There have been plenty of leaders come and go for the Georgia Highlands basketball program, and every year offers new opportunities for players to step into leadership roles for the teams.

This season, the Lady Chargers are returning a large part of last year’s team, with six of the ten players returning for another year.

One of those players that stick out is Sandra Lin, who enters their third season with the team.

Lin says that she has played an impact both on the court and off the court for her.

“I get more use to how teams work and how schools work so it’s more comfortable for me,” said Lin.

Lin came to Georgia Highlands in 2019 from Taiwan to further her basketball career. The 5’4” point guard plays in a way that the position has traditionally been played: a facilitator.

Last season, Lin played more of a leadership role with the team on the court, with the biggest things that she told her team during games revolved around their transition offense.

“We play transition a lot more than other teams,” said Lin, “so I so I had to let them know where they needed to run so we can connect with each other.”

Lin is excited to be a leader for the team, but she says that she has stepped up when needed.

“When I first came here, I didn’t think that I could handle a leadership role,” said Lin, “but I just kept learning from other teammates and coaches around me. I feel like I can lead better when I can pull everybody together.”

Her presence can be felt on nearly every offensive possession, with her best ability being that she is able to find an open teammate that leads to a basket for the Lady Chargers, averaging 6.8 assists per game last season.

With only three new faces on the team, Lin thinks that the team still needs to work on their chemistry on court, saying “I feel like we are still building chemistry with each other and that’s a key on how we can stay competitive.”

This season may be a new one for the Lady Chargers, but Lin says that the key to keep winning is to “play hard at every game and every practice.”

With this being her last season with the Lady Chargers, Lin comes into the season knowing that she will have to impress scouts in order to advance her college basketball career.
“This is my last chance to go to a four-year college so I need to be my best on the court.”

While Lin is still learning to be a leader, she says that she isn’t exempt from criticism herself.

“Last season, we got a lot of opportunities to score and got in position, but we really didn’t take the best shot, so going forward I need to do a better job of slowing down and organizing our players to where we can score more,” said Lin.

Women’s head coach Brandan Harrell praised Lin on her leadership with the team during the offseason on his appearance on the Post Buzzer podcast on Oct. 13, saying “I think our most consistent player is the person who is always our most consistent player and that’s our point guard, Sandra Lin.”

“She’s the one where when she comes out of the game, other players we can sub in and out that are great players but you don’t see the team drop like they do when Sandra comes out”, said Harrell.
Harrell thinks that there is still room for growth with Lin though.

“We’ve seen her take shots in some of the preseason games already that she has to take this year to stay competitive,” said Harrell.

Men’s basketball head coach JJ Merritt also spoke highly of Lin on the podcast, saying that she was an “unbelievable player.”

Leading a basketball team is not something that is easy to do, but it seems like Lin could have what it takes to take the Lady Chargers back to the NJCAA national tournament.