Chantel Ruth Tremitiere (born October 20, 1969) is an American former professional women's basketball player.

Early life

Tremitiere was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Her father is Arnold Kelly. She was then adopted into the family of William and Barbara Tremitiere as an infant and grew up in York, Pennsylvania. She has 14 brothers and sisters of differing ethnic backgrounds. She grew up playing basketball with her siblings, stating that they needed another player to make two even teams. She averaged 30 points a game at Hannah Penn Middle School and was a basketball star when she transferred to William Penn High School. She graduated from high school in 1987 and chose to attend Auburn University, where she received a full basketball scholarship.

Collegiate career

Tremitiere started every game for the Auburn Tigers women's basketball team in 1991 and averaged 4.1 points and 4.0 assists. In 1990, she was selected to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. She earned her bachelor's degree in Public Relations from Auburn, then was an assistant basketball coach for Auburn (1991–92); the University of Texas (1992–93), and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1993–96). During this time, Chantel continued her hoop dreams overseas, playing for Lotos Gdynia in Poland, where her play caught the attention of professional scouts.

Professional / WNBA career

In the 1997 draft, Tremitiere was selected as the 18th overall pick by the Sacramento Monarchs. Her debut game was played on June 21, 1997 in a 73 - 61 win over the Utah Starzz where she recorded 7 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists.^[1] In her rookie season, she had her most successful season in her career, averaging 7.6 points, 4.8 assists. She also led the WNBA with an average of 37.5 minutes per game and started every game she played. Playing for the Monarchs also gave Tremitiere the opportunity to be reunited with Ruthie Bolton, her teammate at Auburn.

After her rookie season, Tremitiere was traded to Utah on May 5, 1998 for Lady Grooms (Grooms would go on to play the remainder of her career (7 more seasons) with the Monarchs). She would play two seasons with Utah in 1998 and 1999. In her sophomore season she averaged 5.5 points and 3.6 assists. On June 21, 1999, a controversial decision to waive Tremitiere would be made by coach Frank Layden. Layden only coached the Starzz for two weeks before resigning for "personal reasons", but some Starzz players have voiced their contempt of Layden's coaching style and said he was "too harsh" on the players.^[2]

She was resigned by the Starzz on July 6 and finished the 1999 season with them. However, her productivity would drop in her third year with a drastic drop in minutes from the previous year (25.3 minutes per game to 9.6 minutes) along with averaging 1.1 points and 1.1 assists.

On December 15, 1999 she was acquired in the 6th round of the expansion draft and joined the newly formed Indiana Fever. She played one season for the Fever, suffering from an ankle injury most of the year which limited her playing time and effectiveness to 12.7 minutes, 2 points and 2 assists per game.

Tremitiere announced her retirement from the WNBA on April 23, 2001 at the age of 31. And thus, the final game of her career was her last game of the 2000 season with the Fever. That game was played on August 9, 2000 in a 67 - 51 win over the Charlotte Sting where she recorded 3 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.^[3] Unfortunately, Tremitiere ended her career never reaching the WNBA playoffs and never been on a team with a .500 or more record. For the four seasons she played, her team's record every year was Sacramento 10 - 18, Utah 8 - 22, Utah 15 - 17 and Indiana 9 - 23.

In 2002 she played professional basketball briefly again in Turkey and for the WABA team, the York City Noise.

Tremitiere also began a non-profit organization called Assist One, which broadcast the stories of children waiting to be adopted in the Sacramento, California, area.

Post-WNBA activities

Together with KLC, she produced the rap hit Hoody Hoo by TRU. When she left basketball, Tremitiere pursued other interests such as acting. She can be seen in the 2002 Walt Disney movie Double Teamed about Heather and Heidi Burge, WNBA superstars. Chantel has held many charity basketball games, bringing businesses and celebrities together for the benefit of the community in Sacramento and York. She continues her commitment to community service, speaking for youth groups and volunteering to work with at-risk youth. She was also a guest speaker at North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC)'s 2005 annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

She founded BLANK MiNDZ, a video and graphic production company in Atlanta, GA in 2005.

After returning to Auburn for graduate school, she completed her MBA in 2015 and her PhD in 2017.^[4]

As of 2019, she teaches at Auburn University in the business school while leading BLANK MiNDZ.

Career statistics

References