On a beautiful Wednesday night in Las Vegas, UNLV Lady Rebels played in a exhibition game to a big crowd at Cox Pavilion. The “Lady Rebels” celebrated a victory against Cal State LA, in an impressive performance finishing the game 106-45. They welcomed home Essence Booker #24, that helped lead the team to victory, scoring 15 points and 6 rebounds during the game. She is one of the newest “Lady Rebels” and one of the team captains. Essence Booker was born and raised in Las Vegas and played for Spring Valley high school. Her exceptional, well rounded skills helped shape Spring Valley High School into a powerhouse, under the guidance of coaches Billy Hemberger and Assistant coach Errol Campbell Assistant Chelsey Williams. After a successful high school basketball career, Essence was recruited to Reno that helped take her talents, with the importance of education to the University of Reno. There she played for the “Lady Wolves” and was very effective as a freshman. She lead the Wolves in scoring during 2019-2020 season before transferring to Ball State. At Ball State, she had a shortened season due to injuries. Essence came back to Las Vegas because of family reasons and when a opportunity presented itself to play for UNLV, Essence couldn’t resist the opportunity to be in her home city playing on the court. Once home, she started her rehabilitation and comeback with Mike Waters, owner of Phase 1 Sports facility. After speaking to her about her training, she was thankful and appreciative of the workouts that made her stronger and more skillful for the upcoming season. After the game tonight, Essence Booker took time out to speak to us about the importance of coming home and playing in front of family and friends. Choosing to play for UNLV was easy because of Coach La Rocque. “She saw something special in me”. She also stated ,”Once practices started , Coach La Rocque has given me the freedom to play and make mistakes and learn from them. She has given me the confidence I needed on the court to help be a leader on the team”. She expressed there was no pressure coming home to play. Instead, it actually keeps her calm and makes her happy. She hopes to be a inspiration to her sisters and nephews by showing perseverance and drive to overcome obstacles, that you can be anything and accomplish anything. When asked what does it mean to her to be one of the team captains, she responded, ” By being one of the Captains and a point guard I want to be consistent for myself and my team, it is important that I am a leader on and off the court to help my team be successful. Essence talked to us about her past injuries, which was a Patella plateau fracture and how her setback allowed her to look at the game differently from the sidelines. Now that she is able to play again, she is taking full advantage on the court, giving her the motivation and drive to be great. While attending and playing for UNLV she is Majoring in Sociology and Minoring in Pre-Nursing.
Essence’s goals for the upcoming season is to lead the team on and off the court and to win the Mountain West championship, also to be able to play in NCAA tournament. You can catch Essence and the “Lady Rebels” at their next home game at Thomas and Mack Center as they take on Montana State, Saturday 11/13/2021 at 1:00 pm.
