Mark Montieth: Marian point guard shows how to navigate motherhood as a college athlete

She could have taken an easier path. Could have decided not to keep the baby. Or not to play while pregnant. Or not to come back for a fifth season. Could have just finished school and started on her dream of playing professionally or becoming a coach.

But then, Abby Downard has not been one to back down from challenges.

Downard, Marian University’s starting point guard for the past four seasons, has overcome plenty of obstacles during her college basketball career.

There was the ACL tear that limited her to 17 games as a freshman. Then the stress fracture in her hip that kept her out of seven games as a sophomore starter but didn’t keep her from leading the team in assists. Then the COVID restrictions that canceled the NAIA tournament as a junior when she was a first-team All-Crossroads League selection and second-team All-American.

Then, most dramatic of all, came last season’s pregnancy that she played through before giving birth to a son, Jaxon, on July 30. Talk about losing a step. Ever tried playing competitive basketball with a baby growing inside your body?

“It was terrible,” she said. “It was fine at first, but when we got to February, it was really hard.”

Terrible only in the context of the moment, of course. It’s all great now that Jaxon is healthy and Abby is thriving in her final season of college basketball amid a team effort that extends well beyond the court.

Jaxon, more familiarly known as Jax to family and friends, is like a second mascot for Marian’s women’s team, which is 12-2, ranked seventh nationally and riding a 10-game winning streak. He attends games at Marian with Abby’s mother, Deb, and father, Tom, who played at Ben Davis High School and coached Abby in AAU and at Ritter High School. Jax rides with Abby on the team bus to road games, then falls into the care of one or both of her parents.

“It’s a well-oiled machine,” Deb said.

Jaxon attends some game-day shoot arounds with Abby as well as team functions such as Monday’s Christmas party, where her teammates usually argue over who gets to hold him next.

“All the girls love it; they’re great with him,” Abby said. “They help out a lot.”

It’s a circumstance Marian’s first-year coach Steve Brooks inherited but respects. Although Jax is often imbedded with the team, he has not been a distraction.

“Ninety percent of the time, Jax sleeps,” Brooks said. “Every once in a while, he’ll get restless and Abby will walk him up and down the aisle. She’s got people around who will help her but she’s a real good mom.

“It’s been something that’s brought our whole team together.”

It takes a village. Or, in this case, a team and extended family. She and Jaxon’s father, Sterling Brown, who is working on a master’s degree while playing his final season as the point guard at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, were both initially shocked by the pregnancy. They quickly adjusted to accepting their new reality, however, and were eventually thrilled by the prospect of having a son. They are not engaged but communicate almost daily. Brown, a Carmel High School graduate who played 2-1/2 seasons at Marian before transferring, drives to Indianapolis twice a month on average to see his son.

“It’s still a shock,” Brown said. “I didn’t expect to be a father at this point in my life. But it became something I enjoyed. It’s something so special you can’t put into words, but it’s something every father understands.”

The greatest challenge, obviously, has belonged to Abby, who had to carry and deliver the baby and then overcome the challenges of physical recovery. She could have quit basketball, if not school, and people would have understood, but she gave no serious thought to any of that.

It helped knowing that pregnant athletes have competed, and succeeded, in all sports, including basketball. The WNBA responded to the trend by adopting a provision in January 2020 that gives players full salary and other benefits during maternity leave.

Abby’s first move upon realizing last year that she was pregnant was to notify her coach, Katie Gearlds, whose response was to tell her to notify her parents. Abby didn’t tell her teammates immediately but eventually mentioned it casually in the locker room following a practice. Their initial disbelief quickly turned to celebration.

With her doctor’s approval, Abby finished the season. Her production and percentages dropped off slightly, to 9.3 points on 46% shooting and 4.8 assists, but she remained a vital part of a team that finished 27-6 and won the conference championship for the fourth consecutive season of her career.

“She was so stubborn,” said Gearlds, who is now Purdue’s head coach. “She never told us when she was hurting. She just wanted to play basketball and win.”

That became increasingly difficult as the season went along. By mid-February, Abby was losing some of her quickness and speed, so Gearlds had a teammate bring the ball upcourt and pass it to Abby, who then initiated the halfcourt offense. She also was allowed to sit out some of the conditioning drills and even a few practices when she wasn’t feeling well, and to sleep longer on the team bus before games to get more rest.

“I was pretty slow,” she recalled. “I don’t know why they had me out there.”

Here’s why: “She was the heart and soul of our team,” Gearlds said. “She was our leader, our captain.”

That’s not to say there weren’t some frightening moments. She got knocked around and down as all basketball players do. If opposing players were aware of her condition and taking any degree of pity on her, she didn’t notice.

“The day of the conference tournament, we opened up here, she was in some pain because Jax was clear over to her right side,” Abby’s mother, Deb, said. “She went to the doctor that morning and we didn’t know if she was going to be able to play or not.

“I was a little nervous then. And I was a little nervous a few times when she fell down or got tripped. But overall, she knew to listen to her body.”

Abby graduated with a degree in sports performance last spring. She could have ended her college career then, but Jaxon’s birth gave her more reason to take advantage of a fifth season. It would help to stay close to her parents during her first months of motherhood, and she wanted to have the experience of competing for an NAIA championship while healthy.

Marian’s gymnasium was closed the past two summers because of COVID safety protocols, but Athletic Director Steve Downing opened it for Abby in the mornings to work out on her own. It was especially important this year following Jaxon’s birth when she needed to regain her stamina and skills leading up to preseason practice.

Downing’s reasons for extending that privilege to her were simple.

“Because I liked her,” Downing said. “And she was the only one who asked me to do that.”

The challenges still come 24/7. Abby is living alone in a house off campus as she works toward a second degree in health and physical education. She took 12 hours in the first semester but needs to take just one class in the second semester.

Combining the roles of mom, athlete and student tends to make for full days.

“I knew she’d be a great mother, but I’m thoroughly impressed,” Deb said. “She’s extremely organized, with a color-coded calendar and everything.”

Abby is helping keep Marian’s team stay organized as well. She is averaging 10.1 points while shooting 47% from the field and 89.5% from the foul line, leads the team in assists (61) and steals (256), and has just 22 turnovers. Not being compromised physically helps, but so does the challenge of motherhood.

“It makes me work a lot harder and it reminds me not to take things for granted,” she said.

She wants to try to fulfill her dream of playing professionally in Europe next year. Brown, who is Trinity’s second-leading scorer with an 18.2 scoring average, wants to do the same. They both want to coach someday as well. They are committed to trying to align their careers geographically and logistically to be able to continue co-parenting Jaxon, but that will have to be worked out as they go.

The future can’t always be mapped out in color-coded calendars. Unexpected events occur and adjustments must be made, but challenges can be met.•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.

Correction: This column has been changed to correct the spelling of Jaxon. You can see more corrections at ibj.com/corrections.