My heart started racing. I started sweating.

I took a deep breath.

The more she talked, I could feel a headache starting.

I took a drink of water.

I tried to focus on something else, but I was in an interview and if I didn’t pay attention, I couldn’t ask her follow up questions. Instead, I stared straight ahead and tried to dissociate and get through this as fast as I could.

That was me just a few months ago; in the middle of an interview having a panic attack I never saw coming.

The feeling rushed over me and caught me off guard. Once I got off the phone, I was exhausted and that headache was full bore.

Since then, I haven’t been able to listen back to the interview or write the story.

See, I was interviewing a former athlete who had suffered multiple concussions. She was going down that deep road of describing everything. And it was way too familiar for me.

I, too, had a concussion.

Mine was long-term.

Most concussions are over in three to four weeks. However, up to 30% of all concussions last much longer. I fall into this category.

Mine was 18 months. It was finally over a year ago this month.

Rewind to March of 2024. I was in Storrs, CT, covering Arizona women’s basketball in the NCAA Tournament. The day before the matchup with Auburn in the First Four, I was walking in a snowstorm (it wasn’t snowing too hard) to Gampel Pavilion. A block before the arena, I crossed the street and misjudged how high the sidewalk was. I fell. And the left side of my face near my eye hit the pavement.

I got up immediately and walked over to the arena as I knew the team doctors would be there and they could take care of me. The people who stopped to help must have thought I was crazy as I just kept saying, “I have to get to the arena.”

Once the paramedics saw how close the cut was to my eye (I was bleeding), they took me to the emergency room, which was two towns over and I got stitched up. I think I was there for an hour or so as they observed me. I was fortunate, my eyesight was fine and the bleeding had stopped.

I got back to the arena in time to ask one question in Arizona’s press conference and went to watch practice. Once the team doctor saw me, they had me sit down and ice my face.

Like many athletes, I played hurt.

I kept working, albeit very slowly. At times, it was like I couldn’t form thoughts or sentences. However, I felt like the players deserved the stories. I was doing it for something bigger than me.

I never stopped to think about what any of it might cost me later.

What surprised me most was that this experience, the panic attack, happened at all. I have talked about my concussion openly and I am not someone who is easily triggered.

I even interviewed athletes who were recovering from their concussions while I was still suffering.

In the beginning of June, I talked to the concussion expert who helped in my recovery, Dr. James Dill, from SPARCC. I mentioned that I still don’t remember much of the first few months before I stepped into his office. I am totally fine with that; it wasn’t a good time. He reminded me that our brain has a way of protecting us.

A taboo subject

In the media and otherwise, concussions aren’t really talked about. It all seems a bit taboo.

It’s not like a broken arm that we can see.

Here’s the little secret: I looked functional. I was writing stories. And yet, there was so much going on that, unless you were trained, you just couldn’t see.

The key here is finding someone who is trained in treating concussions.

A few months into my concussion, a neurosurgeon told me I wasn’t too bad and that if I was closer to retirement age, he wouldn’t do anything. Believe me, I couldn’t imagine not doing anything.

For those of you who haven’t experienced a concussion, Dill likes to “describe it as your brain is your body’s computer, it’s not a problem with the hardware.”

“You look at the computer and the screen, the wires, everything looks normal, but we go to boot the computer up and nothing’s working like it’s supposed to. So, it’s a problem with software.”

I have talked to many athletes who have had concussions; some come back right away after testing, others don’t. One volleyball player ended up medically retiring. A former basketball player told me that her recovery took longer than just getting cleared to play.

I’ve seen basketball players come back and their shot is off. I always say they are out of rhythm. Dill said this is true and there could also be a lot of other things playing into it.

“When it comes to the day-to-day life and mechanics of what they do, is their behavior because they are out of practice? Is their behavior because their reaction time is down or are they afraid of getting another concussion? There’s not a way to differentiate that,” Dill said. “…It’s a speculation, but when they return from a concussion and they’re cleared, they feel that pressure of, ‘yeah, I’m fine, I’m back, I got this,’ and no one is going to address, unless they’re trained to do it, the emotional residual component of a concussion of them having lost a part of their life and lost their reputation during that time.

“I see this a lot in athletes who are in high school, where it’s almost if they have sustained a concussion, there must be something weak about them. They’re not up to par with the rest of the athletes. Or they’re making an excuse, they don’t want to play, and so they’re saying they have a concussion. There’s so much stigma associated with that on return it can be incredibly difficult to say, ‘Hey, did you miss that catch because you got dizzy? Because your motor skills need more practice? Or are you terrified that that ball is going to hit you in the head?’ And it can be none or all three.”

When it happens to an elite athlete

Satou Sabally’s situation brought this all back to the surface for me.

Recently, Sabally, who plays for the WNBA’s New York Liberty, stepped away from the game because of a concussion. This is her second concussion this year. One in the 2025 WNBA Finals and one at the end of June.

Her lingering symptoms from the first one kept her from playing in Unrivaled during the offseason. This one is keeping her off the floor for the rest of the Liberty’s season and for FIBA’s World Cup coming up in Berlin, Germany, Sept. 4-13.

That was essentially the extent of her coverage. I decided to research if anyone had really written about what she was going through, talked to a specialist or even described what it actually felt like to have a concussion. Here’s what I found.

