Only 19, Cal Poly Freshman’s Biggest Fan Is Her Daughter, 5 : College Basketball: Responsibility is no stranger to Danielle Carter, breadwinner, top student and a center on the Bronco women’s team.

As a freshman playing basketball at Cal Poly Pomona, Danielle Carter would be the last person to ask for a favor or expect special consideration from her coaches or teammates.

Carter merely wants to be treated the same as any other player on the squad.

However, in many respects, Carter is unlike any other player on the Bronco roster or in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., which includes Cal State Dominguez Hills.

She is certainly different from any player May says she has ever coached.

At an early age, Carter had to assume many responsibilities. More than most basketball players her age could scarcely imagine.

It is doubtful there are any other 19-year-olds who can say they are raising a 5-year-old daughter, succeeding on the basketball court and managing to excel in the classroom.

“I think she’s unique in what she’s accomplished,” May said. “I don’t think there’s anyone else I know who is in the same position. At a young age, she’s already raising a child, living on her own, working at a job, seeing to her housing needs, getting good grades in school and succeeding as a basketball player.”

Learning to accept responsibility is an essential element of May’s coaching philosophy. She has never had to utter a word on the subject to Carter.

“That’s one thing we try to preach to our players but Dani came in like that,” May said. “She had to grow up at 13 when the rest of us were just starting to grow up at 18 or 19.”

Carter learned about responsibility the hard way, after she became pregnant at 13 in the summer before she entered the ninth grade.

When told she was pregnant, Carter said she wasn’t surprised and even looked forward to becoming a mother.

“I knew I was pregnant before I took the test because I already had morning sickness,” Carter says. “The only thing I was afraid of was telling my grandmother. I wasn’t really scared about having a child. My older sister had a child when she was 16, so she was able to shed some light on the subject for me.”

But Carter soon began to realize the difficulties ahead.

It was not long after she became pregnant that her boyfriend broke off their relationship.

After giving birth at 14, Carter said she skipped a year of school to take care of her daughter, Jessica, and received little support from her family except from her older sister, Shellie, and grandmother, Dorothy Jackson.

In fact, it wasn’t long after Carter had given birth that she was forced to leave home and find housing on her own.

“When I was (in high school) I was always moving from place to place because I had to find (affordable) housing,” she said. “I didn’t really get situated until the summer of my junior year.”

While she attended Fontana High, Carter said she lived with her grandmother for a year and with a girlfriend for another year before being on her own for a year.

She said she was able to work one summer, between her sophomore and junior years in high school, and survived mostly through welfare payments and other financial assistance.

“I think the hardest part in ninth and 10th grades was getting a baby-sitter,” Carter said. “I also had to wake up pretty early in the morning to get her (Jessica) ready for the sitter and go to school.”

It might have been too much to expect Carter to also succeed in the classroom, but the academic side of life has never been difficult for her.

Carter carried a 3.72 grade-point average through high school and was ranked 16th in a class of 734 students as a senior.

“It was probably easier for me than it would have been for another teen-ager in my predicament because school has always come pretty easy for me,” Carter says. “I like school and I’ve always enjoyed learning. It seems like I can grasp a subject without a lot of studying.”

That is not to say good grades have come without considerable effort on Carter’s part.

“I’ve always had to budget my time,” she said. “Every day I had to leave things out and I’d be lying if I said it was my daughter or basketball. Sometimes it would be difficult (to study) during the week. So on the weekend I had to catch up and do a lot of reading and studying.”

For as long as she has played, the 6-foot-2, 186-pound Carter has also proven to be a quick study of basketball.

On the court, Carter said, she has been a success since she first started competing in the sixth grade. She established herself as one of the premier players in high school as a junior, when she averaged 21.3 points and earned All-CIF Southern Section 3-A Division honors.

As a senior, Carter was among the leading scorers in the state with a 30.3-point average. She also made the All-Southern Section Division I team in sparking her team to the 5-AA Division finals.

It was figures such as those that piqued the interest of college recruiters including NCAA Division I programs such as Louisiana Tech, UCLA, Colorado and Weber State and Division II power Pomona.

“I got a lot of letters and I talked to a few coaches on the phone,” Carter said. “But I didn’t really consider anyone except Cal Poly and Louisiana Tech.”

She isn’t certain if interest from most Division I schools subsided after coaches learned that she was raising a young daughter.

“None of them really expressed any feelings toward that,” Carter said. “But I think the Division I coaches knew that if I came to their program I had a lot of other responsibilities that might keep me away. So that might have kept them from calling me.”

May said the fact that Carter had a young child only served to heighten her interest in recruiting her.

