Jan 26th, 2007 05:55PM
by:

By STEVE EAST
UCA SID

On the road in Hammond and Thibodaux, La., this weekend, the University of Central Arkansas Sugar Bears will be out of class Wednesday through Friday. Missing that much class isn't an exciting proposition to senior point guard Renita Dobbins, a math major who might need extra help in her field of study.

As far as Dobbins can tell, the difference between 76 inches and 64 inches is precisely zero. The 5-foot-4 Dobbins may frequently appear to be the shortest player on the floor, but by her calculations she's lacking in stature no more than any other player the Sugar Bears will see all season.

What Dobbins may appear to lack in height she makes up for in quickness, grit and determination — evidenced by her logging significant minutes (particularly in the absence of Lauren Williams) while battling through plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the plantar fascia, the connective tissue that provides arch support and runs along the bottom side of the foot — beginning at the heel and extending to the toes. Plantar fasciitis disables the fascia from providing adequate arch support, leaving those afflicted in intense pain after periods of exercise — not the ideal situation for an athlete. The turbocharged Dobbins, in the home stretch of a solid four-year career at UCA, has no plans of letting it slow her down.

Q:What's the deal with this plantar fasciitis?
A: I had it freshman year for a little while, then got rid of it. All of a sudden it came back and hit me harder than it did the first time. We've been working to get it better, but we play so much and so close together, it never has the chance to get better.

Q:What brought it on?
A: I have flat feet and my arches have collapsed, and they swell up every time after a game. Now it's moved up to the top of my foot and it's swollen all the way.

Q: You've still been playing some serious minutes (She's averaged 39 minutes per game over the last four games). Do you just not feel it during the game?
A: Once I start moving it loosens up, and then when I stop it gets bad. Like when we come in at halftime and I sit down, when I get up it starts hurting again. In a game, the adrenaline is going so much I don't think about it. During the games I just don't think about it, I just basically go. I sit out practices to be ready for the game because I know I have to play on it. I can't say 'Oh, I'm hurting, take me out' because I know I have to be out there playing as much as possible.

Q: Plantar fasciitis aside, how do you feel about what you've done so far this year in Division I?
A: Really, we had higher expectations for ourselves. But coming into Division I, the play's a lot different — girls are a lot bigger than we are. The posts are more versatile and that was hard to get used to. Once we started playing teams on a higher level than us, we started playing better and saw we had opportunity to beat some of these better teams. When we hung around Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, that boosted our confidence a lot. Once we saw we could beat a team, we haven't looked back since.

Q: When the team went through that stretch of getting beaten pretty handily, was that tough to deal with? Since you got here there had never been a time when you were consistently losing like that. Did it start to wear on you?
A: It wasn't tough, because after the first game I knew we played bad. Each game after that, we played bad and never had a good, solid, full game. It didn't surprise me we got beat by that much, even though we shouldn't have a lot of times. But, it didnt surprise me because we weren't playing well at all. It didn't really wear on us because after awhile you just get beat down so much you're ready to jump back up. Not just get back up, but jump back up. After awhile, we were like 'We're gonna win this next one', and we did and that really boosted our confidence.

Q: You mentioned the bigger players, how has it been dealing with that? Have you had to make any particular adjustments?
A: When I play, I really don't see people being bigger than me. I might always be smallest person on the court, but I don't think about that while I'm out there. I think I'm the biggest person out there. I don't mind going against a 6-4 post player and trying to shoot a layup, or taking on a 5-11 guard. It doesn't bother me either way. I haven't had to adjust my game. I just play the same — just trying to finish more shots. I struggled with that some last year, so I made a conscious effort to make more shots.

Q: You ready for the nice long road trip this weekend?
A: I'm ready to play the games, but I don't want to miss class. (The San Antonio/Corpus Christi trip) was nice because school hadn't really started, so we don't really know how it's going to be until we get back. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I hate missing this much class.