Saara Allouche

Keeping Belief in the Game

A first-year player learns to make room for disappointment without letting it take over.

Saara Allouche gives herself time to feel disappointed.

Then she reminds herself that difficult stretches belong to the process, too.

It’s an approach she had to develop after a foot injury interrupted her progress. Doubts followed: how much had she lost, and could she get it back? Believing she could rebuild became part of the work itself.

Saara does not expect herself to feel positive immediately about every setback. She allows the discouragement its moment, then tries to keep it from becoming the whole picture. The injury cost her progress she valued. It did not have to decide how much progress she could make afterward.

“A lesson I’ve learned is to always believe in myself, even when others don’t,” she says.

That belief is something she wants to practice when it is difficult, rather than only claim when the game is going well. At a new level, there will be uncomfortable moments. She wants to learn through them without forgetting what she can still become.

Now entering her first year of eligibility with St. Mary’s, Saara wants to regain focus when things become difficult and develop patience with the longer process. Learning and improving in uncomfortable circumstances is how she understands success.

Basketball began with her brother when they were younger. She always wanted to keep playing; high school helped her consider post-secondary competition as something she could pursue.

Her family and coaches have shaped how she goes about it. Her mom encourages belief in ambitious goals. Her dad helped her understand that constructive criticism often comes from people who want her to succeed. Two high school coaches taught her to be kinder to herself.

Those lessons ask her to hold several things together: ambition, openness to feedback, and compassion when the day doesn’t go well.

Her dad’s lesson about criticism helps make room for instruction without treating it as a rejection. Her mom’s encouragement helps her aim toward what she wants. Her coaches’ kindness gives her a way to recover from a difficult day without turning on herself. Together, the influences offer a more useful approach than either demanding perfection or avoiding a challenge.

She wants to offer support to others in the same spirit. A teammate can need belief before she can see the next step clearly. Saara knows that feeling, and hopes to be remembered as someone who helped make the step possible.

The chance to compete is itself a motivation. Saara recognizes that not everyone gets the opportunity she has, and wants to make something of it.

Her advice to a younger athlete would include a reminder she wishes she’d received sooner: have fun while playing.

She wants to be remembered as someone supportive to the people around her. The way she treats herself during a setback helps inform the way she wants to treat a teammate going through one.

Saara has a new team and a new level ahead. She intends to keep learning, keep believing, and leave enough space in the work for the joy that brought her here.