As the eighth-grader stood by a vending machine with her cousin and sister, I couldn't get over how brash she was.

Did this girl really just tell me she would be dunking by high school?

That was the first time I met Carissa McGee. It was 2003 and, as a reporter in Las Cruces, I had been assigned to do a little story on her club team, which would be playing in a national tournament.

Even then she was always smiling. Always having fun. I never saw an athlete so cozy in her own skin. And she was just a middle schooler. Cocky? No doubt. But Carissa's burgeoning confidence had a charm to it. Watching her then and through most of the next four years it was clear: Carissa loved her life.

Well, it seemed clear then.

Two summers later -- after the most impressive individual year I've seen by a prep athlete -- I talked to her on a bench outside of Mayfield High, she said those very words.

"I love my life."

Those moments flashed through my head as I read this afternoon she had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder of her mother and sister.

Hard to imagine it's the same girl.

Two years ago she was a highly regarded Division I basketball prospect. She was athletic enough to win state titles in sports she didn't care about -- track (Class 5A high point winner) and volleyball (a devastating middle blocker). A natural performer, Carissa also had a great feel for her craft, like Hendrix with a guitar. A glistening future waited.

Now she will likely be imprisoned until she's nearly 30. She was in court today, sobbing aloud as family members said she belonged in jail.

All I can do is shake my head. What happened? I don't pretend I knew her, but, in some ways, it felt that way. I talked to her and her sister Marie and mother Anita multiple times. I watched them in countless games and other slivers of their lives.

You forget, as an outsider, they're just slivers. You forget that a person as vibrant and brimming with a particular talent as Carissa is just as faulted and susceptible to problems as anybody else. You forget how quickly life changes and certainties vanish.

Life for the McGee family will never be the same. You just hope all of them can find their collective smile again.

Posted by James Staley at 06:53 PM | Permalink

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