her “game face” is deceptive to the standard fan.

“When I’m playing, I just have that mean-girl face and that blank stare, but I definitely know what is going on and I’m just taking it all in,” Burns said.

While her demeanor on the court is one of intimidation and strength, when she isn’t playing, she spends her free time with family and friends.

“I enjoy reading a lot. Going up to Tahoe and camping is a lot of fun, too,” Burns said.

Her head coach, Jane Albright, identified how social Emily is on the court as where she needs to flip the switch for this season.

“Emily is a free spirit,” Albright said. “She’s a pretty laid-back and a really well-balanced person. As a coach you don’t want to take that away from her. The conflict for her is that she has to go to the gym and deciding how much time she wants to devote to the gym and being a great player.”

According to Albright she has very rarely had a sophomore captain and points to Emily being on the leadership council at Galena as a big marker of her leadership style.

Burns was picked as a team captain for the second year in a row and will look to continue her maturation into the leader role as the year progresses.

“Our goal every season is to win a Mountain West championship, and I want to be a big part of the new legacy,” Burns said.

Chris Boline can be reached at cboline@http://archive.archive.nevadasagebrush.com.