The ULM women's basketball program has had numerous shining moments spanning its more than 40 seasons. ULMWarhawks.com will spotlight various moments, individuals and teams as we recount the history of the program leading into the 2015-16 season.
Katrise Lee, now Perera, lettered from 1987-88 and 1989-90. While an ACL injury caused some adversity in her on-the-court career, she has become an extraordinary figure in the education field. She was named the 2015 National Association of School Superintendents (NASS) Superintendent-of-the-Year in July. She also has master's degrees from ULM, Mary Baldwin College and Virginia Commonwealth University.
http://wtvr.com/2015/07/16/candidate-for-henrico-assistant-superintendent-job-receives-national-honor/
What is your background as to how you wound up coming to school here?
“I went to Sulphur High School. It is about three and a half, four hours from Monroe, in the southwest corner of Louisiana near the Texas border, up on a hill. It really came down to NLU or La Tech. I had some opportunities to go to schools outside of the state. I just decided on NLU because they had been in the Final Four and were the No. 2-ranked team at the time. I committed to them early on. Linda Harper was the coach when I was there, Roger Stockton [Harper's former assistant] was in charge when I was a graduate assistant.”
What did you study in school, and how have you used that since you've finished school?
“At that point I wasn't really sure, I had a degree in marketing merchandising and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I liked basketball a lot, obviously, and I tested the waters from the GA spot. I got married and moved to Virginia and had an opportunity to coach when I arrived in Charlottesville. We got married the Saturday the week following we were in Virginia. When I first arrived in Virginia I was substituting while I was looking for a job in merchandising or marketing, but of course in a small university town I wasn't able to acquire anything at that point. Substituting in public education, I found myself back in the classroom with a master's in education, and I've been in it ever since. I started off coaching.”
You had to take a year off due to an injury. What effect did that have on you in the short and long run?
“It was an ACL injury. I thought I would be able to come back but the physician said no, they did surgery and I needed that year in recovery. I don't regret any of it, because honestly the knee injury was a blessing in disguise for me. It allowed me to refocus on what I was here for, my degree.”
What was your playing style while a member of the program?
“I played the 2, 3 and some 4, depending on who we were playing. In high school I was a 4 or 5, but in college I converted to a 2, 3 or 4. Going to a college was a welcome change, unfortunately my knee didn't allow me as much as I would have liked to. Every other game or so, I would be in a situation where my knee would [come out of] socket and I would have to sit out two or three games. My stats didn't reflect what I could have had in college.”
What was your favorite memory from your time in Monroe?
“I would say that during my time, my favorite memory would be just the fan base we had and how many people followed the team and got behind us. That to me was an extra special time. I was injured a lot, and just hearing the fans in the stands, the year before last we had the 40-year reunion before Coach Harper passed away. There we had the same fans that we had in the 80s out to watch our game and that was pretty special. We had a large fan base at that point. That was pretty special, and with my job I use a lot of the leadership skills I learned from Coach Harper and I wasn't always on the court, she always made me step up.”
