Oftentimes there are players that come in and take over the team they are on, such as Jashanti Simmons over the past two years for the Lady Chargers.

Now with a majority of the women’s team that reached the NJCAA National Championship game gone, the Lady Chargers turn to a new set of faces.

One of those faces: DeJanae Dennis-Cassanova.

Dennis-Cassanova will be taking over the point guard spot for the Lady Chargers this upcoming season, a position that Lady Chargers head coach Brandan Harrell has coveted highly in the past.

“I’m harder on point guards than everyone else on the floor because I need them to think the way I think and to understand situational basketball,” Harrell said.

Coming to GHC from the United Kingdom, Dennis-Cassanova has been playing organized basketball since she was 10 years old.

She was part of the Nottingham Academy Wildcats before coming to GHC, where she played in 16 of the team’s 29 games during her final season with the Wildcats, averaging 5.7 minutes per game.

Harrell said he was impressed from the moment he met Dennis-Cassanova.

“The first meeting was very positive… it’s not just the player, it’s the personality and ability to work hard. We knew that DJ was a good player and had high character,” Harrell said.

Dennis-Cassanova said that she was ecstatic about the opportunity to join the Lady Chargers.

“It was such a good feeling. I was really overwhelmed, but grateful mostly,” Dennis-Cassanova said. “Being able to go out and do what I love to do is really great for me.”

On the court, Dennis-Cassanova said that she has a lot to offer the Lady Chargers this upcoming season.

“A lot of it is decision-making and I want to be able to make quick and critical decisions,” she said.

Dennis-Cassanova’s journey at GHC has gotten off to a rocky start due to outside factors and a knee injury, but she says that she can overcome those obstacles.

“A lot of people worked hard for me to get here, so I want to work hard and get to play so I can show them what I can do,” Dennis-Cassanova said.

The Lady Chargers are awaiting results for her injury, but Harrell said that the injury isn’t a catastrophic one.

“It’s going to be one that we can come back from relatively quickly,” Harrell said.

Dennis-Cassanova was also critical of herself in one specific aspect of her game. “As the point guard, I need to see the situation of the game because the coach isn’t always going to want to use his timeouts, so sometimes I need to take control of the game in those split-second situations,” Dennis-Cassanova said.

While Dennis-Cassanova certainly has big shoes to fill, she seems ready to take on any challenge that comes her way during her time with the Lady Chargers.