bluesooner17
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MIDWEST CITY — The letters are charred along each edge and stained by deep, dark spots the color of soot.
It could have been worse.
Ana Llanusa assumed the handwritten notes were gone — lost in the fire that burned her house to a crisp the night of Dec.
30.
But when she squeezed her way into the brown two-story house now missing a roof and most of the second floor weeks later, there sat the letters in a nice pile on a burned entry-way table.
Llanusa stopped when she saw them.
The state’s premier high school girls basketball player, a senior guard at Choctaw, had lost nearly all of her possessions on her 18th birthday. But these letters were spared. They were Llanusa’s recruiting letters, and they meant everything for a girl who grew up dreaming of playing for Oklahoma and is signed to put on its uniform next winter.
“They’re good,” she beamed, visibly fighting back emotions upon learning of the letters’ condition.
Thursday night, Llanusa leads No. 2 Choctaw into the Class 6A playoffs at home against Lawton to begin the path she hopes culminates with her first state championship.
She’s used three state tournament appearances and no title as a driving force. But in the middle of the most trying time of her life, she found extra motivation in the form of burned paper.
Originally, each side had an Oklahoma women’s basketball player. Words such as “Energy” and “Heart” stood to the right. The other side was reserved for handwritten notes from coach Sherri Coale and her staff.
One was charred on each corner. It no longer felt smooth. Water formed wrinkles. But the handwriting from Coale was unaffected.
First, a congratulations on a great year! I know you weren’t satisfied (I’d be disappointed if you were!) but I was proud of you and how you played.
Another was completely burned on two corners. The white backdrop for assistant Chad Thrailkill’s handwriting was now mostly dark from smoke damage.
I want you to know that you can be as good as you want.
The All-American family
Llanusa found her competitive drive early in gymnastics.
As a child, she spent hours in her parents’ Guthrie gym. With her older brother Jonah and her little sister Aliyah, they tumbled. They played on the trampolines. They learned how to compete.
Ana and Jonah both won national tumbling titles.
Their parents, DuSharme and Tony Llanusa, had built the All-American family.
DuSharme grew up in Del City as a world-class tumbler. She was on Team USA’s power tumbling team in 1984 and 1986. She helped win a silver medal in the World Cup.
In 1992, Llanusa became the first black contestant to be crowned Miss Oklahoma. She later won fourth runner-up in the Miss America pageant.
Tony grew up in Choctaw, where he was a two-time state champion wrestler. He then wrestled at OU, Garden City Community College and North Carolina.
“God blesses us with different talents,” Ana Llanusa said. “I guess what He blessed us with is our talent for being athletic. We’ve got to do what we can with it.”
Jonah used nearly each weekend in high school to sharpen his skills as a quarterback. He’s now a quarterback at Navy. Aliyah, only a sophomore at Choctaw, is rapidly becoming a force at point guard.
Ana — a 5-foot-11 guard who averages 19.4 points — is nearly impossible to get out of the gym.
She spends hours early in the morning. Sometimes she stays late into the night.
That dedication led to an explosion her freshman year with 34 points in a state semifinal loss that ticketed her for OU.
She’s scored more than 2,000 career points. She’s been on The Oklahoman’s Super 5 team three times.
“If there was a message ever it was, ‘The standard won’t get you there and what got you here won’t keep you there,’” DuSharme said. “I think that’s where that putting in the extra work and extra effort is a part of their process.”
‘A kind soul’
In the days following the house fire, the Llanusas received a nationwide outpouring on a GoFundMe Page. More than $32,000 was raised.
Ana was particularly uncomfortable with the donations. She was used to helping others. The fire didn’t stop her.
A week after the fire, Ana Llanusa had received $20 from someone in the community. It was all she had, yet she made her mom pull over to give it to someone on the corner of the street.
“Everyone puts (Ana) on this pedestal because everyone is in awe of her,” said Jones coach Jenni Holbrook, who grew extremely close to the Llanusas as Choctaw’s assistant coach the past three seasons. “And she’s kind and nice to everyone. She’s just a kind soul.”
Ana Llanusa remembers the smile and laughter that helped mold her.
Her grandfather Miguel — known by the Spanish word “Abuelo” by Llanusa — died a few years back, but he had made a habit of playing basketball with her after school. He had never-ending jokes to entertain.
He also had religious teachings, which were marked in his Bible that he left for her.
Llanusa studied the highlighted passages. She marked her own in various highlighters in her own Bible. She wrote notes, such as “Be strong and courageous.”
She used it to help her friends, many of whom knew the Bible was always beside her bed. They read it. They even took pictures.
After the fire, Llanusa’s Bible is now more gray than pink. The pages are water damaged with highlighter ink smeared. But her notes are still legible.
Llanusa has worked on marking a new Bible. She needs it. Her friends may need it.
It’s been the final piece of her motivation to move forward.
“Life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it,” Llanusa said. “Yeah, I had a bad birthday and yeah our house is gone, but it can only get better.”
