Heather Ernest seems excited about the challenges ahead. And she doesn’t mean this weekend’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Regardless of how long the University of Maine Black Bears’ season lasts, Ernest knows she’s in the swan song of her illustrious career.

After years on basketball courts for Mount Blue and then for the university, Ernest knows the end could come quickly.

Her future’s still uncertain, but Ernest says, “I’m pretty much ready to move on. I can’t stay here forever. When the end is here, it’ll be exciting. It’ll be sad that it’s over, but it has to end at some point.”

“I’m not really thinking about it. I could just be in denial, but I’ll have to face that.”

Suddenly, the games will cease. The practices will stop. The team bond will be broken. She’ll turn the page on a sport to which she’s dedicated so much of her young life. She leaves as one of three players in the program’s history to score more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

Ernest was a two-time America East Player of the Year – and established herself as one of the Black Bears all-time greats. Not too bad for a kid from Temple, whose first basket in fifth grade landed in the wrong hoop.

Now what?

“Basketball is all I’ve known for the last eight years but a part of me is ready to say, ‘That’s over and what’s next for me?'” she says.

Coach Sharon Versyp says she can glimpse the wanderlust in the eyes of Ernest and her other seniors, Melissa Heon and Julie Veilleux. After watching them mature during the last four years, she sees their curiosity for what’s around the next bend.

“They’ve done an outstanding job during their careers, but one thing they know how to do is keep things in perspective,” she said.

Ernest didn’t have much planned beyond her class and practice schedule this week. The flight to Montana is Thursday, and the game against Texas Tech is Saturday.

She does know she’ll probably enroll in graduate school in hopes of becoming a physician’s assistant. She may need a class or two to help get into the school she chooses. She realizes it will be a strange feeling, going to school with no basketball.

“It will be a good change for me,” said Ernest. “Something new and something different. I’m just kind of going with the flow. What happens, happens.

“I’m hoping to get out of New England. Not that there’s anything wrong with New England. I’ve been here for 22 years, and I’d like to check out the other parts of the country.”

She’ll get that chance this week when she visits Montana – even though that’s not exactly the climate she has in mind. After three years of missing out on the NCAA tournament, Ernest finally is adding this missing piece to her storied career.

“If we hadn’t made it to the NCAA tournament, all three seniors would have been very disappointed,” said Ernest. “This is everybody’s dream.”

The good luck name

Last year, the team lost in the America East final and missed out on the NCAAs, earning an invitation to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament instead. It kept the season going, but it wasn’t the same.

“Last year was really hard, not that we weren’t happy being in the WNIT, but we had wanted to go somewhere else.”

Granted, a trip to Montana wasn’t anticipated, but when the news came Sunday it didn’t matter to the Black Bears about the where or the when. The players were just excited to see “Maine” pop up on the television screen.

“I think it’s phenomenal for our entire team,” said the coach. “They’ve all worked incredibly hard. Those three seniors, this was their goal from the start. There’s been some rebuilding, but we knew we’d get back here. Last year, we felt we deserved it and didn’t get it. This year, this is the icing on the cake.”

Coincidentally, the horse Ernest has had since she was a teenager is named Montana. A good omen or not, the Black Bears are seemingly at a full gallop right now.

“I just want us to play our best basketball,” she said. “That’s what we did in the American East tournament. I want that to continue.”

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