DANIEL SPOTH/Frontiersman

The Seattle Pacific Falcons enjoyed the finest season in the history of its women's basketball program. The Falcons posted their highest finish ever in the Division II national poll, third, finished the season 30-1 and fell just one game shy of the Division II Final Four.

A key to the Falcons' success was Wasilla graduate -- Brittany Kroon.

Kroon started all 31 games for the Falcons during her sophomore season and spent much of that time steady in the paint, on the defensive end of the court swatting away everything the opponent had to offer. Kroon finished the season with 135 blocks, an astronomical number -- even for a 6-foot-5 center.

But Kroon's transition to the college game was not routine, not easy by any standard. Her biggest test of all came off the court and didn't have anything to do with basketball.

Nearly four years ago Kroon faced a wide-open promising road ahead, with not even a bump in sight. She was a junior at Wasilla High School, starred on the Warrior basketball team and was sifting through a pile of letters from colleges and universities eager to bring Kroon to their institution.

Just a month into her junior season, she was dealt with life altering news. Kroon was diagnosed with autoimmune liver disease, was initially told she could not play any sports involving physical contact and that she would need a liver transplant.

"Basketball didn't take a back seat, but I realized it wasn't the most important thing," Kroon said.

Kroon was treated by local physicians and specialists in Seattle. Her platelet count was low and her liver was not functioning properly, not enabling the body to expel the toxins it breaks down.

"In about a six-month period we went from reading college recruitment letters to flipping through medical bills," Kroon's father, Larry, told the Frontiersman in January of 2001.

After numerous tests from several doctors Kroon was allowed to step back onto the basketball court. In this case, at least temporarily, basketball may have been the best medicine.

"It helped take my mind off things," Kroon said.

Doctors monitored her closely and she took frequent trips to the hospital in Seattle. She took medication to slow the deterioration of the liver and was placed on the national transplant list in May of her junior year. Kroon said she expected to wait two years, if not longer, to find a donor. In the meantime Kroon kept a beeper that would sound in the event doctors found a liver, kept taking her medication and working on the court.

But less than a year later the beeper sounded at the most unexpected time -- during the final game of her high school career, the state championship game. It was not until after she scored 24 points and played all 32 minutes in a 50-47 loss to East Anchorage in the title match that Kroon would find out she had an opportunity to get a new liver. An opportunity that was lost. The beeper was tucked into Kroon's gym bag which stood in the locker room. The Kroon family did not realize what had happened until arriving back in Wasilla.

Kroon said after she missed the opportunity for the first liver, doctors said it could be another two years before a match was found. But again Kroon received an unexpected call at an unexpected time. This time she got the page while traveling with her mother on a trip to see her brother, Ben, and sister, Joani, in Oregon, just days after the state basketball tournament.

"I was pretty much shocked," Kroon said. "They told me it could be two or three years. I wasn't expecting that."

On March 29, 2002 doctors in Seattle alerted Kroon and her family that another liver had been found. Arrangements were quickly made and by the next day, Kroon had the transplant.

Today Kroon is healthy and enjoying success on and off the court. She said the transition from Wasilla was tough, compounded by her surgery.

"Like a lot of freshmen, it was a big transition," Kroon said. "And adding in that stuff."

Kroon said it took time to get her strength back and spent most of her freshman year of college getting back to a certain level of fitness.

"For the first three months (after the transplant) it was do whatever you can do," Kroon said. "The first year I was not as strong."

Prior to her transplant Kroon did not notice a lack of endurance, or a loss in energy.

"I probably had this for 10 years and had no idea," Kroon said. "I really had no idea what normal was supposed to be."

Despite Kroon's health concerns, Seattle Pacific did remained interested. She orally committed to the university prior to the end of her senior season in basketball and she inked a National Letter of Intent during the following signing period.

"It actually worked out great, they were willing to take me without a doubt," Kroon said.

Seattle Pacific's patience was rewarded as the squad has one of the most intimidated presences in the paint in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Kroon's 135 blocks in the 2003-04 season shattered the single season SPU record. She also set the single season blocks record with 13 in a win over conference foe Northwest Nazarene. Kroon averaged 7.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game and shot better than 50-percent from the floor.

And she has two seasons of eligibility left.