Feb. 5, 2010

Note: - This story is one of 16 student-athlete profiles that will be part of the Patriot League Basketball Tournament program in March. Throughout the month of February, the stories that highlight a men and women's student-athlete from each Patriot League team will be featured on the League website.

The Art of Basketball
By Patrick Janssen, Patriot League Assistant Media Relations Director

Some might say a perfectly executed fast break is a form of true art. Others might argue that a collection by Claude Monet is a purer art form.

Bucknell junior forward Cosima Higham is not quick to judge either. The Brooklyn-native has lifting weights and dodging elbows in the low post for the Bison each of the past three seasons. She has also spent the last three years looking at postmodernist and abstract pieces of art with the discerning eye of an art history major.

"I come from a pretty artsy background," Higham said. "My parents both work in theatre, so I am pretty artistically inclined."

Higham began to find her true love for art in high school when she took an advanced placement art history class. Once exposed to the studies, she was hooked.

"It was something that intrigued me," Higham said. "It was a class primarily for seniors, but I was a junior, and at the end of the year I got an art history award for my work in the class. It was something I was really in tune with. I guess all those years of watching PBS paid off."

Higham, who grew up in Brooklyn, was introduced to the arts at a young age. Her mother, Tony-Leslie James, works as a costume designer and a theatre professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has designed costumes for the highly-regarded musical "Finnian's Rainbow." Her father, David, does lighting for theatre productions and teaches film classes. In addition, her younger brother, Jett, has become well-known within the family as a sculptor.

"He is his own man," Higham laughs. "He is a really good sculptor. He is amazing with his visual concepts and space."

Like Cosima, Jett is an athlete. The 14-year-old competes in lacrosse and soccer.

So how does someone who grew up in an artistic background wind up in athletics?

"My dad is Australian," Higham said. "We grew up in the water. We swam before we could do anything else."

As a child, Higham was encouraged to try everything, and when she attended a youth basketball camp, her skills were immediately visible.

"One of the first camps I went to, I was bigger than everyone else and so I was close to the basket," Higham said. "One of my friends' parents went up to my dad and said `Hey, your daughter is pretty good.' I think he started smiling and saw an opportunity. After that, we started honing my skills."

For someone who has always been willing to try new things, Higham appreciates her down time. As someone involved in the completely different cultures of art and basketball, she relishes each for its potential to escape the other when stress levels rise.

"I like having each because I am using different parts of my brain," Higham said. "They are two separate kinds of outlets. When one stresses me out, I can use the other to chill out."

And there were some occasional moments of stress during her first year at Bucknell, which is located in Lewisburg, Pa., a far cry from Brooklyn.

"I couldn't walk anywhere," Higham said. "There was a little bit of culture shock, but I was so busy, that it actually wasn't that big of an issue. I had my own little bubble."

Now no longer isolated, Higham has her sights set on a Patriot League Championship.

"I have fun competing with my teammates," Higham said. "They are great friends of mine, and it is our goal to go out and win every game."

And when she's not competing?

"I really love watching movies," Higham said. "Any chance I can get, I like to read and paint."

She hopes that her well-rounded nature will help her after her playing career is done. Higham plans to pursue a graduate degree in hopes of eventually attaining a job in a museum.

"I want to find a graduate program where I can pursue museum studies," Higham said. "I am looking to find a program that concentrates on art in a business setting rather than teaching. Ultimately, art should be the focus."