Champions' TriBUne Archive

By: Lauren Cox
 
Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that will give you the student-athlete's perspective and tell their story in their voice. Lauren Cox, a 6-foot-4 junior forward from Flower Mound, Texas, is a two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and has won four gold medals with USA Basketball. Seeded No. 1 overall for the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Bears (31-1) are hosting the first and second rounds this weekend and will play Abilene Christian at 5 p.m. Saturday:

For as long as I can remember, I've always been taller than everyone else. My sisters are 6-2, 6-1 and 6-foot, my mom is 6-2 and my dad is 6-4. And my dad always liked to walk behind all of us because he gets to see everyone's reaction as we walk by. That's like his favorite thing to do.
 
No one ever really made fun of me or anything. It's funny, everyone is thinking I can't hear them, but they're like five feet away trying to whisper, "Oh my gosh, she's so tall." Sometimes it's adults, but sometimes it's kids that just don't know better. That happened the other day. I was in line at a restaurant, and some girl tugged on her mom's shirt and said, "Mommy, she's so tall!"
 
Ever since the day I started walking, my parents put me into every sport I wanted to play. My first memories of being on a team were when I played tee-ball and basketball on an all-boys team. I didn't care that I was the only girl, I was still as competitive as can be and loved to be active.
 
In elementary school, I was always playing with the boys. This friend of mine, we played on the same soccer team, and we were always the two girls that would play with the boys at recess. We'd play kick ball, basketball, really anything. And they would call me "Big Foot" in kick ball, because every time I came up to kick they would all have to scoot back because I would boot it so far out there.
 
After a few seasons of tee-ball, I decided that it wasn't for me and I put down the bat. But, I still loved to play basketball. I also started running track at a pretty young age. I ran hurdles, sprints, relays and did the high jump, shot put and discus. I was basically competing in just about every event I could do. I was pretty good, and I even made it to the state track meet a couple summers.
 
After one summer full of sports, I was faced with one of the biggest obstacles I would ever face in my life. On September 15, 2005, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Obviously, this threw a wrench in all of my activities, and especially sports.
 
I went from being a normal 7-year-old kid to now having numerous responsibilities, like checking my blood sugar, counting carbs and taking insulin. This is one of the hardest things that has ever happened to me, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being the active kid that I was and still am today.
 
My parents and I worked really hard with my endocrinologist to make sure that I could still perform to the best of my ability. I continued on with all of my sports like nothing had changed. I started playing soccer and volleyball, along with track and basketball, through my middle school years. Once I hit 7^th grade, I gave up soccer and club volleyball to really focus on basketball.
 
My first competitive basketball team was called the Bulldogs, and after playing with them for a few years I switched to a team called Texas United. We were an AAU traveling team that went to places like New Orleans, Atlanta, Orlando and Chicago. I had a lot of fun with this team and continued to improve my basketball skills.
 
Once I got to high school, I gave up track but continued to play basketball (high school and club teams) and volleyball (high school). In the spring of 2013, I received a letter from USA Basketball inviting me to try out for the U16 National Team that would compete in the summer. I went into the tryout not really knowing what to expect, but in the end I made the team. That summer, I traveled to Cancun, Mexico, where we played and won the gold.
 
That experience started my streak of making USA Basketball teams. The following summer, I tried out again and made the U17 National Team. This time, we traveled to Paris, France and Prague, Czech Republic. Not only did I get to travel overseas for the first time, I also won my second gold medal.


 
At the tryouts for the U19 National Team the next summer, I was extremely nervous, because I was only 17 years old and I was going up against and playing with college players who were much more experienced, more physical and stronger than I was. To my surprise, I made the team along with some great post players like A'ja Wilson (South Carolina), Kristine Anigwe (California) and Napheesa Collier (UConn). We traveled to Murcia, Spain, and Chekhov, Russia, and once again we won the gold.
 
That next summer, the last USA team that I played with was the U18 National Team. Unlike the previous three teams, I was one of the veterans on this team. We traveled to Valdivia, Chile. This year was special for me because I was one of the leaders on the team, and along with winning my fourth gold medal I was also named the tournament MVP.
 
This was the summer before my freshman season at Baylor. The reason I decided to come to Baylor was because I loved the coaches, the family atmosphere, the winning program, and it was only an hour and 45-minute drive from my home back in Flower Mound.
 
My freshman year was kind of tough, not only on the court but off the court. I didn't really click with anyone on the team. I know Coach Mulkey has talked about it with teams in the past, but we just didn't have a lot of chemistry that year. That was definitely tough, because on top of that I had my struggles on the court. We earned a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament, but lost to Mississippi State in the region final. We were that close.


 
Earlier that season, when we were at Tennessee, my blood sugar level spiked and went dangerously high to the point where I couldn't play. I was doing everything I could to try to get it down, but it just wasn't going down. And then finally in the second half, when I actually got to play, I was still so frazzled and distracted by what had happened that I wasn't in the game at all and I wasn't focused.
 
When you're 7 years old, you don't really have a clue of what's going on. Now, it's really an everyday thing. It will be 14 years this year, actually, that I've had diabetes. The insulin pump I have now talks to the CGM, my continuous glucose monitor, so it always knows what my blood sugar is. If it's too high, my pump will automatically give me insulin without me having to pull it out. And then if it's going low, it will shut off my insulin and suspend the delivery. So, this helps out a lot, it prevents some of those situations from happening.
 
My sophomore year and this year have definitely been the best, just because we're a family. We all get along, there's no clicks. Sure, we fight sometimes, we have arguments or whatever, but in the end we're always there for each other.
 
Since I've been at Baylor, I've learned so much from my coaches and my teammates, and I have made some great memories and friends that will last a lifetime. I am going to continue to work hard on the court and in the classroom, and I'm going to keep making memories with my teammates and friends.
 
When I graduate from Baylor next year, I plan to play in the WNBA or overseas and then become a sports broadcaster once my playing career is over.



Previous Champions' TriBUne Features
Track & Field - Wil London (March 7, 2019)
Men's Basketball - Jake Lindsey (March 4, 2019)
Softball - Nicky Dawson (Feb. 21, 2019)
Baseball - Josh Bissonette (Feb. 14, 2019)
Men's Tennis - Will Little (Jan. 31, 2019)
Men's Basketball - King McClure (Jan. 17, 2019)
Women's Basketball - Chloe Jackson (Jan. 3, 2019)
Football - Blake Blackmar (Dec. 13, 2018)
Volleyball - Braya Hunt (Nov. 29, 2018)
Soccer - Jackie Crowther (Nov. 16, 2018)
Cross Country - Alison Andrews-Paul (Nov. 8, 2018)
Football- Ira Lewis (Nov. 6, 2018)