What it means to be a Longhorn: Danielle Viglione

This is the fourth of a 14-part series celebrating the Hall of Honor class of 2019. In these first-person vignettes, each inductee shares his/her thoughts on 'What it means to be a Longhorn.' Thirteen former University of Texas student-athletes and one former UT System administrator will be inducted on Friday, Aug. 30 into the Hall of Honor. Tickets for the Hall of Honor banquet are available at TexasSports.com/tickets.

Danielle Viglione Hall of Honor bio

I was playing in an AAU game between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, and I thought it was the most terrible game of my life. I think I got my shot blocked every time and I think I missed every three-pointer. I said after the game, "If anybody is recruiting me, it's a lost cause."

Jennifer White, an assistant coach at Texas, saw me play in that game. She went to Jody Conradt after that night and told her "We need this girl. She has no fear."

When I went on my recruiting visit, I stayed in the dorms. I saw life as it would be for me at The University of Texas, and I loved it. I loved the players that were already there, and I knew I'd love being around them. When I went and visited the school and saw the tradition, saw the Erwin Center and saw how the coaches and staff treated their players, I was sold.

Texas was always honest with me. At a lot of other schools, those staffs would come in and say that you're going to be a starter and that you're our No. 1 recruit. I knew at Texas that I was going to have to work to earn my spot. They said they knew they were in my top-five and told me, "If we don't get you, we'll get somebody else." I just really appreciated the honesty from the coaching staff and the whole university.

It came down to probably three schools. I remember the night before I was going to sign. The next day was the last day of the signing period. My high school coach asked me "Where would you want to be if you could never play basketball again?" And the immediate answer in my heart was The University of Texas. I knew they would take care of me.

I grew up in Michigan and we moved when I was 10 to California. I never dreamed of playing at a place like Texas. And I didn't even realize how big Texas was until my freshman year. We were averaging 9,000 people a game. The support from the fans was unreal. Once I set foot on campus, I knew that I had made the right choice.

When I put on the Texas uniform, it definitely filled me with a lot of pride because of the tradition of Texas. As a California girl, once I started to understand the tradition of the Texas program and as I did my research, I actually felt very, very honored to be a Longhorn, to represent the school and what Jody Conradt built here.

I was a gym rat when I was in high school and at Texas. When I got to Texas as a freshman, most of our team started doing 6 a.m. workouts on our own because we were so used to doing it at our high schools. We all got together and we would do skill work and shooting at 6 a.m. without Coach Conradt or the assistant coaches knowing.

I remember the game my freshman year against Houston. I broke the Texas record for most points in a game with 48, and I had 11 threes that game to break the NCAA record. What I remember about that game is that I hit my 10th three and then I air-balled my next shot. Coach Conradt took me out of the game and said, "If you're not going to try to make your shots, then you can sit right here next to me."

I thought, "Oh my gosh, are you saying I'm not trying?" That's my biggest thing – I try my hardest in everything that I do. She put me back in a minute later, I hit my 11th three and then she took me out. That just goes to show you that Coach Conradt had a really good idea of what motivated each of us and she knew that would get under my skin. I loved it.

My most memorable moment at The University of Texas has to do with life. In October 1994, I accepted Jesus Christ as my lord and savior through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. It was the best decision I have made in my life. It changed my perspective on life and playing. I was able to focus on the process and not the outcome. It took a lot of stress out of playing and just allowed me to enjoy the competition of the game. I was always a player of preparation, but you'd feel the pressure sometimes that you had to win. Instead of worrying about the outcome, I was enjoying every day of putting on the Texas uniform.

I was a girl when I got to Texas and Jody Conradt taught me a lot about being a woman. She taught us how to set our place – forks go on the left and knives go on the right. She taught us how to present ourselves. She taught us about how we should talk to the media. I basically grew up at Texas and those are the things we learned there. There was always that coaching in every aspect of our lives.

Everybody at Texas cared about everybody on our team in those years from 1993 to 1997. We continue to care about each other to this day. It really taught me a lot about what's important in life, and that's relationships. The competitiveness of all of my teammates made me more competitive. I was just so fortunate to be surrounded by such great people at Texas.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics

What it means to be a Longhorn: Danielle Viglione