Sometimes there's no place like home.

What was true for Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz" is also true for Dominika Logue – the Golden Eagles' forward hailing just down the road from campus in Sligo, Pa., a small town nine miles southwest of Clarion.

"I stayed local, I liked the idea of being close to home. I could come home for a home-cooked meal whenever I wanted," relayed Logue, a Biology/Pre-Med major. "I also had two teammates that I played travel basketball with [in high school] who were from around here, Abby Gatesman [2020-24] and Olivia Boocks [2019-23], that went to Clarion. It was kind of a no-brainer for me to stay around."

"I found advantages outside of basketball, which I really wasn't expecting. I've become very involved on campus. I've become a community assistant [in the residence halls], I'm involved in clubs. I found a love for what I was studying. Everything just fell into place."

Added women's head basketball coach Danielle Fleming, "She's a country girl at heart and she never fails to let us know. She loves her city, she loves Clarion, she loves country living and things like that. I think it makes her extremely unique to our team and we love her for that.

"When I first got here, she was left over from the previous staff, she was, 'This is what Clarion is about.' She knew the high schools [in the area]; she was very helpful, very instrumental to me, personally, in that."
Fleming was hired in Spring 2023 after Logue's first season, the then freshman having to learn how play for a new coach and in a new system.

"I was concerned. I didn't know what was going to happen, the coaches that recruited me were gone and a whole new coaching staff was coming in," recalled Logue. "We had to learn how they wanted to play, what they wanted to do, their expectations."

"There were definitely some challenges and struggles, but I'm grateful for the coaches we got. We turned over a new leaf, it's been a great cultural shift."

Contributed Fleming, "Our playing style got a little bit faster and you could tell they were a little uncomfortable, 'Okay, we're no longer walking the ball up, we're pressing, we're playing fast.' I think physically she saw a little bit more of a demand in terms of what we were trying to do."

"She adapted really well. She understood what we were trying to do; getting faster, getting her shot up quicker. She put the work in to adjust to those things."

A self-described "team player, doing whatever the team needs" on the court, Logue has embraced a leadership role off it.

"I have a heavier leadership responsibility. The other senior [Jaylyn Twitty] and I, we talk about it all the time," noted Logue. "We have to be leaders because we have one junior and the rest are freshmen and sophomores."

"We've been here for four years, we kind of know how everything works. We can be that shoulder that people can lean on and talk to. If they have questions, we have answers for them."

Contributed Fleming, "She's one of two seniors, I only have two, so there's a level of respect she commands just from her presence. She's bringing that seniority and that expectation that I have to the freshmen and sophomores. Having done it for three years, she helps us out a lot in that aspect. I'm so thankful to have her on the team."