Most stories just shared that she had a concussion, she was out and what it meant for the Liberty. The few that I found that shared a little more about concussions didn’t talk to a specialist and offhandedly said it was different from recovery of a different type of injury. This was more about sitting and waiting.

That’s not what my recovery was all about. Yes, there were a few days I had to sit in a dark room. However, if I sat and waited, I wouldn’t be fully functioning today.

This is why I wanted to share a little about my story. Concussions aren’t talked about enough and yet there are somewhere around 3.8 million sports-related concussions each year, while 50% go unreported according to the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

What my recovery looked like

I am forever grateful to have found Dill. The moment he walked into the room, he listened, understood what I was going through and was there to help me every step of my journey.

I was affected in three areas: cognitive, neck and vision.

My recovery involved a wide range of therapies from physical, occupational and vision to IV treatments, trigger point injections and Structural Energetic Therapy – all carefully sequenced so as not to overload my system.

I walked every day, did some stretches, moved my head side by side and up and down. I did visual exercises like looking at things far and near and looking at numbers and trying to map them. I did fill-in word puzzles and picture puzzles and played the NY Times Connections, Spelling Bee and Tiles.

I wore different lenses with prisms every month to retrain my brain. I even wore 3D-like glasses to keep me calm and learn to trust again.

All of these therapies helped.

As I was looking back at something I wrote about my experience six months into my recovery, I noticed something that made me laugh.

It was about my symptoms from headaches every day to light and noises bothering me. I shared that “I still write with no lights on in my office.” I just looked at my lamp and it’s not on right now. I guess some habits just stay with you.

The Bonus

Dill said that while concussions are unique, there is no predictor that women lean towards having more complex concussions than men. However, there is one thing that does stand out for Dill.

“I have noticed that women spend more time convincing people that what they feel is real, whereas if a guy shows up and they’re like, like, ‘I got a really bad concussion,’ they don’t (have an issue being believed),” Dill said.

“I haven’t seen them have a hard time being believed at first. They have a harder time later, if it lasts too long. If they don’t ‘man up and deal with it,’ and they still have symptoms three months later, they get shamed. From experience, what I’ve observed, they have a harder time trying to validate what they’re experiencing.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Cara Martin embodies the phrase: Be where your feet are.

The Orlando Pride’s backup goalkeeper doesn’t dwell on the past, isn’t dreaming of a future state, she’s firmly focused on what she can do today to get better and help her team.

It’s a mindset that places her in the best position to succeed in any situation. And especially in the role of a backup where nothing is guaranteed. Not her spot in the game day lineup. Not her spot on the travel team. She hasn’t even played in a match this season. And yet, Martin is one of the most upbeat people you’ll ever meet.

In describing her role, Martin immediately thought about how a strength coach in her freshman year at Georgetown put it, “As a backup goalkeeper, you have to be the most prepared player on the sideline, but you’re the least likely to get called on, just because it’s rare that a goalkeeper gets subbed out if it’s not like an injury or something extreme.”

“You’re not going in, but in the off chance that you get put in, you have to be as ready as the starter, so that you can command the back line,” Martin said.

“You know the game plan and all that. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges about being a backup is just being so prepared and so ready at all times, even though you know you’re probably not going to play.”

When Martin signed a contract with the Pride earlier this year, she was coming off back-to-back elite seasons at Georgetown. As a junior, she led the nation with 0.261 goals against average, allowing only three goals in 1,000 minutes of play. She was Big East Goalkeeper of the Year and helped the Hoyas earn 14 shutouts. She was also ECAC Defensive Player of the Year.

As a senior, Georgetown put up the first perfect Big East conference season in program history, going 10-0. She had seven shutouts, 0.51 goals against average and earned her second Big East Goalkeeper of the Year honors. She was also named to the All-American third team.

Even with those accomplishments, Martin said her college career was “bumpy.” She played 10 games in her freshman season because the starter was out. Once they came back, Martin didn’t play.

In her sophomore year, she said she wasn’t where she thought “was as a player” and took a couple of steps back. In her junior year, she put up those big numbers while splitting time with another goalkeeper.

Her collegiate experience, bumpy as it may have been, made her stronger mentally and prepared for this moment.

For this rookie, the adjustment from college to professional didn’t happen overnight. At first the transition caught her off guard.

“I would come home and not really know what to do, and I would catch myself being like, ‘Was practice okay today? Did I do all right?’ and all these things, and it would kind of turn into a semi-spiral of, ‘Am I doing enough? Am I good enough to be here?’” Martin said.

“And I quickly learned that for me, part of the whole pro athlete thing is also having something to blow off steam on the side, or having another way, having something else in your life going on.”

That’s where the yoga, cooking and baking and paint by numbers come in.

Training takes up much of her day from 7 a.m. to around 2 p.m. Everything else is about recovery, mindfulness and staying grounded.

“In college, recovery was like a big thing, like ‘oh, you want to feel good for the next game,’” Martin said. “But here it’s ‘oh, you want to feel good for the next practice.’ What can you do once you’re done with training one day to get ready for training the next day? And so, whether that’s cooking good meals, taking your supplements, vitamins, foam rolling, stretching, whatever it may be. You’re never in the position to kind of forget about soccer because it’s your job and livelihood. I think the biggest part is always trying to be as ready as possible for the next day. Make myself feel as good as possible going into it, so that I can try to perform my best and try to get on the game day roster.”

