As a Pickerington, Ohio native, Brittney Callahan gets to travel to her home state quite often during the basketball season. The sophomore guard, known for her three-point shot, took five minutes after practice to talk to the Northern Star about an advantage of being from the Buckeye State and why her teammates are able to give her a hard time.

Northern Star: You are known for shooting the three ball; has that always been a part of your game?

Brittney Callahan: Not always. I try to add a little more; there’s a lot to it. At a young age I learned B.E.E.F (balance, eyes, elbow, follow through). Those are the most important things. Once I got older, into high school, I started shooting the three and through AAU I realized I could make it, got a little more confident, started to work on it.

NS: You are an Ohio native in a conference that has a lot of Ohio teams. Why are you at NIU?

BC: I get that a lot. I went on a lot of visits and I knew I wanted to go a little farther away from home just to learn a little bit on my own. What got me here was the coaches; I had a close relationship with them. The facilities were good, and the academic support that NIU has here was huge. I think that’s what really got me.

NS: Even when you go on the road to Ohio, it’s like going home for you. How does this benefit you?

BC: This past month we played at Ohio University, which is about 30 minutes from my house so we had a team dinner at my house and my mom made a whole bunch of food. It was better than a restaurant because we could goof off a little. I have a lot of family [at games] like at the Kent State games, Miami, [and] OU. I see a lot of girls that I have played against or played with. It’s great.

NS: Most importantly; did everyone mock you for the pictures on the wall of you at the house from when you were younger?

BC: I got a lot of that. Actually one of my teammates [Shaakira Haywood] put on my prom dress. [She] got it out of my closet and put on my dress. Courtney [Shelton] came down in some of my slippers. I think they took a panther from my room and would put it in places and take pictures and send it to me. It was a big joke. They have a lot of pictures of me when I was little on their phones. I told my mom to put them away. She didn’t listen; she brought them out. ‘This is her in the bubble bath.’