Story by PAT DOOLEY (BSJ '76)
Photo by JIM BURGESS (BEE '63)

She remembers the day she was summoned to the office of Florida women's basketball coach Amanda Butler (BSESS '95, MESS '97). All Steffi Sorensen (4JM) could think was, "What did I do?"

It turns out, she had done everything right. There in Butler's office in fall 2008, Sorensen found out she would be on scholarship starting spring 2009. Her journey was finally complete.

George Harrison sang on his final album, "If you don't know where you're going/any road will take you there." Sorensen always knew where she was going. But the road she took to get there took some strange turns.

Growing up in Jacksonville as a product of a family full of Gator fans, Sorensen always wanted to play at Florida. But despite being the 2006 Miss Florida Basketball, Florida wasn't interested. She was a scrawny, 5-foot-10 shooter who would be chewed up and spit out in the rugged SEC.

At least that was the prevailing thought.

Sorensen went to Florida Gulf Coast, was the second leading scorer and hit a big 3-pointer that put her team into the national title game. But after a year, she wanted to move to Gainesville where her brother Eric (4AG) attended school and where she knew the coach at Santa Fe College — former Gator hoopster Chanda Stebbins (BAE '97).

"I knew there had been a coaching change at Florida. But I also knew it was a long shot," Sorensen says.

After a year at Santa Fe, Sorensen was finally given the opportunity to be a Gator, but as a preferred walk-on. No scholarship.

"We really thought she was a specialist," Butler says. "That she was a shooter, period. That's where we were off the mark with her. She's one of our best perimeter rebounders. She's a crafty defender and a crafty offensive player. It was pretty apparent midway through her first semester that [a scholarship] was going to happen."

Sorensen ended up a big part of Florida's remarkable turnaround as the Gators went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut. She averaged 9.2 points a game and is the Gators' top returning scorer.

And on a team that lost both talent and leadership, Sorensen was ready to step in. It showed during summer. Sorensen decided that her summer workouts would be at the Gainesville Dojo where she would train as a boxer.

"I had some friends at North Florida who did it, and I've always had a feisty side to me," she says. "... There was a scout who came by and told me I'd be a pretty good fighter for my weight class if I was interested."

But that will have to wait because there is one more basketball season for Sorensen at Florida. One more chapter to her story.

"After I graduate, I'm going to look back at the journey I had to go through to get here," Sorensen says. "When I talk to younger student-athletes, I have a new perspective on things."