With all of her intention, hard work, as well guidance from her coaches and teammates, Martin has seen growth in her game since turning pro. It also helps to watch and observe elite players like starting goalkeeper, Anna Moorhouse, who have extensive experience.

“I have just become cleaner in everything I do,” Martin said. “Balls that maybe I used to hit away, I’m catching, or passes that used to be like a yard off are now hitting the target.”

There are four goalies on the Pride roster this season. With Moorhouse as the starter, the other three are battling each week for a game day roster spot. Usually, teams roster two goalies for each game, however sometimes it’s three.

When Martin earns the spot on match day, she warms up and helps Moorhouse get ready by hitting balls in the goal. In addition, she’ll step in goal for the field players when they take their final warm up shots. During the match, Martin is hyping up her teammates.

On the weeks when Martin isn’t rostered regardless of whether it’s a home or away match, there is training for those who aren’t playing that week – for both goalies and field players.

“I think on the weeks where I haven’t been rostered, it’s just made me show up with even more the following week,” Martin said. “I feel like I always have something to prove because I’m the youngest goalkeeper, and I just want to show everybody that I’m capable of doing things that the older girls can do. Also, I go out there and put my best foot forward every day, every week, and then at the end of the day, it’s the coach’s decision, and I, of course, respect that. It’s just a matter of showing up every day, and sometimes it’s not your week. But I think that just makes you push even harder the next week.”

The Bonus

When Martin was around two years old, she could be found at her older brother Alex’s soccer practices running around with the team.

That’s when her love for soccer started.

“Soccer has always been a safe space and a place to escape to when either I’m having a bad day or I feel like stuff isn’t going my way,” Martin said. “I feel like when I show up to practice or games or even if I just go to a random field on my own, I’ve always been able to kind of shut off my brain and let all my worries and issues roll off me once I get into the groove of things.”

She played attacking midfielder and striker until high school and then made the switch to goalie.

Why goalie?

“I always jokingly say that I like being a goalie because I don’t like running all that much, so I can do less of the running and more of the saving,” Martin said. “… (Actually) I think I just started realizing that I liked saving goals more than I liked scoring them.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

It’s almost fitting that Lyndsey D’Arcangelo next chapter is as a life coach.

D’Arcangelo understands to her core so much of what athletes go through.

See, she was an athlete growing up. She played soccer, then basketball. And she faced performance anxiety. While it held her back in basketball, now it’s become her opportunity to give back and help others; to help them find their joy again.

“There was no outlet for that back then, this was in the ‘90s, and it really wasn’t talked about,” D’Arcangelo said.

“Seeing now the need for it in the void. I have a client who’s a high school student in ninth grade. (In) our first session together, when I say, ‘lit me up,’ I was like, ‘Yes, this is this is the demographic I want to work with,’ because it was hearing a lot of the same things that I dealt with when I was that age. Helping athletes become more self-aware, free to perform at their highest level and enjoy. That’s the biggest part, to enjoy. Get back to enjoying the sport that they’re playing, that’s what lights me up. Knowing that I can help impact that in a positive way, is, … I mean, man, that’s so cool.”

For those who follow women’s sports closely, D’Arcangelo’s name will sound familiar. She was a sportswriter for The Athletic, Just Women’s Sports and a host of other outlets. She also co-authored the book, Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League, with Frankie de la Cretaz.

She has also written about the NBA, was a copywriter and authored four other books: a children’s book and three young adult LGBTQ+ fiction books.

Now, she’s working with athletes from high school to retirement, as well as other individuals.

In her time as a sportswriter, she found that she had a “knack for making people feel comfortable” and opening up to her. Those who were considered tough interviews weren’t for D’Arcangelo.

For her, the transition to being a life coach has been natural. Besides understanding a lot of what athletes are going through and truly listening to them, she also saw the added pressures up close.

These are the things that often get overlooked. Whether it’s a lack of confidence, anxiety or the downside of social media, which includes comparing themselves to others who look perfect.

D’Arcangelo called this internal side of things the “inside game.”

“We, as individuals, who are not athletes experience a wealth of emotions,” D’Arcangelo said. “We can have ups; we can have downs. It’s almost like we are expected to; we have the space to deal with them. For some reason, athletes are expected to be superhuman and not ever have these normal experiences of emotional turmoil or mental struggles, which is ridiculous. Just because somebody can score 30 points in a basketball game doesn’t mean they’re infallible or can’t experience any of the same kind of limiting beliefs or damaging thoughts that that we experience.

“It takes more courage to step up and say, ‘I’m struggling here,’ then people realize. There is a partnership, I guess, visually thinking that there’s an outside game that’s happening, but at the same time, there’s this inside game. Some people, their inside game is flawless, and they’re good, they’re handling things well. Others, it’s not where it could be.”

But it’s not just athletes. D’Arcangelo was struck by this while listening to a podcast with someone who is elite in a different area: a Nobel Award winning scientist, who admitted he still faces imposter syndrome.

“Perfect example,” D’Arcangelo said. “None of us are immune to that. In fact, I think every single person walking this planet has imposter syndrome at some point in their lives. How it shows up is completely different, but so why would we expect athletes not to have those same issues or challenges? And now, particularly with the women’s sports boom that’s happening, and there’s more eyes on these athletes, more expectations, more pressure. Social media is just its own animal. There’s just a lot that they have to deal with now than just going out and playing a basketball game.”

