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You think you know me?

There's much more to Hernando senior Bernice Mosby than jump shots and rebounds.

By FRANK PASTOR
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 18, 2002

BROOKSVILLE -- Do you know Bernice Mosby? Or do you only think you do?

If you've watched the Hernando senior play, you've seen her make turnaround jumpers, reverse layups, runners in the lane. You've seen her reject shots, clear the boards and dribble coast-to-coast.

You've seen her jaw at teammates, scowl at officials, ignore her coaches. You've seen her set herself apart from everyone else on the court -- literally and figuratively.

If you've watched Mosby play, you might think you know her. But you might be surprised at how much you don't know.

On the court, everything seems to come easy to Mosby, the Times All-Suncoast Player of the Year. But those who know her best know she has had to overcome a painful past.

Her father, Tyrone, was stabbed to death when she was 18 months old. She and her three sisters and two brothers were raised by her mother, Gloria Brown.

One brother, Gus Brown, was killed in the 1993 car accident that also claimed the life of her uncle, Jerome Brown. Two of her older sisters were teenage mothers. Mosby grew up in the projects and moved often. When colleges started calling, she moved in with her grandfather, Willie Brown, because there wasn't a phone at her mother's house.

"Some people see me, and they think I get everything," Mosby says. "Being an athlete and being in the spotlight always comes with baggage. You go through pain just like any other people. I cry just like any other person."

Longtime friend and former Hernando coach Rodney Byrd knows a Bernice Mosby who is free-spirited off the court. One who sings out loud when she thinks others aren't listening. One whose laugh can be infectious.

Mosby is friends with Byrd's daughter, Carmen, so he comes home sometimes to find her in the house. On the computer. Asleep on the couch. When he's at work, she visits his classroom.

"I don't think there are too many people she's met she doesn't enjoy being around," Byrd says.

Byrd admires her competitiveness. He has seen her take on all comers -- girls or boys -- at the Jerome Brown Community Center. He remembers the time his team trailed Leesburg by 12 points in the third quarter. Mosby wanted the ball, so he gave it to her again and again. She scored 42 points and Hernando won.

Byrd worked with Olympian John Capel and watched former NFL star Jerome Brown. He has seen the best athletes to ever come out of Hernando County. And he puts Mosby in the same category.

"She's in that top 2 percent I've seen come out of Hernando," Byrd says.

If you read the newspaper, you know Mosby led the county in scoring (27.6 points per game) and rebounding (14.5 per game). That she is the only 2,000-point scorer in team history. That she earned Times All-Hernando/Citrus Player of the Year honors.

You know she was a first-team all-state selection. A finalist for the inaugural McDonald's All-America High School Girls Basketball Game. That, after a long and painful decision-making process, she signed with Florida.

You read the stories and you think you know her.

But friend and former Oak Grove Middle School and AAU coach Jon East remembers a Bernice Mosby who was gangly and unsure of herself. Who was the only black girl on her middle school team. Whose confidence grew along with her ability to put a ball in a basket.

He marveled at her ability to turn herself from an outstanding rebounder into a complete player who can shoot from the outside, take opponents off the dribble and shoot with either hand.

"Talent-wise, that's the cool thing about her," East says. "She's pushed herself every year."

If you've seen Mosby at school, you know she spends a lot of time by herself. That she seldom goes out at night. That she doesn't date.

You might think she is stand-offish.

But Mosby keeps to herself to keep from getting side-tracked.

None of her siblings went to college and that breaks her mother's heart. Any time Mosby is interested in dating, she thinks about her goals of playing in the WNBA and pursuing a career in fashion design and pushes the thought away.

To Mosby, basketball represents an escape from her past and a chance at a better future -- for her and her family.

If you want to know Mosby, you need to know this: The thing she wants most is to put the smile back on her mother's face.

"I can sit down in the house some days and look at my momma's face sometimes, and she's in pain," Mosby says. "I know my momma gave me a gift to play, and I know it's for a reason I'm still here. I want to show my momma I can do it."

So, how well do you know Bernice Mosby?

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