ORONO, Maine (WABI) – After five seasons with the Maine Black Bears Anne Simon’s college career has come to an end.

Growing up in Luxemburg Simon was visited by coach Vachon in her home country.

Then she made a second home in Orono.

“I’m always gonna look at Maine and know that it’s a place where where I have my second family,” said Simon.

In her time as a Black Bear she’s had a lot of special moments on the court.

But one sticks out in particular.

“For sure it was the championship game. That’s the most recent one that I remember. So that was really special. Just in general I feel like this year has been special. Playing a whole year in the pit with fans. And having a great season. We didn’t really lose a lot of home games. So that was really, really great. To see The Pit being packed and then bringing home the championship and especially being in my last year it was really special,” Simon said.

Simon will go down in history as one of the greatest basketball players to ever play for the Black Bears.

“It’s crazy to think about that. Coming in my freshman year I would have never thought of this. My freshman year ended up being good for me. I mean, we had a lot of injured players. So that’s why the freshmen had to step up which is really weird because usually freshmen don’t see the court a lot. But looking back I didn’t know. And in five years having this great career with amazing teammates, I learned a lot from them. I learned a lot from the coaches. It’s amazing. It’s unbelievable for real. It still hasn’t hit me,” Simon said.

Although her time playing in The Pit has come to an end she’s working to keep basketball in her life.

“I’m also trying to pursue my professional career. So I’ve been talking to some teams in Europe, but there’s nothing fixed yet. But hopefully there’ll be an announcement coming soon, but who knows?” said Simon.

Simon says that she is grateful for everyone who made these past few years special.

“I just want to say a big thank you to everyone. Everyone that made these past five years amazing for me, making me feel welcomed. It’s my home away from home. It’s definitely gonna be really hard to leave this place but I know I’ll always have everyone’s back. They’ll always have mine and I can always come back here and feel loved. So just really thankful for everything everyone has done for me in these past five years,” said Simon.

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