It could have been worse.
Ana Llanusa assumed the handwritten notes were gone — lost in the fire that burned her house to a crisp the night of Dec.
30.
But when she squeezed her way into the brown two-story house now missing a roof and most of the second floor weeks later, there sat the letters in a nice pile on a burned entry-way table.
Llanusa stopped when she saw them.
The state’s premier high school girls basketball player, a senior guard at Choctaw, had lost nearly all of her possessions on her 18th birthday. But these letters were spared. They were Llanusa’s recruiting letters, and they meant everything for a girl who grew up dreaming of playing for Oklahoma and is signed to put on its uniform next winter.
“They’re good,” she beamed, visibly fighting back emotions upon learning of the letters’ condition.
Thursday night, Llanusa leads No. 2 Choctaw into the Class 6A playoffs at home against Lawton to begin the path she hopes culminates with her first state championship.
She’s used three state tournament appearances and no title as a driving force. But in the middle of the most trying time of her life, she found extra motivation in the form of burned paper.
Originally, each side had an Oklahoma women’s basketball player. Words such as “Energy” and “Heart” stood to the right. The other side was reserved for handwritten notes from coach Sherri Coale and her staff.
One was charred on each corner. It no longer felt smooth. Water formed wrinkles. But the handwriting from Coale was unaffected.
First, a congratulations on a great year! I know you weren’t satisfied (I’d be disappointed if you were!) but I was proud of you and how you played.
Another was completely burned on two corners. The white backdrop for assistant Chad Thrailkill’s handwriting was now mostly dark from smoke damage.
I want you to know that you can be as good as you want.
The All-American family
Llanusa found her competitive drive early in gymnastics.
As a child, she spent hours in her parents’ Guthrie gym. With her older brother Jonah and her little sister Aliyah, they tumbled. They played on the trampolines. They learned how to compete.
Ana and Jonah both won national tumbling titles.
Their parents, DuSharme and Tony Llanusa, had built the All-American family.
DuSharme grew up in Del City as a world-class tumbler. She was on Team USA’s power tumbling team in 1984 and 1986. She helped win a silver medal in the World Cup.
In 1992, Llanusa became the first black contestant to be crowned Miss Oklahoma. She later won fourth runner-up in the Miss America pageant.
Tony grew up in Choctaw, where he was a two-time state champion wrestler. He then wrestled at OU, Garden City Community College and North Carolina.
“God blesses us with different talents,” Ana Llanusa said. “I guess what He blessed us with is our talent for being athletic. We’ve got to do what we can with it.”
Jonah used nearly each weekend in high school to sharpen his skills as a quarterback. He’s now a quarterback at Navy. Aliyah, only a sophomore at Choctaw, is rapidly becoming a force at point guard.
Ana — a 5-foot-11 guard who averages 19.4 points — is nearly impossible to get out of the gym.
She spends hours early in the morning. Sometimes she stays late into the night.
That dedication led to an explosion her freshman year with 34 points in a state semifinal loss that ticketed her for OU.
She’s scored more than 2,000 career points. She’s been on The Oklahoman’s Super 5 team three times.
“If there was a message ever it was, ‘The standard won’t get you there and what got you here won’t keep you there,’” DuSharme said. “I think that’s where that putting in the extra work and extra effort is a part of their process.”
‘A kind soul’
In the days following the house fire, the Llanusas received a nationwide outpouring on a GoFundMe Page. More than $32,000 was raised.
Ana was particularly uncomfortable with the donations. She was used to helping others. The fire didn’t stop her.
A week after the fire, Ana Llanusa had received $20 from someone in the community. It was all she had, yet she made her mom pull over to give it to someone on the corner of the street.
“Everyone puts (Ana) on this pedestal because everyone is in awe of her,” said Jones coach Jenni Holbrook, who grew extremely close to the Llanusas as Choctaw’s assistant coach the past three seasons. “And she’s kind and nice to everyone. She’s just a kind soul.”
Ana Llanusa remembers the smile and laughter that helped mold her.
Her grandfather Miguel — known by the Spanish word “Abuelo” by Llanusa — died a few years back, but he had made a habit of playing basketball with her after school. He had never-ending jokes to entertain.
He also had religious teachings, which were marked in his Bible that he left for her.
Llanusa studied the highlighted passages. She marked her own in various highlighters in her own Bible. She wrote notes, such as “Be strong and courageous.”
She used it to help her friends, many of whom knew the Bible was always beside her bed. They read it. They even took pictures.
After the fire, Llanusa’s Bible is now more gray than pink. The pages are water damaged with highlighter ink smeared. But her notes are still legible.
Llanusa has worked on marking a new Bible. She needs it. Her friends may need it.
It’s been the final piece of her motivation to move forward.
“Life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent of how you react to it,” Llanusa said. “Yeah, I had a bad birthday and yeah our house is gone, but it can only get better.”