Athletes have started to talk about their struggles. A few names that come to mind quickly in women’s sports are Olympian Simone Biles and tennis star Naomi Osaka.

Add former UCLA women’s basketball standout and National Champion, Lauren Betts, who currently plays for the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, to this list. She spoke recently at the ESPY Awards:

Just last month, South Carolina sophomore guard, Maddy McDaniel, posted that she was stepping away from the game.

McDaniel said:

D’Arcangelo says there is more pressure on athletes today and everything is intensified. She likened it to “feeling a weight on your shoulder, but adding more bricks, and more bricks, and more bricks.”

“As a society, we’re more accepting of the fact that dealing with those inside issues is a good thing, and talking about them is a good thing,” D’Arcangelo said.

“I think the key is to let them know resources are available. I truly believe, had I had the resources to help me with my performance anxiety and my limiting beliefs, and what kept me from excelling in a sport that I loved, I would have taken it up.”

The Bonus

Transitions can be difficult. For athletes, it’s like one minute they are at the top of their game, the next they are starting over from scratch.

This is true whether a basketball player is moving from high school to college, transferring from one school to another, going from college to professional or even retiring. Everything is new at the next stop: from the system, the defense, your role (maybe from starting to coming off the bench) to not playing the game you love.

“There’s a lot that gets overlooked from a life transition standpoint and how that can knock you back to square one,” D’Arcangelo said. “Having to work your way through again, and find some semblance of, find your footing, find some semblance of balance, and just figuring it out, and sometimes you need help with that, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion. Plus, you can ask me questions!

It will be anything from a timely topic, like today’s question, to anything about someone I interviewed or is on my wish list of interviewees.

I miss the back and forth I had with some of you while I was on the beat for Arizona women’s basketball. And hopefully, this will fill that space. It’s time to continue to build our community.

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Erika Barnes has seen the landscape of college sports from nearly all sides.

She was a student-athlete, who played first base as Arizona softball won the 2001 national championship.

She worked her way up as an administrator at her alma mater, becoming the Executive Senior Associate Director of Athletics. She was also the senior woman administrator at Arizona and the interim Athletic Director. Along the way, she did marketing and fund raising. She also served on numerous Pac-12 task forces and was a member of the NCAA Softball Selection Committee.

And now, she is the founder of a consulting firm, EB7 Advisory Group, helping universities navigate the new landscape of college sports.

Barnes’ perspective is one of one. Few people have seen college sports from as many vantage points: from competing on a national championship team to running an entire athletic department. It’s what places her in position to understand the complexities of college sports, from where we’ve been to where we are, as well as what goes into fixing a system that has gone sideways.

When everything started seemed to turn upside down and get “too chaotic” as Barnes put it, she decided she wanted to be part of a solution.

“I believe passionately in college athletic space,” Barnes said.

“I love that sports still bring people together. It’s such a fabric of our country, and so if I can make an impact now in a broader way, it’s made me happy. But I do miss being on campus with student-athletes though, seeing them every day.”

To understand why she felt the need to step in, it helps to understand how we got here. All of the major and seemingly minor changes are linked. In the simplest explanation: it’s the freedom of movement and money.

There is an open transfer portal (no more sitting out a season), which makes it basically free agency with athletes moving from school to school every year. They are moving for many reasons; however, the main one is money. In the 2025 House Settlement, schools can now pay athletes directly ($20.5 million each year and this will increase every year as we move forward).

On top of that, this summer Congress has gotten involved. It is working on a bill called the Protect College Sports Act. It’s the latest attempt to bring some order to a system that has been changing faster than anyone can keep up with.

There are two things that Barnes said everyone is on board with: agent regulation and preemption name, image and likeness (NIL). While this won’t fix everything, it’s a step in the right direction.

The piece related to NIL is basically having a consistent federal law. When NIL went into place, the NCAA wasn’t prepared with guidelines and states passed their own laws, which has caused issues.

“I think what will help women’s sports and Olympic sports, beyond just the revenue sports, too, is having the agent regulation piece,” Barnes said.

“You’re hearing stories that agents are charging up to 20-25% of a contact, where in pro sports it’s 3-5%. Having more transparency, I think can help slow down the transfer portal a little bit because they’re being less encouraged to go get a new contract every year. I think this is part of the problem. … You think a student happy is happy and content where they are, and then they might be getting outside pressure. If we can at least limit that piece, this is going to slow the train down right now, because at some point some market is going to have to correct itself.”

Barnes looks back at the 2015 Deregulation as a pivotal point in college sports. This one doesn’t get talked about much, but it actually was the tip of the iceberg. This lifted restrictions for the then-Power 5 conferences and gave athletes unlimited meals, guaranteed four-year scholarships (going away from year to year) and allowed schools to provide stipends to cover the gap between scholarships and the actual cost of living.

When Barnes was in college, if her team played a doubleheader, they would get one granola bar in between games. Now, it’s unlimited snacks from recovery shakes to fruit roll ups and everything in between that is on the sideline of practice and in the locker room at all times.

Without new revenue sources, this placed more financial pressure on athletic departments. Everything else that has happened since – and yes, there have been major changes – has just added to this.

Next, was conference realignment with Texas and Oklahoma moving from the Big 12 to the SEC, plus USC and UCLA going from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. It started the migration of eight other teams leaving the Pac-12. This turned into losses in revenues for some leagues, as well as schools who took a smaller share to join their new conferences.

