Maria Davenport
 Image by Shrouded Nights | |
| No. 76 – Lorain Firestorm | |
|---|---|
| Position | Guard |
| Species | White lioness ( Felidae ) |
| Gender | She/her |
| Nickname(s) | |
| Mistress of Metal, MIG, Mardi Gras | |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
February 29, 2000 New Iberia, LA |
| Nationality | American |
| Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Listed weight | 190 lb (86 kg) |
| Shoots | Right-handed |
| Career information | |
| School | Claiborne University |
| FBA draft | 2022 / Round: 1 / Pick: 23rd overall |
| Selected by the Lorain Firestorm | |
| Pro playing career | 2022–present |
| Career history | |
| 2022 - present | Lorain Firestorm |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Contract information | |
| Contract year | 2022 |
| 2026 Salary | $6 million |
| 2027 Salary | $6.5 million |
| Player Contacts | |
| (IC) Agent | Hoomiku |
| (OOC) Creator | Hoomiku |
| (OOC) Actor | Unknown |
| (OOC) Usage | Ask me before any use |
Biography
The Mistress of Metal. MIG. Mardi Gras. The daughter of Harold and Catherine Davenport, Maria’s childhood has been defined by both food and flux. Her father owns a large marine manufacturing firm based at the Port of Iberia specializing in constructing ships and rigs for the offshore oil industry, and has acquired a lifetime of skills in the field. Her mother has risen through the ranks over the years at a world renowned hot sauce producer located not far away. While her father always wanted a son to pass on his skills, a difficult pregnancy for Catherine meant that their daughter would be the only child the pair would have. Her father nevertheless passed on his skills to Maria, who grew up in the shadow of large support ships and who, once old enough to pick up a welder and learn how to use it, proved every bit her father’s child. Her skills at welding proved to be unparalleled and the lioness eagerly buried herself in books on engineering and mathematics. As a result, she grew up as more than a bit of a tomboy and friends did not come easily to her. However, one afternoon altered Maria’s future prospects. One rainy afternoon during middle school, a PE class consisted of learning the fundamentals of basketball and playing a game indoors. Maria, an early bloomer and already taller than most of her other classmates, discovered a hidden talent for the sport. This only bloomed further on returning home, when her father revealed that he’d been on the Claiborne University basketball team in college, but had been forced to choose a different path after a knee injury during his senior year. With the encouragement of both her father and her coach, Maria signed up for the school’s team and proved as skilled on the court as she was when holding a welding gun. With her grades and skills secure in hand, Claiborne offered the lioness a scholarship into their engineering program, to her delight. With Claiborne offering one of the best engineering programs in the country and with a renewed push for a top tier basketball team, Claiborne offered her a unique chance to build herself into a terrifying force both in basketball and during competition in a somewhat unique side sport…
Physical description
Maria is a white lioness with icy blue eyes whose hair is usually dyed vividly. For 2022, it was dyed green, purple and gold for Mardi Gras and she has stuck with it for a few months out of stubbornness and due to the difficulty in dying her hair while maintaining a white coat of fur.
Personal life
Maria has had some trouble making friends in the past, both as a result of being a bit too hot blooded and being more than a little socially awkward. Basketball has actually helped her out significantly in these regards, as has welding, which she claims helps focus her mind. Starting in high school, she began to dye her hair in fabulous colors to give herself a unique look and has stuck with it until 2022. In the runup to Mardi Gras, the lioness elected to dye her hair in gold, purple and green… and only realized afterwards that the dye she selected was far more resilient than her usual choices. Partly out of spite and out of a genuine love of the colors, she has stuck with it.
Hobbies
During her years at Claiborne, Maria was involved in the Collegiate Improvised Engineering League in addition to basketball, along with fellow River Pilots teammate Xavier Clarke. Maria’s proficiency at welding has played no small part in the team’s victories, the most pivotal moment coming during the 2019 competition when Maria was tasked with performing an emergency repair of the Claiborne Explorer. The barge, built to recover a car from the bottom of a lake, sprang a leak during testing prior to the CIEL series final, and Maria was able to improvise and perform a repair in record time, enabling Claiborne to win the championship.
Despite having had troubles in the past making friends, she has found a strong friendship in her fellow CIEL teammates Xavier Clarke, Lenore Dufresne and Daniel ‘Danny’ McCormick. The four formed the core of a crack team of engineering wizards who excelled at creating amazing contraptions in a short timeframe and formed a foursome of pranksters able to pull off unique pranks that form the stuff of university legend.