University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Stephanie Paul
November 27, 2018 | Women's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Stephanie Paul loves to dance. A 6-foot-1 junior forward from Naples, Fla., Paul was one of the stars of Georgia's basketball kickoff event, StegMania, last month. She's an avid and talented dancer, which she clearly displayed during the dance-off portion of the evening.
Paul also won five state championships in high school in track and field, three in the discus and two in the shot put. In addition, her parents are originally from Haiti, and she has eight siblings (Lo, Jean, John, Matt, Josie, Da-Anna, Eunice and Dan). There was clearly a lot to talk about during our Quick Chat on Tuesday.
Here's some of what she had to say:Â
Frierson: Looking through your bio, one of the things that struck me was that you were an eighth-grader playing on the high school varsity team. What was it like being that young, because that's a big age gap if you're on the court with seniors?
Paul: It was pretty nerve-racking at first, just because I had moved to a new school that year and it was my first year at that school, and it was completely different because it was a private school. I got to learn a lot from the people that were older than me and I didn't really feel any pressure that year.
It was kind of a cool experience for me, going into high school, and I just go to play without having any pressure. It was a lot of fun, too.
Frierson: By the time you were a senior you were five years into it, so that's a lot of experience and wisdom you brought to that the team that year.
Paul: By the time I was a senior I was just chilling, telling people what to do.
Frierson: What is it like being the youngest of nine in your family? I have two brothers so I know what that's like, but I can't imagine what it's like being in that big a family. And I'm guessing yours is an athletic family and a competitive family.
Paul: Yes, everybody played at least one sport in high school, one or two, and then some of my older siblings played in college. One of my older brothers (Dan), he's about to graduate, and he played football for Eastern Kentucky; then I had another brother (Jean) that played basketball and football for Indiana; and then another one (Matt) played for the University of Denver, while some others played at smaller schools.
They're very familiar with playing sports at the college level. It's a lot of fun just being with my family, we do a lot of stuff together, we're very close, the whole family, not just my immediate family.
We do a lot of things together, especially Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving is when the whole entire family gets together, not just my immediate family, and that's one of my favorite holidays. I haven't gotten to be home for the past few years because of basketball, but that's one of my favorites.
It's just a lot of fun being with them and they teach me a lot of things.Â
Frierson: In terms of everyone being together and being competitive, how does that manifest itself? Are there epic basketball games or things like that?
Paul: Me and my sisters, there are some kids that will come to our house just to play basketball and then they to play us 3-on-3 and they think they can beat us. But they can't beat us.
Even if we're not playing basketball, if we're playing Uno or something like that, it gets really competitive, or Monopoly. We're very competitive but we also have a lot of fun.
Frierson: I was thinking about your Haitian background and I wondered if you and Quincy Mauger, the recent football player, ever got to know one another?
Paul: He was a senior, I think, my freshman year, and I didn't meet him or anything, but I knew that he was Haitian.
Frierson: I did one of these with him and he talked about a couple of Haitian dishes that he loved: sos pwa and the other one was griot. I'm sure those ring a bell for you.
Paul: Yes, especially griot. My mom, she came here for our first couple of games and she brought me some griot. It's like fried pork and you can eat it with pikliz or bannan, which is basically just fried plantains. The pikliz is kind of like a spicy topping that you put on it and it's really good.
Some of my teammates ask me for it or ask my mom to bring it when she comes.
Frierson: Take me back to your high school shot put and discus days. How good were you? I'm guessing pretty good with those state titles.
Paul: I was pretty good. I kind of miss it, I'm not going to lie. It was cool to be able to get a different feel for that kind of sport because it's an individual sport. It helps you a lot mentally because you really have to focus and narrow in on specific things.
Frierson: What's something creative you do, or wish you could do?
Paul: I like to dance a lot. That's all do is dance.
Frierson: I've heard you can sing, too.
Paul: I'm not that comfortable singing around that many people. Sometimes I'll do it, I've gotten more comfortable, but I like to sing. Dancing is more of my thing.
Frierson: You were clearly the star during StegMania.
Paul: I had the time of my life doing that. I was genuinely having the time of my life doing that dancing. I didn't really care about the competition that much, I mean it was great that we be (the men's team), but I was just having fun dancing.
Frierson: Have you ever danced in an organized event or production?
Paul: The only real dancing I've done, in high school I did theater and there was a lot of choreography that we had to learn. It was pretty difficult because we had to sing and dance at the same time, which is very hard.
Frierson: Could you still go out and do some of those dances, just because you had to memorize them and they stuck?
Paul: I remember some of them, still. We did them so many times to get it right, but it was a lot of fun.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
