By Izabela Gage Asst. Sports Editor Flannery O’Connor, 24, has made her return to Framingham State as a volunteer assistant coach of the women’s basketball team. She wasted no time to trade her uniform in for a clipboard after just graduating last spring. The announcement that she would be joining the staff was made Sept. 12. O’Connor said her new role in the Framingham State Athletics Department is really special to her. “The choice to come back was super easy. “Our assistant coaches that we have had the past few years have made the experience such a game changer. … [They] do everything - they go above and beyond every single day. “So if I can make a difference in any of these girls' lives, like they have for me, then I would love to be part of it,” she added. She said she couldn’t wait to start coaching. “I would always throw hints about coming back to Coach [Walter] Paschal during the season, and he'd be like, ‘All right, let's focus on what we have right now. You’re still playing,’ and I’d say, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot.’” She added that she never felt unsure about her choice to return. “I drive three hours a day to get there and it's super worth it, honestly.” “The moment Coach said it for real, I was like, ‘I'm 100% if you're in,’” she added. O’Connor said the main reason she wanted to come back as a coach was to be able to stay involved with basketball. She added that she’s had fantastic relationships with every coach she’s ever had. “They continued to grow my love for the sport.” O’Connor said her favorite memory from when she started playing basketball was “being outside with my dad and my brothers. My mom would come outside and she would be like, ‘Don't let them push you around.’ And that's always been my motto.” She said she helped coach third, fourth, eighth, and 10th grade boys basketball in the spring. “I just coached a season of AAU basketball with Jenna Tavanese ’24 and the other assistant coach, Raegan Mulherin ’18. … It was very different from girls basketball, but it was very fun.” In her four years as a Ram, O’Connor recorded 1,654 points, with a 52.5 field goal percentage and a 77.6 free throw percentage. O’Connor was a health and wellness major, with minors in child and family studies, and biology. She was also a captain of the basketball team for her junior and senior years at FSU. She said her favorite basketball memory was this past season. “Winning our championship just felt like the icing on top of the cake. I couldn't have imagined a better way to end my basketball career - especially doing it with Gwen [Carpenter] and the rest of the girls. “Gwen and I have been playing basketball together for five years, and we spent every single day together. So just doing that together was super special,” she added. She said she has many favorite parts of Framingham State Athletics, but number one is how Framingham is a “very close-knit group. I feel like a lot of the athletes find support in each other, because we're all going through something very similar. So having that type of community was definitely one of my favorite parts.” O’Connor said getting to see the teammates she got so close with over her athletic career at FSU is really special to her. “To see them working so hard at the sport that they love is definitely very rewarding.” On Nov. 20, Framingham State Athletics updated the women’s basketball 1,000 point scorers banner that’s hanging up in the Logan Gymnasium with O’Connor earning second place as an all-time scorer. O’Connor said she had no idea it was happening. “I showed up for practice a couple minutes late, and the whole team started clapping for me, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they're making fun of me because I'm late.’ “Then Coach pointed at the banner, and everybody kept clapping. And it was super special,” she added. She said it was sweet to have some of the girls there who were her teammates while she made her mark on the program. “Getting passes from Katie, Kelsey, Gwen, all the girls - it doesn't mean anything without them.”