“That’s one of the main reasons we were interested in her, because of the tremendous character she had,” the coach said. “We were just as interested in her as a person--maybe more so--as we were as a player and I told her that from the day I started recruiting her. She knew it was never a problem for me. If anything, it was a positive thing.”

From Carter’s perspective, Pomona was an ideal choice. While it was not Division I, the Broncos had a program that was as accustomed to winning as Carter was in high school and the school was within acceptable driving distance from her home in Fontana.

“I hate to lose, so I wanted to go to a winning program and Cal Poly was a winning program,” she said. “Why go Division I, anyway, if you’re going to lose all the time. We’re winning here and everyone’s happy.”

In her first year with the Broncos, Carter’s team has a 27-3 record and is ranked No. 2 in Division II. She has adjusted well to the college game. Carter has averaged 9.9 points and 6.8 rebounds to rank among the team leaders despite playing as a reserve center. She was selected to the All-CCAA second team two weeks ago.

“It’s more physical in college and I’ve had a few more injuries than I had in high school,” she says. “I’ve also had to come off the bench more than I did in high school. But I get a lot of playing time so I have nothing to complain about.”

Likewise, you will not hear any complaints from May about Carter’s progress on the court.

“I’m amazed at how well she’s done,” May said. “I had no idea how well she would adjust and she has really contributed to our team. Offensively she’s got some natural moves that neither (assistant coach) Barb (Thaller) nor I taught her. She’s got really strong hands, so when she gets the ball she doesn’t lose it very often and she has very quick feet for her size.”

Carter has the potential for greatness at the Division II level if she controls her weight better.

“If she could lose another 10 pounds it would make a tremendous difference in her game,” she says. “I think if she does that she would be a legitimate All-America candidate. I don’t think (the weight) helps her endurance.”

Carter says she is making progress.

“Between conditioning and practice, I’ve gotten into better shape,” she said. “The practices are longer (than in high school) and there’s more running. That’s what has kept me in better shape. Just by working out and playing the college game, I think by next year I’ll be in even better shape.”

It has been more difficult, Carter admits, adjusting to a less stringent time schedule for classes and practices in college.

“In high school it was easier to get on a schedule because games were at this time and school was at that time,” she said. “They were all set times. But college is different because class times vary and games and practices are always at different times. We might also have a practice cancelled once in a while and that will change things, too. I’m still trying to get on a good schedule so I can get everything accomplished but I think I can work it out.”

When she first recruited Carter, May figured she would have to make a lot of compromises because of the player’s other responsibilities. But that has not been the case.

“She’s the kind who doesn’t ever want to make that an excuse,” May said. “She has never missed a practice except when her car broke down.”

While Carter hasn’t asked the coaches to make compromises for her, they have made a couple.

“The team and coach make it easier for me because Jessica can sit in on practices and they also have a children’s center right on campus,” she said. “She can sit in at practices as long as she’s not disruptive and not causing any problems.”

The coach said Carter has never allowed that to be a problem.

“She (Jessica) was at practice the other day and we didn’t even notice she was there,” May said. “She was just sitting in a corner playing with her toys. Danielle’s very good with her. When she tells her to do something, she does it.”

May says her admiration for Carter, both on and off the court, grows with each passing day.

“I think she’s a really special person to be where she’s at with all the adversity she’s had in her life,” she said. “She’s just an exceptional person. It would take an exceptional person to have it work out the way it has for her.”

However, it hasn’t quite worked out to perfection for Carter. Despite having a full scholarship, Carter said she has never had enough money to support her and her daughter and still relies on “a lot of financial assistance” to survive.

You will barely hear a whimper of protest from Carter, though.

“I can’t complain,” she says. “I’m really happy with my life now. I could be making some more money but I wouldn’t change anything.”

Carter said she wouldn’t have gotten this far without strong support. Besides her sister, Carter said her boyfriend of the last three years--Brian Malone, 24, of Fontana--has helped considerably.

“I had a lot of help from my sister, Shellie, because she has two kids of her own and Brian would help me study,” she said. “I probably got more support from Brian than I did from my entire family except for Shellie.”

Malone, who has also faced a measure of financial difficulty, said he is unemployed but looking for work. That usually leaves him available to watch Jessica during the week.

“I come over in the afternoon to watch her,” he said. “We try to take it all in stride as far as Jessica is concerned.”

Malone said he and Carter have touched upon the subject of marriage, although it is not in their immediate plans.

Carter said she is more concerned about her career after basketball and realizes that her education will play a major role. A biology major, she has dreams of becoming an obstetrician--a field in which she has already received firsthand practice.

She says it will require eight to 10 more years of schooling until she receives her medical license.

Carter realizes that will mean even more sacrifices and commitment on her part. But Carter has never been one to steer away from responsibility.