Jonna Blaise
| No. 7 – Lorain Firestorm | |
|---|---|
| Position | Swingfur |
| Species | Chocolate Labrador ( Canidae ) |
| Gender | Female |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
January 14, 2004 Sommerville, OH |
| Nationality | |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Listed weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
| Shoots | Right-handed |
| Career information | |
| School | Muddy Waters High School (Oxford, OH) |
| FBA draft | 2022 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall |
| Selected by the Lorain Firestorm | |
| Pro playing career | 2022–present |
| Career history | |
| 2022 - present | Lorain Firestorm |
| Contract information | |
| Contract year | 2022 |
| 2023 Salary | $3 million |
| 2024 Salary | $3 million |
| Player Contacts | |
| (IC) Agent | Balu |
| (OOC) Creator | Balu |
| (OOC) Actor | Unknown |
| (OOC) Usage | Ask me before any use |
Biography
One hot southwestern Ohio summer evening in 2014, a little over 100 furs scoured the village of Somerville in search of 10 year old Jonna Blaise who had gone missing a few days before. A neighbor found her on the cracked and crumbling asphalt basketball court that was all that remained of an elementary school park, awkwardly attempting to shoot baskets with a well worn soccer ball. Inside the school was a sleeping bag, enough food to last Jonna the rest of the week, other survival gear that she thought she would need, and a school folder full of hand drawn diagrams of basketball drills. Annoyed at being interrupted, she explained that she hadn’t run away; a classmate showed her a video on their phone of the final game of the 2014 finals and she wanted to learn how to play basketball, but she didn’t want to ask for help because she didn’t think she needed it. This wasn’t the first time Jonna had done something like this so her mother made a deal with her: Jonna could continue to practice at the school, but she couldn’t sleep there anymore. Instead she would have to walk the four miles to the only basketball court in Somerville on her own in the morning and be back home by sundown. Her mother hoped this would discourage Jonna enough to quit. Instead, Jonna included two four mile runs as part of her conditioning and she started watching classic FBA and FCAA basketball games when she would get home. Seeing that her mind was made up and knowing that attempting to stop her would only make her more determined to succeed, her mom signed her up for a summer basketball league in nearby Oxford. She was far and away the worst player on the team, but she was also the hardest worker and would often spend as much time as she could getting in extra shots after practice. If there was enough time once she got home, she’d run to the school playground to get a few more drills in before nightfall. Her dad tried to stop her once, but gave in after Jonna started doing dribbling drills in the house. After that, her parents stopped trying to stop her and decided to fully support her love of the game as long as it didn’t fully take over her life.
By the time Jonna was in the eighth grade basketball had fully taken over her life. If she wasn’t in school or sleeping at home, she was on the court. She had been recruited for a spring league travel team and a summer league travel team in addition to trying out for and making the middle school team effectively filling her year with practices and games. While not the most technically sound player, her speed, endurance, and work rate turned the heads of opposing coaches, fans, and even a few college scouts. The summer before her freshman year of high school she received more than a few letters from college programs in the region that expressed interest in her and that they would be watching her progress with great interest. A few of the letters included an invitation to the Canidas Summer Gauntlet in Orlando, one of the premier invitation-only summer camps for high school players in the country, where those schools could better evaluate her. A few even offered to “sponsor” the trip to Florida if her family couldn’t afford it. Since freshmen were not allowed at the camp, Jonna focused on making her high school basketball team and ended up being the first freshman at Muddy Waters in over a decade to make the Varsity team. More surprisingly she was the first Ever Freshman to start for the Warriors varsity team. She would go on to tie the school record for points scored in a single game and a single season that year. She tied both records again her sophomore season and finally broke both records her junior year as part of the school’s first trip to the state championship finals. Her senior year, numerous regional and a few national sporting news outlets were showing her highlights and tracking her senior season. The campaign took the Warriors back to the state championship, where they would fall just short of a title, but Jonna had shattered the school’s single season scoring record and tied the national record for points scored in a season. It was suggested by a few of the talking heads that Jonna would be wasting her time and her talents playing for any school in the FCAA. To Jonna’s surprise, her parents agreed. While they believed that her education was important, she could always go back to school. It wouldn’t always be possible to get into the FBA.
On a mild southwestern Ohio evening in 2022 a national news crew broadcasted an audience of a little over 100 furs gathered on the cracked and crumbling asphalt basketball court that was all that remained of the long closed elementary school’s park. With her parents behind her, Jonna Blaise announced to the world that she wouldn’t be going to college and declared her entry into the FBA draft.