ESPN Women's Basketball Recruiting

Meagan Fulps is a good basketball player -- a very good, one actually.

She played for a state championship team in Colorado (Highlands Ranch High School) and one of the top traveling teams in the country, the Mile High Gold.

"I've always been pretty good at sports," she says, understating things a bit. "Some things come easy."

But Fulps is only 5-foot-6 -- a slender 5-6 at that. She's quick and fast and jumps well but not at the same level as some of the elite recruits in her Class of 2009. She understands where she fits in and what she brings to the court -- and like so many other young players who love the game but may not be six feet tall or able to bench 120 pounds, she understands that she can never let up once the whistle blows.

And Fulps also knows she has to do what she does best: Shoot the ball. She does it well enough to have earned a scholarship from Santa Clara, which she chose over Utah.

"That's probably my strength," she says, but of all the basketball attributes, it's the shakiest one to build a game around. After all, no one goes out on the court looking to miss shots -- but it's not as if trying harder will make them go in. A rebounder, for example, can rise to the occasion by working harder to get position, but lowering her center of gravity and focusing her attention on getting the ball at all costs. A defender can adjust to the moves of her opponent, can change things up, can alter the course of events.

But a shooter? There's nothing to it but to do it. And if it doesn't work, she just has to do it again.

"I always think, 'I'm going to make the next one,' " Fulps says, "even if I've missed five in a row. And if I don't make one this game, I'll make them the next game."

One reason for that confidence is the hours Fulps has put in honing her shot. "I've always gone down to the Rec Center and had my brother rebound for me," she says.

Just as important as the physical stroke is the mental attitude. Fulps, like all shooters, can't let a few misses get to her.

"Being smaller and not as strong as everybody else," she says, "I never give up on the floor. I've watched a lot of great shooters, and great shooters never give up."

That mental toughness came in part from her older brother, Ryan. She competed with him growing up and "it taught me to be tough," she says.

She also controls her emotions on the court. "I try not to show much," she says, and her expression is the same if she makes three in a row or misses three in a row. "Emotions can work against you."

Fulps looks forward to taking her stroke and her toughness to the collegiate level. In addition to Santa Clara and Utah, she'd also been courted seriously by Drake, Nebraska and Pepperdine. She wants to major in film -- that, the weather and the program made the Broncos a clear choice.

"I always knew I was destined to be in California," says Fulps, who was born in Oregon City, Ore., home of one of the summer's storied tournaments, the End of the Trail.

Before moving on, Fulps has some business to finish at Highlands Ranch.

After years of being one of the top teams in the state, six seniors graduated. To the teams that have lost to the Falcons time and time again, that's just blood in the water, and lot of sharks will be out to take their revenge for beatings in years past.

"I knew that was going to happen," says Fulps, "but I tried not to think about it."

Now that she is thinking about it, she's come to terms with it.

"We'll be fine," she says. "I get to be the leader now."

And she'll do more than just lead -- she'll be shooting, too.

Mindi Rice contributed to this story.

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Clay Kallam is a contributor to ESPN HoopGurlz. He is the founder of Full Court Press, an online magazine devoted to women's basketball; the author of "Girls Basketball: Building a Winning Program" and a voter for several national awards, including McDonald's and Parade All-Americans and the Wooden Award.