Those are all big hits, adding in the transfer portal and now paying athletes, in a seemingly short amount of time.

“I do think we are at a point where we need to look at the way we do business,” Barnes said.

And that is looking at everything including finding ways to be more efficient.

She is a proponent of customizing models for each school by utilizing their own resources. It would be a hybrid model, “taking advantage of technology and AI, and again, the social media platforms for the student athletes, and the TV exposure, and those things.”

“I think we need to think beyond just the traditional way that we’ve done it for a century, because we’re part of an institution,” Barnes said. “It doesn’t mean we have to do drastic measures, but are there some business solutions that we can rely on, or each school can rely on their alumni experience, or their school’s strengths of research and technology? Every school is going to have their own kind of space. Can we take advantage of that in commercializing some of the athletic department?

“… I do think we just have to look at it more from a business perspective, because in the end, that’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to support the women’s and Olympic sports also, and so if you can generate more revenue with creative solutions that you haven’t done before, that’s going to be the giveback for the sports.”

The Bonus

Last month as stipulations were being added and removed from the Protect College Sports Act, one was batted around was having athletic departments at a certain level ($80 million) freeze roster spots at the 2024-25 school year level.

Barnes was concerned with this addition as she said that schools are exploring ways to add opportunities and increase scholarships in women’s sports, but it all comes back to funding.

“If we put some baseline, like numbers to it right now, I’m afraid that that will stifle that look to expand in good faith,” Barnes said.

“I think you just hear the headlines about, ‘Oh, they’re going to cut these sports,’ but really, they’re looking at opportunities for Olympic sports while we’re trying to figure out the funding model. Flag football is a great example. It’s going to explode. It’s going to be in the LA 2028 Olympics. It’s really good for girls; lower injuries rates, and when you’re looking at Title IX and you want to look at being equitable, quality equipment, facilities, trainers (and) coaches. You’ll get that because you’ll have a shared space with football.”

Barnes is deeply familiar with adding an Olympic women’s sport. She was part of the team that added women’s Triathlon at Arizona in 2023. This squad has gone on to win back-to-back national championships in its second and third years in existence.

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

When I started the conversation, I asked former Arizona women’s basketball player Trinity Baptiste how many countries she’s played in as a pro.

Baptiste started rattling them off … “Russia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Romania, Turkey, China, and now this past season I played in Germany, and I also played in … somewhere else, Mexico.”

Those are a lot of countries to keep track of; oh and she’s played in Brazil, the Lebanese National Team and was all set to play in Israel but decided against it because of the war.

In August, Baptiste heads to France.

That’s the life of someone who plays professional basketball overseas.

She hasn’t played for the same team in the same country for multiple seasons, just yet. Before a season ends, her agent is already looking for the next best place for Baptiste to land.

Her German club won a league championship this past spring. It was the first time she was holding the trophy at the end of the season and Baptiste said it was “very rewarding” to be on the other side of a championship.

Although, she was quick to add that there’s been nothing like the 2021 run to the NCAA National Championship game with Arizona. That was and always will be special to Baptiste.

That’s where we first met. Well, Baptiste and I go further back than that. In April of 2020 when Baptiste transferred to Arizona from Virginia Tech, I interviewed her for a “get to know the new Wildcat” story.

That season all the interviews were done on the phone or on Zoom because of COVID-19. I didn’t actually see her in person -- from a distance, that is -- until a practice ahead of the NCAA Tournament. However, it’s always been an easy conversation from that first call.

What I’ve learned about Baptiste through the years is she is extremely dedicated to her craft. Saying she works to get 1% better every day would be an understatement. She’s one of the hardest working athletes I have ever written about.

During the season, she lifts in the weight room all the time.

In the offseasons, she works on different aspects of her game by playing with grown men – some former professionals.

Once she became a pro, she changed her game and now plays two positions (wing and small forward). She taught herself the skills needed at wing, as well as working on shooting, defense and other aspects of her game. There is no assistant coach working with her on skills every day during the season or for that matter, in the offseason. Baptiste has done all of this on her own.

There are very few athletes who are disciplined enough to do this.

She loves her life as a basketball player. She’s living her dream.

When she was around 10 years old, playing in the WNBA was her dream (she was drafted by the Indiana Fever and waived).

“I never thought about overseas, I only wanted to play in the WNBA, and that was it,” Baptiste said. “I was watching Minnesota (Lynx) when they were winning (4 titles with) Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus. My dream was to play in the WNBA, but as I graduated, and I got an opportunity to go overseas … now I realize I’m still living my dream, and it’s not based on a location.”

Locations and team playing styles may differ, but one thing that makes someone like Baptiste have a long career, is being able to adjust quickly. She joined her last team in the middle of the season as two players at her position were injured. Baptiste had one or two practices and was thrown into a game, learning everything on the fly.

Baptiste shrugged it off, “It’s just how it is in pro sports.”

Typically, training camp is around two weeks. There is no summer training like in college where you have time to get to know your teammates and their tendencies (where they like the ball, etc.). Everything as a pro happens at a much faster pace.

Style of play changes for every team. In Turkey, it was fast with a lot of scoring in the open court, while in Germany it was more of a half-court, with more set plays.

Baptiste said that one of the biggest adjustments was “learning how to become a pro.”

