Senior Feature: Clarke’s Triple G, Giana the “Glue Girl” – Michels’ 12 months of “ups and downs” looks toward the “top of the mountain”

The term "glue guy" is often used in sports to refer to an individual player that keeps the team together just by their presence in the lineup along with the traits that they provide both on and off of the specific playing surface.

In the case of the Clarke University women's basketball team, their "glue girl" is senior guard Giana Michels, a player whose offensive and defensive versatility has been put to the test in her four-year career and especially over the last 12 months.

At face value, Michels is an off-ball guard who can put the ball on the floor, drive to the basket, extend the floor with her three-point shooting ability, and knock down free throws at a career 82.5 percent clip, and that's just on the offensive end of the floor.

Looking deeper into all else that she provides, Michels is a worker. Whether it's being tasked to guard the opponent's top offensive threat or simply just leading the team in minutes played, the work and energy she puts into the game of basketball might not be obvious to the observer, but it is to her team.

"I feel like I bring a lot of the communication to the team," Michels said. "On offense, finding the open person, the hot hand, and communicating, that has been my role. Then on the defensive end, in scramble situations, trying to get people in the right spot, talking if the opponent is a shooter or a driver. For me the communication aspect is the biggest thing, just bringing a positive energy in that way."

"Everything that Giana does is behind the scenes," head coach Courtney Boyd said. "She's one of the players in the gym on her own the most out of anyone. So many things she does just isn't stats. When she's confident regardless of if she's hitting shots or getting stops, everybody else follows. That comes from being one of our more vocal leaders and when she can back it up with her play through her confidence it flows through the team and that doesn't show in stats."

That work isn't just limited to the basketball court as Michels is one of the top students at Clarke as a Dean's List student as well as a Heart of America Athletic Conference and NAIA Scholar-Athlete.

Along with those scholastic honors, Michels received the Heart's nomination for the Emil S. Liston Award presented annually since 1950 to one junior men's and women's basketball player who has shown high athletic and scholastic achievement.

With her Heart nomination, Michels would then be up for the NAIA honor, which she did not receive but showed she was plenty worthy coming off of her 2021-22 season.

"Being a college student-athlete is hard, let alone trying to be pre-med," Boyd said. "The reason she is where she is, is because she's a perfectionist. Everything that she brings on the court, she applies that same mindset off the court outside of basketball. Volunteering for dance marathon, being in the lab when she's not on the court, spending time with her family more than others probably do. She makes time for what she puts first and she puts academics, family, and Clarke women's basketball first. She's just a giver, she gives more and then hopefully in return she's able to get what she wants."

Let's spin the calendar back a year almost to date in that 2021-22 season, the Pride were wrapping up clinching the Heart Regular Season title and heading into the Heart Tournament, which they would also win for the second-straight year.

To say Michels played a key role would be an understatement as the team's leader in minutes played at over 30 per game, her highest points per game average of her career at 11.5 as she receive All-Heart Second Team honors and All-Heart Defensive Team as well.

"I had a ton of confidence last season coming off of my summer workouts with Emma [Kelchen] and the coaches," Michels said. "I don't get those personal accolades without the help of my teammates, each one of us has to do our part for the other person to get accolades. When you have a team where each person is a threat, everyone has the chance to earn those individual accolades.

Along the way in that career year, Michels suffered a shoulder injury that she would play through during the remainder of the 2021-22 postseason but would require surgery over the summer.

"Shoulder surgery is one of the hardest things to come back from, especially for a shooter," Boyd said. "The time and effort that she put in to get herself to where she is, is just kudos to her. She is a perfectionist so her frustrations never came from not playing the same as what she was because she knew her teammates had her back. She's always trying to think a step ahead and for her a step ahead was that she needed to hit certain benchmarks by certain dates."

Almost immediately after surgery, Michels could be spotted in the Kehl Center gym, a short drive away from her home in Bellevue, Iowa, working out and rehabbing in an effort to miss as few games as possible in the 2022-23 season.

Only missing four games at the start of the year, the return to her 2021-22 form hasn't been as smooth as she may have hoped but her presence on the floor over those four games was definitely felt and the team's offensive productivity has definitely increased as the Pride averaged 63 points per game with her off the floor and 79.2 points per game once she returned.

Her offensive ability was able to reach a career pinnacle on Saturday, Feb. 11 when she recorded nine points in the fourth quarter against MidAmerica Nazarene, including a 7-0 run of her own, to reach the 1,000-point mark in her career.

She joined teammates Nicole McDermott and Emma Kelchen as the third player for the Pride to reach that mark this season as that day, then preceded to follow that performance up with a season-high 17 points last Wednesday at Peru State as a memorable seven-day stretch will be capped off with tomorrow's Senior Day festivities.

"The perfect way to describe it has been a year of ups and downs," Michels said. "Thinking about how I felt when I couldn't play basketball or even do normal everyday things without my mom's help, made me appreciate this season all the more. I relied on my teammates more than I ever have for confidence and that pick me up when my play on the floor didn't bounce back to my standard early on. I do think I am hitting my stride right now on the court and that's also thanks to my teammates for not taking it easy on me in practice and really pushing me to get my confidence back."

As Senior Day approaches, it's hard not to look back or feel the time as a member of the Pride dwindling down but like the rest of her teammates, Michels has unfinished business when it comes to the NAIA Tournament in this, her last hurrah, but her perspective on what Clarke has meant on and off the floor keeps her grounded and focused.

"We didn't end up where we wanted to last season but I think everyone genuinely learned from that loss," Michels said. "I came into this program where we weren't the true underdog anymore but still an underdog. Every year we progressively got more confident and got our name out there so people know how good we are, we have that target on our back. 

"It's been a climb with a bunch of really fun people alongside and we haven't reached the top of that mountain yet."