Pain has been a prevalent part of the last four years for Alexa Dawkins.
On the court, the Montana State senior power forward has had to endure constant pain resulting from multiple knee surgeries, the primary factor in limiting her minutes. Off the court, a gut-wrenching loss of two close family members cut right to Dawkins’ heart and still lingers. But she would not let it shatter her spirit.
On Saturday, Dawkins will play her final home game against the rival Lady Griz of Montana. She will certainly start but it’s unlikely she will surpass her 25-minute limit, a circumstance stemming from the large brace she wears on her right knee.
MSU forward Alexa Dawkins
The Bozeman High product will have a collection of family in attendance to watch her final home Cat-Griz game, a reminder of the close-knit nature of the Dawkins clan. The presence of her loved ones is also a reminder of the heartbreak the family endured almost two years ago.
Grady Dawkins is techinically Alexa’s cousin, but to her, Grady, his brother and two sisters are more siblings. Dawkins calls them her “double cousins” — Alexa’s father, Dale, is married to the former Lori Ferguson while Dale’s brother, Demetrus was once married to Lori’s sister, Heather Ferguson. The two families moved from Vero Beach, Florida to the Bozeman area when Alexa was in middle school and have lived together several times over the last decade. Alexa and her four siblings are hard to distinguish from their cousins because of strong similarities in looks and personalities.
Grady could often be found hanging around Alexa and her Bobcat teammates during his early high school years. A promising basketball player himself, Grady wore a confident smile and walked with a swagger whenever he tagged along with his cousin and her college teammates.
The news hit like the Bobcats a ton of bricks. As the MSU women returned from the Big Sky Conference tournament in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Montana State head coach Tricia Binford received a call from Dale. On the way home from a basketball tournament, an SUV driven by Grady’s older brother crashed on Interstate 15 south of Butte. Grady, 15 at the time, and Heather, 43, were found dead at the scene.
MSU forward Alexa Dawkins
“I remember the day, being on the bus and getting that call,” Binford said. “Going through that with her was devastating. It was not easy. As my pastor would say, life is hard and no one gets a free pass. It was one of those moments where you have to just care about kids. Over the next few months and the course of the summer, that was an incredibly hard time for Lexi.”
The tragedy resonated throughout Bozeman, both for those lost and for those who survived. It also deeply affected the MSU women’s team, a tight group, particularly when it comes to Dawkins’ class. Lindsay Stockton and Peyton Ferris each played club basketball with Dawkins in high school and Dawkins’ connection to Bozeman led the trio to Montana State. Thursday, January 28 would have been Grady Dawkins’ 17th birthday.
“It’s the first time I really experienced true loss and was able to comprehend what it means for someone to die,” Dawkins said. “Now it’s totally different when you hear that someone lost someone. You always feel sorry for them but when you have your own experience and actually know the feeling, it’s totally different. He was like my brother. It really motivated me in school and in basketball because Grady was such a dedicated worker. He was so young but he had already had an incredible impact on so many peoples’ lives with his work ethic and his personality. That has motivated me to always appreciate what I have and what I’m doing.
“It is actually fitting to talk about it today because today would have been his 17th birthday so I’ve thought about him a lot.”
MSU women’s basketball team (Clockwise from 34) Jasmine Hommes, Delaney Junkermier, Alexa Dawkins, Lindsey Stockton & Riley Nordgaard
Following the accident, former MSU point guard Ausha Cole drove Dawkins to the hospital to be with her family. Soon after, Heather’s remaining children moved back into Dale and Lori’s home.
“How close we’ve always been really helped in the transition with my three cousins now living with my family,” Alexa said. “They lived with us before so they were used to it. We are all super supportive of each other and support everyone in everything they do.”
Dawkins has a caring nature and an endearing innocence to her personality. Binford noticed early on her maturity and her desire to watch over those around her, whether it was her teammates, four younger siblings or four younger cousins. Since the painful evening in March two years ago, Dawkins has taken on an even stronger matriarchal role within the fabric of her family.
“She’s always been such a mature kid,” Binford said. “Even as a freshman, she’s always been really articulate and really composed. She’s always had a really calm demeanor. She has always been the oldest of her siblings and cousins so she is used to that. That situation sparked her to make a decision to be around her home even more as the oldest. She’s had more responsibility on her plate since that day.