“I think you have to learn how to be a pro and to be about your business,” Baptiste said. “You don’t have someone by your side, like in college, you have a lot of resources and a lot of assistant coaches and coaches and sports psychologists. You have so many resources and people there to help uplift you when things aren’t going well. As a pro, from my experience in Russia, it seemed that everything was on me, like whatever was happening off the court, it really didn’t matter when it came time to play. I needed to be ready to play.”

Russia was her first pro experience and as you can imagine, it wasn’t easy. Just a small snapshot of what that was like was shared in this piece. Most athletes would have quit after that. Not Baptiste. It’s not who she is.

When she was at Arizona, her coach, Adia Barnes, who is now at SMU, talked to Baptiste a lot about what it’s like playing professionally. Barnes played in the WNBA (won the 2004 championship with the Seattle Storm) and overseas for more than 12 years. Those conversations, including what to do with your money, stuck with Baptiste.

In addition, one of the biggest lessons she learned from Barnes was to “sacrifice to become a winner. To put the team’s needs first, above my needs,” Baptiste said.

That approach has served her well at every stop. She’s been very successful in helping her teams win. Along the way, she’s had standout games and weeks, winning most valuable player honors. This past spring, she shot 56% from the field and 94% from the free throw line in a shortened season.

Baptiste liked the competitiveness when she played in China in 2025. While there were numerous WNBA players in that league, no one was as competitive as one of her former teammates, Aari McDonald.

“Aari is the fiercest competitor I’ve ever played with,” Baptiste said. “I haven’t had another teammate like her on that level of competitiveness and just being a dog. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be able to play together again.”

They hadn’t played together or against each other in practice in four years. Both of their games had grown in those years. McDonald was even more dynamic. Baptiste is now scoring more at all levels – inside, mid-range and from long distance. She’s more versatile; guarding bigs and even playing point guard at times.

Growing and learning more about herself each season is just a byproduct of a life well-lived for Baptiste.

“I’m most proud of myself for just continuing to go and chase my dream,” Baptiste said. “Every day is a miracle to still be playing a game that I love at my age. And just to be doing something positive in the world, when there’s so much negativity in the world. Just focusing on myself and my craft, and continuing to work hard every day, that’s what that’s what I’m most proud of.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

What started as a small idea has turned into something I am genuinely proud of: stories on incredible women athletes, coaches and the people around them who make everything go. Stories that I believe deserve to be told and that you have shown up for consistently. The open rates, the comments, the shares — they mean everything to me.

A special shoutout to a few of my most loyal readers: Sue Alexander, Kate Weeks and Janice Collins. You know who you are and I am grateful.

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After writing about Arizona long jumper Sydnie Vanek a few weeks ago, a few things stuck with me.

Well, to be very honest, when I write about an athlete or a coach or anyone else, certain parts of their story stay with me long after the story gets published.

With Vanek, there were some things about approach and form that Arizona assistant coach Dino Dodig mentioned in passing that I wanted to know more about.

And when Vanek jumped 21-9 (second all-time in Arizona history) at the NCAA West Regional to move onto the NCAA Finals, I thought here is my chance to dig deeper.

Vanek competes in the evening session on June 11.

I did something a little different this time around. I sat down with Vanek and Dodig and asked one question to get an athlete’s viewpoint and a coach’s perspective.

For them, it was simple ask. When we finished, they said they learned more about each other.

This interview has been lightly edited.

At the Big 12 Championships, the approach was shortened by two steps because of a sore heel. Then you asked if you could add those two steps back in. What did you feel like those two steps would give you in that moment?

Vanek: “I felt it would give me more speed, and he was like, ‘No, it doesn’t work like that.’ But I wanted more speed to carry me through the board. We agreed for three weeks, going up to Big 12s, OK, I’m going from a short approach, I’m going from a short approach, I’m going from a short approach. But I was like, ‘I don’t want to go from a short approach, I don’t want to.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s fine, your heel will save it for Arkansas (NCAA West Regional).’ Then after my first three jumps, I was like, ‘My heel feels good.’ I was like, ‘I want to move back.’ Then it was just like, ‘OK.’ And it paid off. I jumped further, so that was my logic behind it.”

Dodig: “She’s right. The further approach means more speed. My job is to make sure that I always have to look out for what’s best for Sydnie, and then her being young in this event, and in this sport, a lot of times passion and excitement gets the better of us. My job was to make sure that she’s healthy moving forward, because when we’re athletes, we focus on the next step in front of us, which is the Big 12 Championship, I have to think about the National Championship. ….

“At the meet I wanted to jump from 14 steps, which was the goal, because it showed that that’s not going to affect the heel as much as it was from 16 steps when we jumped at Mt Sac (Relays). When she expressed a desire that she said couple of times she needs more speed, and then she said, ‘Can I go back to 16?’ My question was, ‘How do you feel?’ She said, ‘My heel feels fine.’ Staring in her eyes to figure out, is that it feels fine because I want to win, or it actually feels fine? I made a decision to trust her. … The right decision was to go from 16, the conservative decision was to go from 14 and preserve the heel. I trusted her, and she went back, and she won.”

At the NCAA West Regional in Arkansas did you change anything else in your approach?

Vanek: “I wouldn’t say we were working on anything different. Usually, I write all my approaches down. Where each one goes from. My 16-step approach right now is 113-7, so I go into the meet, and I start going from that. If I’m over or whatever, he’ll push me back. Sometimes you have adrenaline (and) he always tells me, I have to learn how to calm down. Try not to change too much, but I ended up moving back a little further, just because I was feeling a lot faster. I ended up going from maybe like four, four-and-a-half of my shoes back, but I wouldn’t say anything was really different compared to Big 12s. I did feel like my approach was maybe a little faster, not sure why.”

