Boyhood Dream Turns into Reality

By Jen Brown

The Catholic University of America men’s basketball team is going to have a big change in their roster with the upcoming 2016-2017 season. As five seniors graduate, this leaves some sad goodbyes to the departing players because of the impact they have made on the team. There is one particular player, though, whose boyhood dream led himself to gain an abundance of titles playing basketball here at The Catholic University of America.

Bryson Fonville has been the starting point guard for the men’s basketball team for every game during the past four years except just one in the 2014-15 season. He leaves the team with having the honor of being the 19th All-American player in the school’s history. During the 2014-15 season, Fonville was the only player in Catholic’s history to score a career high of 38 points at the DuFour Center. Also, Fonville was named the 41st 1,000 point member at Catholic. His honors did not stop there though. He also received the titles of Landmark Conference Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player two years in a row, First Team All-Landmark Conference, ECAC Division III South All-Star first team, and many more titles. Some might question what it must be like to be a student athlete with all of those great honors? It takes a conversation with Fonville to hear what it is like to be a student athlete with all of these many accomplishments.

Being an All-American basketball player is a great honor that Fonville has received. “This is actually one of the biggest goals in my life and to see it all come true…it’s definitely an achievement of mine,” remarked Fonville.

Throughout his four seasons playing at Catholic, his hard work and determination only increased more within each season. His only focus was himself, the game, and the team. Fonville compares playing basketball to the game of chess. This metaphor may seem interesting, but like in the game of chess, he is always thinking of the next move. During the off season, Fonville could be found working on improving his skills. When other teams found that his three-point shots were off, he spent countless hours working on that particular shot. From all the effort Fonville has put into basketball, it is clear why he has achieved so much. Everything he does though, is for his team. Bryson has been named one of the most humble players, and when discussing himself, he always pulls the subject back to the team.

When asking his fellow teammates about Bryson they could only say great things about him. “He pushes everyone to do their best. Off the court he is the most genuinely nice person. He will do whatever he needs to do to make sure that everyone is taken care of,” said point guard Matt Mackinnon.

“He could not only makes me better on the court but he also does off the court. I love to surround myself with people like that,” said forward Jay Howard.

This dream of his started since he was a young boy growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina. Surrounded by his family being North Carolina college basketball fans, and him being a Duke fan, helped his aspiration to play college basketball. Fonville would also watch his older sister play, which made him want to get on the court even more. He appreciates these influences and acknowledges he would not be where he is today without them.

During his high school career, he made the First Team All-Conference selection and was offered to play basketball for Division II schools. Instead though, he decided that The Catholic University was a better choice for him academically, athletically, and geographically being in our nations capital.

Fonville is a business management major who wants to continue on working with basketball. He does have some future possibilities and if the opportunity for him to coach came about, he would definitely take it.

To see what Bryson Fonville does after graduation is a mystery, but his legacy as number 5 on the Franny Murray court will continue on at The Catholic University of America for years to come.