Finding a college that best suits a student can be tough and Emily Schartner learned the hard way upon realizing her school was not what she wanted.Schartner, from Finleyville, Pa., went to New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), which fulfilled her dreams of becoming a Division I athlete and studying engineering.Ultimately Schartner, now a biology major at Point Park University, found that she was not enjoying her experience at NJIT and wanted to be closer to home.“I wasn’t happy there when it comes down to it,” said Schartner in the Student Center last Wednesday. “I loved the girls on my team and for the most part the coaching staff was good. There were definitely some differences there and it was just really stressful. Basketball was just a job there, it wasn’t for fun.”Schartner’s interest in sports came early; however, it was the game of soccer that found her first. She would play the sport through high school and it was her top sport through her seventh grade year. As she continued playing the sport, she felt less excited when she found herself playing with an unfamiliar opponent.“When I played soccer when I was younger I played with the boys and then they made me start playing with the girls, and I was mad,” Schartner said. “I didn’t want to play with the girls. I just wanted to play with the boys.”Basketball came into Schartner’s life in the third grade. Her sister Erica played basketball and her father, Joe, was active in sports in high school.Schartner attended Ringgold High School and played basketball under their Head Coach Nick Mandich.At the beginning of her freshman year, she played for both the varsity and junior varsity teams; however, Mandich said that four or five games in Schartner found herself in the starting lineup.As a freshman, Schartner was nervous as she tried to adjust to the system as well as gaining significant playing time.“As a freshman she wasn’t very confident,” said Mandich in a phone interview last Friday. “She started a lot of games and every year her confidence grew. She started to take control of situations and take control of the offense. You could count on Emily every game to give you 10-20 points a game.”In June 2008 following her junior year, she accepted a scholarship from NJIT, quickly eliminating the task of choosing a college off her shoulders.“It was more getting away,” Schartner said. “They were interested in me, basketball-wise, giving me a scholarship they offered really early. The fact that I could just sit back in my senior year while everyone was scrambling to get all of their college ready was a big part of it too. At the time I wanted to do engineering and NJIT is a big engineering school, so that helped as well.”Mandich initially had no idea where NJIT was but noted that the team’s head coach at the time, Margaret McKeon, thought highly of her. While Mandich did support Schartner and her decision, he was a bit taken aback.“I was sort of surprised that she was going to go that far away,” Mandich said. “I didn’t know if that would be a good fit for her, coming from a small area and going to New Jersey. I thought she would be successful no matter where she went.”Schartner scored 1,270 career points while at Ringgold and was named All-District First Team selection by the Washington Observer-Reporter.When it comes to her legacy at Ringgold, Schartner was the valedictorian of her class graduating with a 4.0 grade point average. Schartner said her hard work in the classroom was something instilled in her by her parents, who believed academics will get her through life.In addition, according to Mandich, there has not been a 1,000 point scorer since Schartner has left the high school.“Emily is probably one of the best players to play at Ringgold and I know that since I’ve been there she’s the best player we’ve had,” Mandich said. “I’ve been here for over nine years.”At NJIT, Schartner found herself in unfamiliar territory as she was no longer starting and was homesick.“It was a slow process for her,” NJIT Assistant Coach LaKea Jones said in a phone interview last Wednesday. “She came in with a big class and the program was changing from D-II to D-I. I think more was put on her shoulders than she probably expected.”Schartner’s parents made the trip to as many games as possible, but her thoughts of potentially transferring remained with her through her sophomore year, despite additional minutes and a new career high of 15 points.“It started in my freshman year where I wasn’t happy with it,” Schartner said. “That year I figured it was because I wasn’t playing many minutes, I was playing maybe six or seven minutes a game. I decided to come back the next year and my sophomore year I was playing 17 or 18 minutes a game. I just realized that if I’m playing as much as I want and I have that freedom on the court and I’m still not happy, then it’s not going to get better from here.”Jones is the lone coach left from Schartner’s time at NJIT and knew Schartner overcame a lot with the team.“Emily was a great kid with a great attitude and a hard worker,” Jones said. “She was a very good shooter. She suffered a couple of concussion injuries, so she was out for the bulk of the beginning of the year but came back strong at the end of the year and became one of our strongest scorers. She had great potential and was a great all-around player to have on your team.”If there was a positive for Schartner it was the confidence she gained from three point range, something that serves her well today.“We always knew that Emily was a good three point shooter, she just had to believe in herself,” Jones said. “She wasn’t comfortable with shooting threes, but we saw how well she did with them in practice, so we pushed her to become more of a three point threat. Once she did that, she saw that it could be an attribute to her game and help put more points on the scoreboard.”