All TCU. All the time.
In the 2023-24 season, TCU women’s basketball was unsure about whether or not their season would continue.
The team started strong, winning 14 straight games under head coach Mark Campbell. But Sedona Prince‘s hand injury against No. 6 Baylor on Jan. 3, 2024, was the first of many injuries. The team had to forfeit two games before open tryouts could be held to fill the holes in the roster.
Ella Hamlin, a sophomore nursing student, tried out for the team and secured a spot as a walk-on.
The Granbury, Texas, native played basketball at Granbury High School and was on the varsity team all four years. She scored over 1,500 career points in her tenure and averaged 18 points per game during her senior year. Hamlin was also named Offensive Player of the Year her junior and senior seasons in her school district.
Hamlin wasn’t recruited heavily out of high school and chose to attend TCU to pursue a degree in nursing. Her impressive high school basketball career made her a strong candidate to walk on to the TCU women’s basketball team in a time of desperate need.
She dressed in uniform for her first game as a Horned Frog only one day after her formal addition to the roster. It was on Jan. 23, 2024, against the UCF Knights.
“I was shaking,” Hamlin said in a video on Instagram when asked about how nervous she felt making her Horned Frog debut.
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This season, following TCU’s 90-81 win against UCF, Campbell informed Hamlin that she had been awarded a full scholarship.
“We are so grateful for you, Ella,” Campbell said in the Instagram video uploaded by team. “When there’s adversity, people typically run away from it.” The season could continue because Hamlin stepped up, Campbell said.
Hamlin only averages 2.2 points per game this season, but her commitment to help the team in need will remain in TCU Athletics history forever.
The “Underfrogs” consisted of three other women: Sarah Sylvester, who also played on the volleyball team, Piper Davis and Mekhayia Moore.
