Date Posted: 6/9/2008

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Amber Rockwell knows how expensive tuition at a private university can be. Her college, Belmont University, in Nashville, Tenn., costs more than $20,000 a year for undergraduate tuition before adding in room and board, books and other expenses.

"If I wasn’t on scholarship," she said, "I wouldn’t be here. Stuff would have been a lot different."

Rockwell, a sophomore guard on the Belmont women’s basketball team last season, said she would be working her way through college because her parents cannot financially support her higher education. She said her parents were very happy when she got her scholarship.

Her younger sister, Larrenda Rockwell, was a freshman on the Shelton State Community College women’s basketball team in 2007-08, also on scholarship. Amber Rockwell said the family is grateful for the assistance athletics has provided.

"That’s like $150,000 that they basically saved," she said. "It's a chance for a free education."

Amber Rockwell, a Hillcrest High School graduate, was recruited by a number of schools for basketball. She said there was a lot of pressure to pick the right school.

"I liked going on visits, but once you decide (on a college) the pressure's off and you can get back to just playing and having fun," she said.

She said she felt relieved when she finally made the decision to go to Belmont, in part because securing that scholarship was hard, stressful work. Her high school coach, Jerome Elliott, helped her stay at the top of her game.

"I'm so grateful to him," she said. "I could call him at 1 a.m. to get into the gym and he'd come open it for me."

Related Links:
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