Issue date: 2/17/09 Section: Sports

Eastern senior guard Megan Edwards drives toward the basket during a game against Southeast Missouri on Feb. 7 in Lantz arena. Edwards is one of five seniors who will play their final home game Saturday. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

Editor's Note: Assistant Sports Editor Collin Whitchurch will be profiling each of the women's basketball team's five seniors leading up to the team's Senior Night at 3 p.m. Saturday against Murray State. Today's profile is of guard Megan Edwards.


Eastern women's basketball head coach Brady Sallee knows when Megan Edwards is on the floor, his team is in good hands.

The senior guard has been Sallee's coach on the floor as the Panthers have risen from mediocrity to stardom in the past four years. So it should be no surprise to hear that Edwards aspires to coach high school basketball in the future.

Edwards, who will play her last regular season home game as a Panther at 3 p.m. this Saturday, is not known as a scorer.

She scored in double-figures only six times this season, and has a career scoring average of 8.2 points per game.

However, when Sallee recruited Edwards out of high school, a large factor was her ability to put the ball in the basket.

"(Edwards) was a kid that, coming out, I had seen play a ton in the summer and the thing that stood out was her ability to score," Sallee said.

But while Edwards does not put up the gaudy scoring numbers of her senior teammate, forward Rachel Galligan, it's OK with her because her No. 1 priority is always distributing the ball.

"I've always just worked on helping the team out and being the manager on the floor," she said. "I try to use my skills and knowledge of the game in the right ways to make the team better and be successful."

Sallee said Edwards' basketball IQ is what impresses him most about her. He called her the "coach on the floor" and knows his team will be at its best when she is out there, which is a main reason why she leads the team in minutes per game.

"We're very disciplined out on the floor and that's a direct result of the way (Edwards) plays," Sallee said. "She knows exactly what I want from her, what I expect from her and very rarely do I have to get on her anymore because she's already on herself when she does something wrong."

Edwards said she has loved her experience at Eastern, and has grown both as a person and as a basketball player because of what she has learned.

One of her favorite moments during her career was just a few weeks ago when the Panthers beat Illinois-Chicago.

She said that moment meant a lot because the seniors on the team have played UIC every year of their careers, and this was the first time they were able to beat them.

She is proudest of being part of the turnaround that saw the Panthers climb from a 10-19 record her freshman season to their current 19-7 record.

"It's really amazing," she said. "It was really difficult for us the first two seasons because we really had the thought of changing the program and we had some rough seasons and had to almost think twice about being able to do this. But things started to turn around and we never gave up and kept working harder. I feel so happy to be involved in what we are right now. All that hard work we put in is finally paying off."

Edwards is never likely to stuff a stat sheet, but her assist-turnover ratio is nearly 2-to-1 and she leads the team with 3.8 assists per game.

Also, she will finish her career in fifth place in Eastern's all-time 3-point field goal list.

She will graduate in spring with a degree in family and consumer sciences in secondary education and wants to get a job teaching in the Chicago area.

While that is her immediate goal, she has always wanted to coach high school basketball, and hopes to do that while teaching.

That is kind of fitting.

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

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