Anissa Gutierrez realizes a dream, and it started with a note

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Growing up in Mansfield, Texas, Anissa Gutierrez had a household that liked the University of Texas. Her grandmother needed one in all her grandkids to be a Longhorn. None earlier than Gutierrez have been, and for a whereas, it seemed like Gutierrez wouldn’t be both.

After two years enjoying basketball at Division III Hendrix College in Arkansas, Gutierrez needed to attempt to come to her dwelling state and a faculty she’d thought of for a whereas. She was accepted to UT and quickly after needed to satisfy one other dream.

“I’d go out and get my run in, would leave and she’d be out there,” stated Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer about Gutierrez. “Then I’d come back, and she’d still be out there.”

Gutierrez would sit hours a day for a couple of weeks exterior close to the place Texas practiced in hopes of assembly Schaefer. When she lastly obtained his consideration, she handed him a handwritten note expressing her curiosity in being on the crew.

Not solely did she earn a spot on the crew as a walk-on, however after one season of arduous work with the Longhorns within the 2021-2022 marketing campaign, Texas formally put Gutierrez on scholarship earlier than her senior season.

“I was like, ‘What?’” stated Gutierrez about when she was shocked by the scholarship. “This can’t be happening. It’s something I never really expected. It would be awesome if it happened but I never would have imagined.”

After not scoring in her first season with the Longhorns, the previous Hendrix Warrior obtained in late in opposition to Kansas State. Gutierrez notched a layup on a fastbreak with a good transfer inside, prompting her teammates and the world to erupt.

“The move was great,” stated Longhorns sophomore guard Rori Harmon. “That’s a great move and that’s on a Big 12 team, Kansas State.”

“That arena, their response,” added Schaefer. “The response on our sideline. That tells you right there what people think of her.”

For Gutierrez to realize all of this has not been simple. Her teammates and coaches are fast to level out how she works as arduous as anybody regardless of little enjoying time. That effort has made it all value it.

“I wasn’t expecting really anything else in return, just to be able to practice and be around the team at the smallest moment,” Gutierrez stated. “I really wasn’t expecting to get gear or travel or really a locker or nothing like that. All that came a little later but I think I had to earn every second of it.”