“We want to keep a pulse on the things to make sure we take care of Lexi too because she has such a caretaking personality being there for everyone else.”
Athletics has always been a uniting factor in the Dawkins family. Dale Dawkins was a standout receiver at the University of Miami during the famed days of “The U”. He was a young wide receiver on Jimmie Johnson’s 1987 national championship squad. Dale caught 54 passes for 833 yards and seven touchdowns on Miami’s 1989 national title team. In 1990, he was a ninth-round pick by the New York Jets. He played four total seasons in the NFL.
MSU forward Alexa Dawkins
“Growing up, it’s funny because my dad always thought I was going to be like my mom and go to a really, really smart school (Lori attended Vanderbilt) and not have any athletic ability at all,” Alexa said. “He was really surprised when I did and once I showed that, he was like, sports, sports, sports.
“I never looked at it as pressure. He was good at basketball but he was better at football. I never associated with football being a woman and not having an opportunity to play football so I never felt any pressure.”
Dawkins made the varsity as a freshman at Bozeman High. By her sophomore year in 2009, she played a crucial role on the Hawks’ Class AA state title game. By her junior year, she was an All-Eastern AA selection and by her senior year, she was a first-team all-state selection.
In 2012, Bozeman High surged to 23 straight victories, setting up a David versus Goliath state championship game against Missoula Sentinel at the Hawks’ hometown Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Former Lady Griz D.J. Reinhardt scored 38 points, including 11 in overtime as the Spartans pulled an upset to remember, toppling a Bozeman team that featured Dawkins, Bobcat teammate Amy Davis and former Lady Griz guard Shanae Gilham.
Despite enduring the pain of several knee surgeries, Dawkins earned offers from UM and MSU. She took a trip to Montana but elected to stay in her hometown to play with her AAU teammates, Stockton and Ferris.
MSU forward Alexa Dawkins
“We’ve played together since we were 12 and she’s the reason I’m here,” said Stockton, MSU’s star senior point guard. “We decided to come here together. Watching her mature throughout all her injuries and staying with the process and the limited minutes she’s had has been really inspiring. I’m so lucky to play with her.”
Dawkins has been a steady factor for the Bobcats for three years running. She has played between 20 and 26 minutes since her sophomore season, averaging 6.1 points per game during the stretch on 46 percent shooting and chipping in 4.3 rebounds per game.
Dawkins has transformed into one of the smoothest shooting forwards in the league despite limited shots on a balanced Bobcat team that has two of the Big Sky’s elite scorers in Ferris (13.9 points per game off the bench) and senior center Jasmine Hommes (15.3 points per game). This season, Dawkins is 55-of-97 from the floor, three attempts short to qualify forthe Big Sky leaderboard. She would be second to Ferris in the league if she qualified.
“She’s become a consistent, great player,” said Binford, who credits Dawkins’ ability to communicate her health as the key to managing her as a player. “She has composure. She has steadiness. When you look at her results on a daily basis, Alexa has done a good job of that.”
Dawkins said this Cat-Griz week has felt different than years before. Kellie (Cole) Rubel, a senior at Bozeman when Dawkins was a sophomore, graduated last spring following a Big Sky MVP senior season. Gilham had to retire because of an ailing knee. No former teammates play across the Continental Divide.
MSU players Margreet Barhoum, Alexa Dawkins & Jasmine Hommes
Dawkins said she does her best to not get “too hyped” for the hometown version of the rivalry game. She is entering the stretch run of her career. Managing her physical pain has become a routine rather than a challenge. Her Bobcats are riding high during her swan song season, entering the rivalry game with a 14-5 record, including a 7-1 mark in the Big Sky. A win over the defending league champions would give MSU two straight in the rivalry and Dawkins’s third win of her career against UM. She said she will think of her cousin and her aunt before the game, before trying to enjoy her final rivalry home game as much as she possibly can.
“I’m just really excited and I really want to cherish the moment,” Dawkins said. “I want to win and play well. I want to continue doing what we’ve been doing and make a statement.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
