Iona College women’s basketball freshman Rebekah Justice has an impressive resume. Justice, who is from Cincinnati, comes to Iona after achieving first team All-Conference, All-City and All-State as well as crossing the 1,000-point threshold.

Justice started playing basketball at a young age. When she was in the first grade, Justice was introduced to the sport through her parents, who were coaches for intramural basketball at her school.

“My coaches were my parents,” Justice said. “They decided to coach a team and [basketball] is the sport they chose.”

Justice played for a few years in intramural basketball, but realized in the fifth grade that she wanted to take it to the competitive level.

“I tried out for a team [in AAU], and we started playing national tournaments,” Justice said. “That’s when I really wanted to continue playing after the middle school level.”

Justice makes sure to push herself in training to correct the weaknesses she has in her games. One of those is being nervous in times of high pressure.

“I have a lot of things I’m really good at,” Justice said. “This season, I really just want to focus on playing and not being nervous.”

Being a student-athlete definitely isn’t a walk in the park. Justice has noticed the mental and physical strength and stability has been the toughest part.

“[Workouts] are two to three hours long and you get to a point where you’re like ‘I’m tired, I want to go to bed,’ and you have to push through it for your teammates,” Justice said. “[Diets] are different for everyone. My eating habits have definitely changed since I’ve been here and the nutritionists really help to set out a realistic way to maintain what you need to eat to be able to get through the workouts.”

Justice suffered an injury during her senior year of high school, which made her realize how fast a sports career could end.

“I wasn’t able to play for three weeks,” Justice said. “I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have basketball. I really do love it.”

Transitioning to college wasn’t easy for Justice. Coming from Cincinnati to New York was a huge change for Justice as she doesn’t see her family and friends very often. Justice credited the team for helping her adjust to a new environment.

“I don’t think I would’ve made it without the team that I have here,” Justice said. “They really made it feel like a family coming here.”

Justice looks to become a great player and leave her mark in Iona women’s basketball history.

“I want to set a block shot record,” Justice said. “Most of my records actually come from shot blocking. That’s definitely my goal.”

Justice and the Gaels will start the 2017-18 season off on Nov. 10 when they take on Arizona on the road.