South Shore’s Brianna Fraser is Brooklyn’s lone All-American nominee

January 23, 2015 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brianna Fraser is an honor roll student and Maryland University commit who is hoping to add McDonald’s All-American team to her resume. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

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While South Shore High School has yet to claim any students to the McDonald’s All-American team, Brianna Fraser is hoping to be the first.

The 6-foot-3 senior from Flatlands has averaged 17.11 points and 10.33 rebounds per game this season during Public School Athletic League (PSAL) games this season. She is the only nominee from Brooklyn this year after three — Isaiah Whitehead from Lincoln, Bianca Cuevas from Nazareth and Sierra Calhoun from Christ the King — made the team last year.

“I was really surprised that I was even nominated,” said Fraser, who is committed to Maryland University. “It means a lot. I’ve wanted this for a long time. People say that I could be the first All-American from South Shore and [I] really want that for the school.”

Her coach, Anwar Gladden, said she deserves to be named to the team as she is ranked 15th in the nation among high school seniors by ESPN. Gladden called her a uniquely-gifted athlete.

“She’s a tremendous athlete who can do whatever she puts her mind to,” Gladden said. “Whatever she decides that she wants to do that day, she is more than capable of doing.”

Being named to the All-American is just one of two goals that Fraser has yet to accomplish before she heads off to Maryland. The other is to win a city championship with her South Shore Vikings.

“She has unfinished business,” Gladden said. “She’s been to the finals the last two years in a row, and she wants to win it. The whole team wants to win it. We have six seniors who have played together for four years [and] they want to go out on top.”

Fraser, who is an honor roll student at South Shore, wants to rid herself of the stink of losing back-to-back championships more than anything.
“We hear about that a lot,” Fraser said. “We just brush it off and keep moving forward. We hear it from everyone. Even our boys team, when we’re in the gym clowning around with them, they’re always bringing it up. So we have to go out there and try our best to win it this year because that’s the only way we’re going to quiet everyone down.”

South Shore is in a good position to do just that this season. Bergtraum High School’s run of 15 PSAL championships in a row finally ended last season and the Vikings look like one of the top two teams in the league this year. Their biggest rival, Francis Lewis, is the team to watch out for. Francis Lewis was the team that eliminated South Shore from the finals last year and is the only team to beat it in a league game this season.

“We’ve been talking about it since day one,” Fraser said. “We don’t want to be here for four years and not take home a chip. We think it’s important for us because we’ve been together for a long time, so we want to take it this year.”