# Tess Heal - Perennial Freshman of the Week

**URL:** <https://forum.wakeupswig.com/t/tess-heal-perennial-freshman-of-the-week/596>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [February 21, 2023, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.wakeupswig.com/t/tess-heal-perennial-freshman-of-the-week/596 "2023-02-21T19:55:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![getnashty](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.wakeupswig.com/getnashty/32/1253_2.png) [@getnashty](https://forum.wakeupswig.com/u/getnashty)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 7:55pm UTC](https://forum.wakeupswig.com/t/tess-heal-perennial-freshman-of-the-week/596/1 "2023-02-21T19:55:57Z")

</div>

I don’t know much about the WBB team, but from checking in on the SCU website to get to previews for the MBB games, I keep seeing articles like this:

> **[Heal Wins Record-Tying 11th WCC Freshman of the Week Award](https://santaclarabroncos.com/sports/w-baskbl/2022-23/releases/20230220m32unr)**
>
> Santa Clara University women’s basketball’s Tess Heal earned her record-tying 11th West Coast Conference Freshman of the Week award Monday, grabbing the nod this time for her historic week of Feb. 13-19 against two of the conference’s top-four teams.

She has won the WCC Freshman of the Week 11 times! Deserves a mention on here somewhere (if there’s another mention I missed it)!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PattyMac](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.wakeupswig.com/pattymac/32/15_2.png) [@PattyMac](https://forum.wakeupswig.com/u/PattyMac)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://forum.wakeupswig.com/t/tess-heal-perennial-freshman-of-the-week/596/2 "2023-02-21T20:50:26Z")

</div>

I’ve been checking in on the women’s program a bit for similar reasons. Tess Heal is an absolute baller. She got 39 points against BYU last week, including going 15 for 15 from the charity stripe. If there were an award for best basketball frosh overall, Heal would be pretty close to the unanimous pick even over Mahaney.

The SCU women’s team got a great upset win over the ranked and first-place Zags. But those are the bright spots so far. Otherwise, the team has largely struggled, hopefully building for a surge next season.

JR Payne, the previous women’s coach, made the watch list for National Coach of the Year (final 15 candidates) for her job at CU Boulder. She led a pretty stellar turnaround for the SCU women during her brief time at the helm. That kind of coaching talent only comes around once in a while, and SCU needs to do a better job retaining it.