UW's Mellema making waves on both social media and the court
Jan. 20—CHEYENNE — At the University of Wyoming women's basketball team's media day in October, junior guard Emily Mellema came to the Cowgirls' social media team with an idea.
The Lynden, Washington, native had seen other teams post videos of a player asking teammates random questions and wanted to emulate that. Everyone was on board.
Thus, UW's new segment, "Questions with the Cowgirls" on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, was born.
"It was something that I was interested in doing for my personal accounts," Mellema said. "I brought it up to (UW's social media director), and he wanted me to do it on the Wyoming accounts. We've had a lot of fun with it, and I think it's fun for the fans to see us from a different perspective.
"It's really cool that they have allowed me to do my own thing and be creative with it."
Questions with the Cowgirls starts with Mellema introducing the topic on camera, followed by a series of questions to different teammates on the roster. The questions have ranged from what their basketball "ick" is to what other sports they would play.
Most recently, the topic was who would win between Michigan and Washington in the College Football Playoffs championship game.
For the most part, Mellema has creative freedom to come up with whatever topics she wants. She has a list of different topic ideas stashed in the notes app of her phone, but she also keeps track of fun ideas that are going on in the world.
"That's her personality," Ezell said. "The way that she has kind of taken off with it and rolled with it — it's not like we have a script (for her). That is a lot of her freelancing."
While not everyone on the team is comfortable with being a part of the segment, junior forward Tess Barnes said they all enjoy seeing the finished product.
"I love it. It's so funny," the Grisborne, Australia, native said. "It brings us together, honestly. Emily does a really good job with that."
Being in front of a camera requires a skillset and comfort not everyone possesses. While it isn't a career path Mellema thinks she'll follow once her basketball days come to an end, being in front of the camera and being on social media is something she has always enjoyed.
Thanks to her marketing classes, she also understands the power social media possesses.
The ability to interact with teammates in front of a camera is all in good fun. But it also has provides Mellema with the chance to get to know her teammates on a different level.
With the large number of international players on the team, it has also helped her understand some of the cultural differences between the United States and other countries.
"It's funny seeing and hearing what other sports they wanted to play, if they didn't play basketball," Mellema said. "The American way is always like, 'Oh, I would play soccer or volleyball,' but it's funny hearing them. They will (say) tennis or swimming, or something like that.
"It's funny to see the different cultures and backgrounds shown in those videos."
Sports fans rarely get the opportunity to peak behind the scenes and see what athletes they support are truly like. Even in postgame interviews and at events, athletes don't always get to showcase their personalities.
Thanks to her work on social media, Mellema has provided that outlet for players to showcase who they really are to the fans that support them. It's a big benefit to her work, Ezell said.
"It's always good when you can connect with the fans in different ways," the coach said. "A lot of the stuff she has been doing, our fans enjoy looking at and watching. In the big picture, it's showcasing that (our players) are more than just basketball players. Her personality bodes well with fan involvement, so she is really good with that.
"It just makes it tighter, and our fans feel like they know our players even better."
On the court
While Mellema's efforts in front of the camera have helped turn her into a social media star for UW, her efforts on the court this season have been just as important.
Mellema came into the season knowing she had big shoes to fill, with standout Tommi Olson departing from the team via graduation. The 5-foot-11 guard has not disappointed since filling Olson's role.
Mellema has posted career-highs in every major statistical category in her first year starting for the Cowgirls. She enters today's Border War with Colorado State averaging 7.7 points and 2.9 assists per game while playing 26.6 minutes per night.
She also leads the team in steals, averaging 1.4 per game. Her 23 total steals are 10 more than the next closest player.
"She's worked out more ways to score, and her (3-pointers) are dropping," Barnes said. "It's all coming together for her, which has been really helpful."
Mellema's most important contribution to the team this season have come from her leadership. It's a role Mellema said comes naturally to her.
"(I wouldn't say) I like to be in charge, but I like to lead people," Mellema said. "One of my majors is management, and that's something I want to do in the future. I like to think I can put people in a good position to be successful and being able to do that myself.
"They don't want to listen to me if I'm not doing it myself. I've learned and grown into that position, as well."
Mellema credits a lot of her success to the work her teammates have done in getting her prepared and comfortable with her new role on the team. But her offseason work also played a major role in her rise to one of UW's most steady players.
That work started just after classes ended at UW and everyone had the opportunity to go home for the summer.
Instead of going back home right away, Mellema elected to stay at UW with the coaching staff. During that month of training, Mellema spent time fine-tuning her shot and getting stronger in the weight room.
"I got a lot of individual work," she said. "Getting me more comfortable with scoring was something (the coaching staff) wanted me to come into, especially with this year losing Quinn (Weidemann) as a big scoring unit for us last year.
"I changed a few things with my shot, which I think showed at the beginning of nonconference. I put on a lot of muscle this summer, which I think has shown, as well. I'm really thankful for (our strength coach) and all the coaches who spent so much of their time in the summer to help get me better and get me ready for this year."
Those workouts started in the weight room, where Mellema focused on building muscle and working up in weights. By the end of the summer, she was hitting new maxes and said she had never felt stronger.
When she would work on the court with her coaches, Mellema focused on getting her shot right. That simply came from just shooting the basketball and taking advice from her coaches.
"I joked with my friends that I probably shot hundreds of shots (on any given day)," Mellema said. "The coaches were there to rebound and help me critique each one and make sure I made those habits.
"We did a lot of conditioning, too, so that I was ready to take those shots when I was tired, especially with my minutes going up this year."
That hard work and dedication when she could've gone home right away was not something that was lost on the coaching staff. While Mellema was essentially next in line to take over Olson's role, her hard work in the offseason helped make Ezell's decision to put Mellema into the starting lineup that much easier.
"We knew what we were going to get with Emily, even with Tommi still around," Ezell said. "What she had to do was improve a couple pieces of her game. The best thing that happened was that she stayed and it was just her and we could do one-on-one work.
"Give her credit, because she really worked hard at it. It didn't just stop once she left campus. She continued to work at it once she left campus, and again when we got back here in the fall."
UW enters today's match up with Colorado State coming off its first loss of the conference season. With a 4-1 start to conference play, Mellema said the key to maintaining the start to conference play is for UW to keep its confidence high.
Matt Atencio covers Laramie County prep sports for WyoSports. He can be reached at matencio@wyosports.net. Follow him on X at @MattAtencio5.
