When Sara Bershers began her journey as a college basketball player, she definitely didn’t think it would take her six years to complete it. Along the way, though, there was the COVID pandemic, a transfer to another school, going to a big city, an ACL injury and missing an entire season as a result.
At the same time, however, there was a comeback from that injury, being able to score her 1,000th career point and being reunited with her high school teammate and younger sister.
Bershers, a forward who played high school ball at Northside and helped lead the Lady Bears to a state title in 2019, is about to finish her college career at Alabama-Birmingham, where she has played since the 2022-23 season after originally playing at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
“I think within the last few days it has definitely started to hit that, you know, this is going to be it after playing six years,” Bershers said. “It’s kind of crazy. But, I’m glad that I’m able to finish this out with my sister (Tracey) and just with all of my teammates.”
Sara and Tracey, a junior forward at UAB who rejoined Sara after spending her first season at Oklahoma State, each had to make not only the adjustment of switching schools but going to one in a city as big as Birmingham.
“I hate change, and so change was scary at the beginning, but I knew anywhere that Tracey and I would be, we would be successful at, and I mean, I feel like we have been successful where we’ve been these past few years,” Sara said. “So yeah, I’m definitely glad that we decided to transfer together.
“Birmingham is awesome. Honestly, we struggled at first, because like I said, we’re not used to that kind of atmosphere. But once we ventured out a little bit, it started to grow on us, and we actually really love Birmingham.”
Things were really starting to go good for Sara until Feb. 11, 2023, when she tore her ACL, forcing her to miss the rest of that season and redshirting the 2023-24 season. But since returning to the court, Bershers is one of the Blazers’ top scorers, averaging nearly 9 points and 3 rebounds per game. Her season high in scoring was 19 points against Wichita State in late January, during a stretch where Bershers was in double figures four times in five games.
“Personally, I just feel that I’m just really proud of myself for coming back,” she said. “You know, after tearing my ACL and sitting out a year, I feel like sitting out that year and resting was probably the best thing for me. But I’m just proud of the way that I’ve come back and fought through adversity, because it hasn’t been an easy six years, but you know, it’s just got to be possible.”
But Bershers’ personal favorite game this season wasn’t one where she scored in double figures. She had only 8 points in a game against Temple, but did achieve her 1,000th career point in that game, which fell on Feb. 11 – two years to the day she tore her ACL.
“I think that was a special game. … That’s the one I’ll probably remember the most,” Bershers said.
Following college, Bershers wants to study to be a physician assistant. She’s also looking forward to seeing Tracey play as well as their younger sister Zoey, a senior at Farmington who signed to play at Minnesota.
There’s one more thing Sara would like to have in order to be truly fulfilled through six years of college basketball. That’s making the NCAA Tournament, something she’s never done in her career. UAB will try to get that NCAA bid at the American Athletic Conference tournament the first week of March in Fort Worth.
“I think we have a really good chance,” Bershers said. “Last year, we made it to the WNIT, and I think we have a pretty good chance of being able to make it to postseason this year.”
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