Unsung Upper Arlington player Viv Lawless thrives by being 'ready to play my heart out on defense'
Viv Lawless rarely piles up gaudy offensive statistics, as she is averaging just 3.8 points and has scored in double digits only once in 23 games this season.
Nevertheless, Upper Arlington coach John Wanke said the versatile senior guard has played a crucial role in the Golden Bears’ stunning transformation into a winning team.
With Lawless guarding opponents’ top offensive players — regardless of their position — Upper Arlington is 15-8 overall and has surrendered an average of only 36.2 points per game, after going 3-14 and giving up 56.7 points per contest last season.
The 13th-seeded Golden Bears will square off against seventh-seeded Marysville in a Division I district semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Olentangy Berlin.
“Viv doesn’t often put up a lot of shots, but she is by far one of our top defenders, and she’s a lot of the glue that keeps our team together,” Wanke said. “Viv’s actually a very capable scorer, who hits big shots in big moments, and she does all of the little things right, getting us two steals, (3.8) assists and (3.1) rebounds a game.
“But Viv really makes her biggest impact on defense, by guarding the other team’s best player. We’re giving up about 20 less points per game than we were giving up last season, and a lot of that is how Viv defends, because the rest of the team follows her lead by being unselfish and playing hard for each other.”
Lawless has contained some of the top offensive players in central Ohio this season, holding point guard Gwen Jenkins to nine points in UA’s 40-28 victory over Hilliard Davidson on Jan. 14 and limiting 6-foot-2 wing player Tessa Grady to nine points during a 43-20 loss to Dublin Coffman on Feb. 11.
“Viv has great feet, and she is basketball-quick,” Wanke said. “She has a great first step, and she moves side to side well. She’s as competitive as anyone on our team, and she’s tenacious and tough.
“She applies a lot of pressure on the ball, and she guards people as if she’s on an island.”
Standing just 5-4, Lawless also managed to help limit 6-3 forward Charia Smith – a Marquette recruit – to 12 points in UA’s 44-34 victory over 17-seeded Northland in the second round of the Division I district tournament on Feb. 17.
“When I first heard I was guarding (Smith) I thought there was no way I could stop her because she’s so tall and didn’t have a weakness I could exploit,” Lawless said. “But my coach had faith in me, and so I showed up ready to play my heart out on defense, and I had what I think was the best basketball game of my career.
“I’m not known as a scorer, but I take so much pride in playing defense. It brings me so much joy to stop people and help my team in that way.”
Overcoming injuries
Lawless has continued to play physical defense even after injuring her ribs during a hard collision with an opponent in UA’s 48-41 loss at Delaware on Jan. 18.
“Viv’s one of the toughest people I know,” said UA senior guard Alyssa Gest, a Kenyon College recruit. “She’s been injured a lot, but she takes on a lot of defensive duties against much bigger players, and she does an amazing job. If we didn’t have her, we wouldn’t defend nearly as well as we do.”
Lawless sat out only one practice after injuring her ribs and has started in every one of UA’s games this season.
“I broke two ribs on a moving pick in the Delaware game, and it was very painful,” Lawless said. “I have tears in my eyes when I cough sometimes, but I’ve gotten through it. I missed a lot of basketball because of injuries when I was younger, so my mindset is that I’m not going to miss any games my senior year.”
Blessed with an abundance of athleticism, Lawless played multiple sports year-round as a youth, most notably basketball, hockey, lacrosse and tennis.
From as far back as she can remember, she emulated her older brothers Jack (2018 UA graduate) and Will (2020 UA graduate), who both played football, hockey and lacrosse for the Golden Bears.
“I wanted to be like my brothers and be around them, so I played anything they played,” Lawless said. “My whole family has always been involved in sports, including my parents (Mac and Arien).”
Lawless had been fortunate enough to stay injury free, until midway through her freshman season with UA’s junior varsity basketball squad, when she collided with an opponent and fell hard to the floor.
This accident led to several months of chronic pain for Lawless, which robbed her of the remainder of her freshman basketball season, her entire freshman lacrosse season and all but one game of her sophomore basketball season.
During this difficult stretch of her life, Lawless had sharp back pain and tingling pain in her legs and arms. She experienced headaches, vertigo and memory issues. Lawless also was often nauseous, which led to significant weight loss.
“I went from being a three-sport athlete to the point where I couldn’t climb stairs by myself or even stand up long enough for a full shower,” said Lawless, who also played tennis as a freshman and lacrosse as a junior. “The hardest part was missing so much school and sports while I went back and forth to the hospital. I had to find a new identity after being known as an athlete my whole life, and back then, I didn’t see an end in sight.”
Lawless’ pain began to gradually subside as she continued to attend Comprehensive Pain Management Clinics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital twice each month.
At these clinics, Lawless responded well to physical therapy, acupuncture, biofeedback therapy and breathing exercises.
In February 2020, more than a year after her injury, Lawless finally was cleared to return to basketball in time to play in the UA junior varsity squad’s season finale.
“When I ran onto the court for that game, I’d never heard my teammates cheer for me so loudly like that before,” Lawless said. “It was incredibly rewarding, because there were times when I thought I would never make it back. I had multiple doctors tell me that they couldn’t help me, who thought that I would never be able to run or play sports again.
“If I didn’t have basketball, I don’t know if I would have tried so hard to get past this to get back to my team and my teammates. It was definitely hard, but working through all the pain is part of what has made me the athlete and teammate that I am today.”
Battling COVID-19
Lawless missed the first three games of her junior season after falling ill with COVID-19 and the Golden Bears struggled through a three-win campaign.
“Our team had to quarantine three times because of COVID last year, and I was very upset I had to miss the start of the season after missing most of the previous two seasons,” Lawless said. “But last year was when I had my defensive morals instilled in me, because I was more of a role player on the offensive side of things.”
After earning second-team all-Ohio Capital Conference-Central Division honors as a defensive starter for UA’s girls lacrosse team as a junior, Lawless has savored playing in every basketball game for the first time in her high school career.
“I’m so grateful every day that I get to share these experiences with my coaches and teammates, because I couldn’t fathom this my freshman year,” Lawless said. “I could have given up and let (the pain) take over my life. But playing basketball with my teammates motivated me to keep working hard to get back, and I’m loving every minute of this season.”
Lawless, who has a 4.21 cumulative grade-point average, said her health problems have also inspired her to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering, with the hopes of becoming a doctor or a surgeon.
“I had doctors who tore me down, but I also had other doctors who truly believed in me and built me up to help me get to this point,” Lawless said. “So I would like to become a doctor or surgeon, so I can help someone else and give them hope, because I know how important that is. I want to come back to UA to help coach basketball in the future, too, because it would be nice to give back to the community as well.”
