Muddy River Showcase Spotlight: South Shelby’s Milli Mozee-Williams

The Muddy River Showcase featuring 40 of the area’s top senior basketball players from Illinois and Missouri takes place June 17 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The girls game begins at 4 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door.

SHELBINA, Mo. — Culver-Stockton College women’s basketball coach Janette Burgin’s biggest challenge when it comes to Milli Mozee-Williams will be making sure the player with boundless energy actually takes a break.

The South Shelby product is like the Energizer bunny … she keeps going and going and going.

Usually, that’s chasing down a rebound.

Mozee-Williams proved to be the perfect do-whatever-it-takes forward for a team brimming with offensive talent in the backcourt. She averaged better than eight rebounds per game, pulling down 246 total boards last winter. Mozee-Williams didn’t score in bunches, averaging just five points per game, but she was a defensive dynamo and a constant presence because she played with remarkable drive.

She was a second-team All-Clarence Cannon Conference selection in a league spilling over with top-level talent because she simply worked harder than anyone else.

Mozee-Williams will represent South Shelby on the Missouri squad for the second Muddy River Showcase, taking place June 17 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center.

Here are six things you should know about Milli Mozee-Williams:

Where you plan to go to college: Culver-Stockton College

What you plan to study: Elementary education.

Reason you wear your number: I wear number 33 because it was given to me my freshman year by one of the seniors who helped me and didn’t realize it. So I kept it to remind me to never give up even when things get tough.

Favorite high school basketball memory: Going to state and being able to experience that.

Best piece of advice you have ever received: “Good enough is a dangerous slope.” — South Shelby coach Luke O’Laughlin.

Best advice you’d give younger teammates: There’s always someone better than you, but that doesn’t mean give up. It means push yourself to be better than them and then find someone else who is better and continue on that chain. It’s OK to fail, but it’s not OK to give up. It takes time for you to grow and there is an infinite amount of potential in yourself. You just have to make your path to find it.