COURTSIDE

Meet Sophomore and Senior Standouts

By UNC Asheville

In Athletics & Spring 2020 Magazine

February 5^th, 2020

Sonora Dengokl

Everyone says Sonora Dengokl is mature beyond her years.

The UNC Asheville Bulldogs’ star basketball guard was raised in Sumter, S.C. as an only child by her mother. Susan Dengokl, a native of Palau in the Pacific Islands (near the Philippines), owned a Chinese restaurant there called Hiro’s. Little Sonora ran the cash register at the tender age of 10.

She graduated from Lakewood High School as Salutatorian—the second highest ranked graduate of her class—and was named to South Carolina’s All-State team on Lakewood’s AAA State Championship Game runner-up club. Although a lightly recruited 5-9 shooting guard, the Bulldogs’ Head Basketball Coach Brenda (Mock) Kirkpatrick Brown recognized her talent and offered a scholarship.

Majoring in health and wellness promotion, she adapted well to college life as both a student and athlete. She played in all 29 games as a freshman, making one start and averaging 6.1 points and 3.5 rebounds. As a sophomore, Dengokl was a role player, averaging 7.0 points and 4.3 rebounds during the regular season. She had a season-high 20 points in UNC Asheville’s first-round Big South Championship game and then soared for a seasonhigh 10 rebounds in the Bulldogs’ second-round win. She was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Dengokl figured to be the centerpiece of a powerhouse club, but in September 2017, she shared some big news with her coach. Dengokl and her fiancé were expecting a baby boy.

“We weren’t just losing her stats,” Mock said. “We were losing her intangibles. She has so much passion. She’s one of the most competitive players I have ever coached. Our players looked to her for inspiration.”

The inspiration continued though, and true to her personality, Dengokl faced her pregnancy and the challenge of attending college with her fiancé across the ocean with typical aplomb. Antonio Cuspert, her sweetheart since high school and now her husband, had been serving in the U.S. Army and was stationed in communications on a base in Brussels, Belgium.

On April 27, 2018, a beautiful baby boy named Aiden came into the world—and Sonora’s world would never be the same. She spent the first four months with her newborn, before classes resumed in September and her mother and grandmother took care of little Aiden. Sonora drove home to Sumter, S.C. on weekends that fall and resumed basketball. She showed flashes of brilliance in becoming the team’s leading scorer (14.4) and No. 2 rebounder (4.1) that season. Twice she was named Big South Player of the Week.

Then last spring, Dengokl graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 3.8 grade-point average and a bachelor’s degree in health and wellness promotion. She plans to go to nursing school at either Emory University in Atlanta or another world-renowned school with the intent to become a nurse practitioner, but first there’s one more basketball season to take care of and a minor in psychology that she could add with two more classes. This time, she’s bringing Aiden along, making it a true Bulldog family.

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Ansley Rooks

Born in West Palm Beach, Fla. before moving to Western North Carolina at age two, Ansley Rooks has always been a natural athlete. She was a fourtime all-conference selection in volleyball—twice at Morganton High School and twice at Hickory High when her family moved there after her sophomore year—and earned all-conference honors three times in both basketball and soccer. What’s more, she was named to the National Honors Society and won the AAA Scholar Athlete Award.

College basketball scouts often attended her games, particularly after Rooks led Hickory High to the North Carolina State Championship her junior season, but it was a summer camp that brought her to UNC Asheville in person.

“We got a chance to see her live and up close, and see how she interacted with other players,” remembers Head Coach Frederico Santos. “We became increasingly impressed and offered her a scholarship at the end of camp.”

Rooks made her decision to accept the offer about as fast as one of her patented spikes.

“I just loved everything about the school right away,” said Rooks. “It just felt right. It was something about the energy on campus and how happy everybody seemed to be.”

Rooks made her mark immediately on the UNC Asheville team, starting 21 of 23 matches while recording 188 kills and 156 digs as a freshman. The highlight of that sophomore year came in Tallahassee, Fla., where she was named to the Seminole Invitation All-Tournament Team. Yet, after the contest, no one was talking about her remarkable statistics. Instead, the buzz at the tournament was all about one play Rooks made with her…foot! The unorthodox play was featured nationally on ESPNW’s Top 10 plays on that night.

“I think it just showed her competitiveness,” pointed out Santos. “If she couldn’t reach down for a dig, she was going to use some other body part to make the play. I couldn’t believe it.”

It was also that competitiveness that provided the impetus for Rooks’ incredible recovery from serious off-season hip surgery after her sophomore season. Remarkably, she did not miss one match the next season, and she paired leadership on the court with leadership in the classroom and her career. As part of the athletic department’s mentorship program for student-athletes called “Leaders for Leaders,” she has spent two years under the tutelage of Dr. Keith Black, a local orthodontist. She interned in his office this past summer, and is now laser-focused on pursuing a career in dental hygiene after she graduates with a degree in health and wellness promotion this spring.

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DeVon Baker

As a freshman last season, DeVon Baker was baptized under fire while emerging as a leader on the youngest team in NCAA Division I basketball. As the club’s primary ball-handler, Baker averaged a team-leading 16.1 points and 35 minutes per game.

“He played with the ball in his hands as much as any guard in the league,” Head Coach Mike Morrell said. “As a true freshman, that was a lot to ask of him.”

When asked to describe Baker—his prized recruit in the first year of his program’s construction—as both a person and player, the coach answered with one word.

“Trust. DeVon gives me confidence,” Morrell said. “I just trust him both on and off the floor. He’s a really responsible person. He takes good care of his body. He’s so tough mentally and physically…. He came here with those qualities. It’s his family. He has as great of parents as you can have.”

Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Baker says his parents, first and foremost, taught him to always be responsible. His mother, Robin, was a day care worker at a nearby Air Force Base, while his father, DeVon Sr., owns his own dump-truck company that hauls asphalt and other building materials. He also has three sisters.

As he’s earned the coach’s trust over the past year, he’s also earned the grades emblematic of a true student-athlete. A management major, Baker has learned that the demands in college are much more than high school. He regularly lugs schoolbooks and homework onto the team bus during road trips.

“I plan on using my degree to join my dad’s business and maybe expand his trucking operation to Asheville or other places,” Baker said. Voted a team captain this season by his teammates, Baker has not forgotten the lessons he learned in his rookie year. “I learned you need to play through adversity,” he said. “Things don’t always go as planned. I also had to adjust to a faster game, and that meant being in better shape. On the college level, everybody is good. You need to be prepared.”

“Baker will continue to grow as a player and we’ll continue to push him,” Morrell said. “He has a very high ceiling. And the fact that he lets you coach him only helps that growth.” It’s a good bet that Baker will touch that ceiling someday. Hard work, dedication and the lesson of responsibility his parents taught him as a child almost guarantees it.