CHESTNUT HILL ― Sitting in the stands of the Silvio O. Conte Forum, Lynn’s Marnelle Garraud has come a long way.
Growing up in Lynn, Garraud traversed her way to Boston College’s women’s basketball program and is preparing for her senior season in 2021. With the Eagles playing in one of the fiercest conferences in the NCAA (the Atlantic Coast Conference), the level of play is high and so are the expectations.
“The speed in which you have to play to compete, not even to just get on the court but to actually compete, you have to be in a tremendous amount of shape, a different type of shape than you probably ever thought,” said Garraud, who played two seasons at St. Mary’s. “That was one of the biggest things.”
Boston College head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee told Garraud and her teammates that she wants to be the fittest team in the ACC.
The Lynn native also noticed how technical the game of basketball was.
“Here you have concepts, you have plays, you have chemistry, you have all these things that go into playing,” she said. “You can’t just be a good player to get on the court. You have to be able to do all the team stuff, you have to know the defense, you have to be reliable to your teammates and learn the offense.”
Heading into her senior season, Garraud and the Eagles are looking to get into post-conference play and hopefully get Bernabei-McNamara into her first NCAA tournament since coming to Boston.
“We want to make it to a (NCAA) tournament,” Garraud said. “We have a strong core of seniors. We have five seniors basically and that’s a really strong core of our team. We all had that same mindset that this is our last year. We want to do something special. We want to continue our legacy.”
While Garraud spends a lot of time in Chestnut Hill, when she thinks of Lynn, she is reminded of the tight-knit basketball community.
“I’ve had a lot of good memories,” she said of her hometown. “Lynn reminds me of the community. There are so many people there that either helped me or feel like family there, (and) so many friends there. I grew up there. I still live there. I have a lot of family and people that support me there.”
Garraud went to elementary school at Sacred Heart and then transitioned to St. Mary’s, where she spent two years before finishing her education at Noble and Greenough, a boarding school in Dedham.
While she was a Spartan, Garraud said that she was supported by so many individuals ― including her coaches who helped her grow as a player.
“The basketball community, especially in Lynn, is so tight-knit,” she said.
Garraud added that she got her first real taste of serious basketball at St. Mary’s. After starting to play the sport in fifth grade, she finally realized just how far she could go while at the Lynn school under the guidance of head coach Jeff Newhall.
“That’s when it became real that you can play in college, that you can get a scholarship, and my coaches at St. Mary’s helped me realize that,” Garraud said. “They helped me get exposure and I didn’t even realize that (opportunity) was out there yet, so then I started taking it more seriously.”
Garraud ended up going to Boston College for a multitude of reasons. She mentioned that her parents wanted her to stay close to home, and the ACC school is a top academic institution in the nation. The Lynn native enjoys having her family and friends be able to attend any of her home games.
Garraud is enrolled in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, which is a renowned program throughout the nation. Garraud mentioned that being successful both on and off the court is something that was instilled in her by her parents. That is evident as the Lynn native has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team multiple times in her collegiate career.
“Sports end eventually, and especially the way the world is right now, unless you are going to the WNBA or playing overseas ― which is obviously a possibility and hopefully a goal of mine as well ― but eventually you are going to have to make money or do something,” said Garraud. “So why waste your time now doing nothing in school or why don’t you find something you are interested in and study hard? And later on, if you build on that, you can make a career out of it if basketball doesn’t work out. That’s always been important to me and I just like knowledge. I just like knowing things. I think I got that from my mom because even though she says she isn’t going back to school, she might go back to school.”
Women’s basketball has started to get more attention in recent years. The WNBA has gained more support from its male counterparts. Garraud said that it’s been inspiring to see the women’s game get the respect it deserves.
“To see people getting attention in the media and people actually starting to see the value of women’s basketball, and people are putting effort into supporting them and going out of their way. I think that’s extremely powerful,” said Garraud. “For a while people were talking about it but it was like people were talking and nobody was listening. Now it seems like people are listening and people are realizing that this needs to change, and it’s starting to seem like it’s going in that direction as well.”
Still, Garraud realizes that there is more work to be done. She believes that players as well as fans need to continue to use their voice.
“I genuinely think there is so much power in social media,” she said. “People see that and especially now in this climate, if something is wrong and you put it on social media, there’s a good chance that it’s going to change. People don’t want their reputation to be tarnished, especially on the internet. So I think people need to continue not being afraid to use their voice and speak up when something is not right and that’s the only way things will change because if it’s not being said no one will ever know that needs to change. I think we are starting to build a society where when something is wrong, people are looking for answers trying to fix it. So as long as people keep speaking up I think it’s going to keep progressing and that’s the only way change is going to happen.”
Garraud is graduating early in December and will begin her path to getting a Master of Business Administration degree.
Still, her ultimate goal is to play basketball overseas.
“Right now I’m just having fun and trying to play basketball until I can’t,” she said.