‘All she needed was the opportunity:’ Autumn Chassion’s journey to UConn started with a cold-call to Storrs to attend a practice and ended with her earning a walk-on spot

Several years ago, Tehmi Chassion of Lafayette, La., cold-called the UConn women’s basketball program after hearing that it allowed coaches to attend practices. After religiously watching Geno Auriemma’s squads for years, he wanted to get a behind-the-scenes look at what made the Huskies so great and absorb whatever he could to bring back to his AAU team. Chloe Pavlech, a graduate assistant at the time who happened to answer Tehmi’s call, was happy to set it up.

The trip went so well that he returned a year later with his daughter, Autumn, so that she could see the Huskies’ commitment to excellence for herself. She may have already grown up a fan of the team, but now she was really hooked. As the time approached for Autumn to make her college decision, the 5-foot-8 point guard had scholarship offers and interest from other schools, including two from the Ivy League. But none were UConn.

With grit, perseverance and, as Tehmi described, a willingness to bet on herself, Autumn earned the opportunity last weekend to walk on to the UConn women’s basketball team and has made it to Storrs for summer workouts. Autumn joins a six-person freshman class featuring No. 1 overall recruit Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Nika Muhl, Mir McLean and Piath Gabriel.

“They saw that she was a hard worker, saw that she could play,” Tehmi said. “She’s willing to come do whatever they needed her to do.”

As a three-year starting point guard at Lafayette Christian Academy, Autumn helped guide the team to four straight state championship appearances and three state titles. As a senior, she averaged 15 points and 10 assists and her class finished with a 124-21 record.

“She knows the game very well. She understands offense, defense, she can recognize defenses, she can direct players to run the right offense, she can change offenses if the defenses change,” said Lexie Taylor, who coached Autumn at Lafayette Christian for the last three years. “She’s that coach on the floor. She’s great at helping her teammates be where they’re supposed to be.”

Coaches consider Autumn one of the most under-recruited kids in the state, Taylor said, mostly because of her size. But the player Taylor saw on the court was special, always the first in the gym and last to leave, with a work ethic and desire to get better that raised the bar for all around her.

That’s part of what drew Autumn to UConn since that visit to Storrs, where she watched the team going harder in practice than most people would ever go in games. With her interest in the Huskies further piqued, Tehmi reached back out to Pavlech about Auriemma o. potentially recruiting his daughter, whom he also coached in AAU. The UConn staff came to some of her games, and even though the program eventually went in a different direction, the Chassions were able to reconnect with associate head coach Chris Dailey. Tehmi said Dailey told him that if Autumn was willing to believe in the UConn work ethic and give her all every single day, then she would be welcomed as a walk-on.

Driven just as much in the classroom, Autumn also didn’t want to sacrifice her academic goals for a basketball opportunity, contributing to her interest in attending a school as strong as UConn. Taylor called Autumn, whom she also taught chemistry, the “ideal student.” She had a 4.0 GPA, was her class valedictorian and aspires to become a doctor.

“Just coming in and leading by that work ethic, knowing what type of program Geno runs, I think she’s going to fit in and be able to lead in that way,” Taylor added. “A lot of kids are not okay with being a role player. They want to be the star, and I think she is okay with being a role player and I think that’s going to play in her favor, because she doesn’t always have to have the spotlight.”

Tehmi said that Autumn, who arrived on campus the weekend of July 26, is so far settling in well in Storrs and that redshirt junior Evina Westbrook took her under her wing even before she made it to Connecticut.

With all 11 players now on campus and cleared to play, coach-supervised basketball activities started on Tuesday, and Autumn is beginning to live out her dream that started in that very gym several years ago. But now, the real work begins. And Tehmi and Taylor believe she’s ready.

“She doesn’t view herself as a walk on,” Tehmi said. “She’s just a member of the UConn Huskies and she’s going to go fight to make herself better, to make her team better, to make the program better, and represent her family down in Louisiana, who the entire state will be cheering for every single game.”

“For us, seeing that she’s given this opportunity at UConn, we just hope that she does, and we really expect her to do, great things there,” Taylor said. “It’s something she’s always wanted. She has the work ethic, she has the desire, she has the passion. All she needed was the opportunity, and now that it’s given to her, I think she’s really going to do great things with it.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com

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