Dodig: “Arkansas was one of those meets where we haven’t had to do anything technically different. Every competition feels different. One reason is tapering and the body getting better and better as we go. If we are planning to be the best at Nationals, (for) the body to feel the best, and Arkansas will feel a little bit better than Big 12s. When the body feels better, that means that the strides are going to be longer. That means that she’s going to move faster, which means that I visually will have to see things and adjust it on the spot. But those are small adjustments. Stressful, because you don’t know how it’s going to play out. You’re in that situation for the first time. The wind can blow in your chest or in your back, so you really don’t know how it is going to play out. From my standpoint, I have to anticipate. I’m looking at her face and trying to anticipate how much adrenaline she has. I’m looking at the wind and trying to anticipate: is the wind going to change? Is it going to stay the same? And then seeing how she moves. No major changes, just really those little details of, hey, you go back two shoes or three or four shoes back, we got to do a couple of run-throughs to make sure that is good (and) to make sure that she’s confident and she’s feeling all right. I would say just those dynamic tweaks as part of the approach were the only thing in Arkansas.”

When you started working together you basically started over with everything. What did the process of changing the technique look like?

Dodig: “Once I saw her technique, you know what, your body is not meant to do it. You’re losing quite a bit of things scientifically, physically. Physics says don’t do it that way. Let’s do it the right way. And obviously, for somebody who is new, that’s frustrating, because in her mind, ‘hey, I want to jump far.’ And changing technique in our sport, you’re taking a big setback. You’re going back, and nothing feels right. You’re jumping less than you have ever jumped. And I can just assume the worry in her mind, ‘Oh my god, am I really going to jump further than I jumped in my freshman year?’ It did not look like we’re going anywhere for two months. …

“We started from very basic things. We had a box that is maybe a foot and a half. She would stand on that box with her left leg, and the right leg would be hanging, but she would be in a balanced position. In that place she would lift her right knee up, then she would extend it and bring it down, which reflects the very first phase after the jump on a long jump. We did that movement in the first session and the second session of the first week. Then second week she would be on the ground, and then she would put the left leg on a box and then go into the same movement, which means now she’s starting from the right leg, she’s going from right to left on the box, making a movement, and just standing. There is no force in it, there is no jump, there’s just a muscle memory movement. And then, in the third week, she would have three steps, but still just walking, and then getting onto the box and doing the same movement. Then, in the second cycle of training, then we would do that, but at the end of the practice, add a little bit of skip into those steps, so instead of just walking in, we would skip into them and make the movement, and then we would add an exercise of landing after those things, so then she would do the landing exercises.

“Then in a third cycle we would connect the movements with the landing, but not do anything when we actually jump. In the fourth cycle, which was April, those things started combining together.”

Vanek: “I literally was standing there going off a box, like for like three weeks. The sprinters would be running by and they probably were like, ‘Wow, this girl just came out here just standing on a box.’”

The Bonus

Vanek mentioned that she now lifts in the weight room a day or two before the competition. This was an adjustment for her.

What’s behind the lift?

It’s something Dodig picked up from his coach and mentor, Goran Obradovic, who is one of the top jumping coaches in the world.

“If she comes to me and she says, ‘Hey, I feel really fast, but I lost a little bit of my bounce,’ then I know exactly what to do in the weight room to gain that bounce,” Dodig said. “I can do it the day before. I can do it two days before. I can do it three days before, but all of that depends on how she feels. I was blessed to learn that, because I was an athlete for many, many years, and my coach communicated with me that way. I got to not just learn but also feel, so when I felt fast but not bouncy, I know what we had to do in order for me to feel bouncy the next day or two days later.”

(Video courtesy of Dino Dodig; Sydnie Vanek at Big 12s)

Because they have only been working together since January, Vanek isn’t quite that descriptive just yet, so Dodig reads everything. Her face, her movements on the track, her work in the weight room - all of it goes into deciding when she lifts and what it looks like.

Ahead of the NCAA West Regionals in Arkansas, Dodig didn’t think Vanek’s legs were as full as they should be two days before the competition.

He wouldn’t share the secret sauce of what they actually did in the weight room or what was planned ahead of NCAA Finals.

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Emily Ausmus has “it”.

It’s what separates the 20-year-old water polo player for Team USA and USC and it’s what goes into making her one of the best in the world.

Adam Krikorian, now her coach at Team USA, knew when he watched her play up against older athletes years ago that she “was going to be something special.”

“We knew early on, just based on her speed, her skill set and as well, the thing that probably stood out the most for me was just the focused intensity,” Krikorian said.

“You see it through their eyes. And with Emily, you could see that intensity and focus in the way that she just watched everything that was happening around her. Whether it be the coaches feedback directly to her, or coaches feedback to someone else, or just watching the play happen. Even when she was 12,13 years old. That gave us a good indication that she was going to put herself in every position possible to have success and to continue to grow.

“She has an incredible work ethic that’s matched with a competitive fire and hunger that is somewhat unique to most of the best players in the world.”

This spring, the sophomore led USC to a National Championship earning Tournament MVP honors collecting a total of six goals, three assists. She was also the MPSF Player of the Year and won the Cutino Award for best NCAA women’s water polo player.

