“My dream was always to go to UF, that had always been my dream.
The University of Florida is something that’s been embedded in me since I was a child. All of my family went there, my stepdad, my mother, my brother . . . So, I bled orange and blue.
I took the University of Florida’s offer to be a preferred walk-on for the women’s basketball team back in high school. My only thing was I had to get in to UF. The basketball coaches were trying to just get me in, but they didn’t have that power over admissions and I didn’t end up getting in. So of course, I was devastated. I had honestly given up on my dream to be a Gator, I had given up on my dream to play basketball because I felt like if I couldn’t play for the Gators, I don’t really know if I wanna play for anyone.
I got accepted into another major university here in Florida and I thought, you know, that might just be the opportunity for me. I’ll give up on basketball. Maybe I’ll walk on, maybe I won’t. On my way down to the orientation for that university, I thought, you know what maybe I’ll just stop by Santa Fe College. Coach Stebbins, the women’s basketball coach at Santa Fe, had been emailing me, sending me some material on the college.
Five minutes – literally five minutes – into the orientation, I looked at my mom and I’m like, ‘Mom, I think I’m gonna go to Santa Fe. Like, something is telling me that is where I need to be. If I can still maybe live my dream of being a Gator then I don’t want to give up on that opportunity.’
Santa Fe College was the number one community college in the nation when I committed to play here and committed to be a student here. Fast forward some years later and Santa Fe College has been literally the biggest blessing of my life.
It gave me the opportunity to evolve as a person to evolve as a student to evolve as a basketball player and it has literally been the catalyst in my life that’s really just changed everything and propelled me to be the woman I am today. I’m so grateful and so blessed to have had Santa Fe College in my life."
~ Corey Staples, A.A. '17