Five days after she won the NCAA Championship, Ausmus competed for Team USA at the 2026 World Aquatics World Cup Division 1 Tournament. She scored three goals in the first game against Hungary and finished with 12 total goals across six games, helping Team USA to a first-place finish. Next up, they play China at the World Aquatics World Cup Final in Sydney, Australia on July 22.

Initially, Ausmus was drawn to the sport of water polo for the competitiveness, the adversity in each game, the endurance, team aspect, as well as just being in the water.

To this day, she loves the idea that she’s playing with her teammates, the sport has a ball and she’s scoring.

Ausmus said that she has always been driven to be better.

“What helped me grow was pushing myself and putting myself in uncomfortable situations, playing against people who are stronger, bigger than me, and theoretically should be better than me, but just competing in that moment, in that practice, in that day, and really trying to push myself to be the best version of myself,” Ausmus said.

Ausmus tried out for Team USA’s age group teams when she was around 11 years old. Once she got into the system, she just kept moving up.

At 16 years old, she was among 50 athletes invited to try out for the senior team for the 2024 Olympics. The email came in 2021 and “It was very jarring and very scary and intimidating.”

“You see that email come in to try out for the senior team, and as a 16-year-old, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, these people I idolized my growing up and looked up to, and now I get to try out and try and make that team,’” Ausmus said.

But then her competitive juices kicked in and she just went for it.

“I had nothing to lose,” Ausmus said.

That’s not to say that the next few years were a breeze. She was 17 years old at the time and lived with two teammates who were veterans. Besides learning how to train at this level, she also had to grow up pretty fast. She had to shop for groceries, make sure she was taking in enough protein, as well as figure out what recovery looked like.

Everything in the experience was new.

“You’re thrown into that environment, you kind of drown, sink or swim,” Ausmus said.

She leaned on her teammates, her family and herself.

“I think that was a huge advantage for me, just being young and being healthy and ready to go at any moment, ready to sprint at any moment, ready to just learn and absorb all the information that came my way and just try my best to execute that,” Ausmus said. “I think there’s an advantage to just being young and hungry and competitive and able to absorb things like a sponge and try and replicate what my teammates were doing.”

However, being young and hungry, plus having the competitiveness, the innate talent and “it” factor doesn’t always make the path smooth. Becoming an Olympian is never easy. Far from it.

And especially not for a squad that dominated the sport for more than 12 years. How dominant? Team USA did not lose a match (69 wins) for nearly two years, which is believed to be the longest win-streak in the history of the sport.

From the outside you see in Ausmus, a young athlete, who has climbed to the top of the sport quickly. And yet, what doesn’t get talked about is the pressure she put on herself to make that 2024 Olympic Team.

She was on the bubble of making the team as they headed into the 2024 World Aquatics Championships held in Doha, Qatar. She didn’t suit up for the title game where Team USA won the gold medal.

“I was just so disappointed and sad and so defeated,” Ausmus said.

She stepped back and decided to push even harder. She focused on what she could control: her effort and her mindset. She was grateful for getting the opportunity and really, for everything.

“I just remember that month just grinding it out and knowing that I could do it and believing in myself and believing that I could do the same and if not better, than the person to my right and to my left,” Ausmus said. “I feel like that really helped me and pushed me forward to make the team in 2024.

“The more that you familiarize yourself with uncomfortable situations, the more that you’re going to be able to have success in more uncomfortable situations. The more that you learn about yourself, the more that you know how hard you can push and what you need and what you don’t need in certain moments. I think that’s a good thing.”

This adversity has served Ausmus well. She keeps it close to draw from what she learned at this low point.

“She’s as resilient as they come,” Krikorian said. “She’s incredibly persistent. Never seems satisfied or content with where she is or how she played. … You’re faced with failure at all times; throughout a practice, throughout a game, and so your ability to be able to handle that failure and stay focused and stay persistent and continue to move forward is a skill. A mental skill that is just so important our sport. She’s got that and (it) doesn’t mean she’s going to have it forever. That’s something that you need to continue to work on to maintain close to the mountaintop or at the mountaintops.

“She’s nowhere close to being arrived at her very best. Her ceiling is still in the distance, and she needs to continue to have that mentality moving forward to continue to grow.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

The last time I interviewed Sydnie Vanek was second semester of her freshman year. She had just finished up a class and rode her scooter over to McKale Center on the Arizona campus.

She was a two-sport athlete: volleyball and the long jump.

That spring she was doing both sports at the same time. She woke up at 6 a.m. and went to volleyball practice. Then she was in class, onto track practice and in the weight room. Somehow, she found time for meals, sleep and homework, as well as an interview with this reporter.

At one point she competed at the Mt. Sac Relays in Walnut, California and hopped in a car to drive to San Diego for a spring volleyball match.

It wasn’t easy keeping up with Vanek.

And yet, in the midst of it all, she set the freshman mark for long jump at 21-5.5, which was second best in Arizona history. She finished third at the Pac-12 Championships, just missed qualifying for the finals of the NCAA Championships and competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Quite a whirlwind.

Two years later and she’s still moving fast but this time, she’s focused on only one sport. After finishing up the fall season with volleyball, she finally settled on long jump.

At some point it came down to, “what I really wanted to pursue and be really good at,” Vanek said.

Now her days look much different.

The adjustment hasn’t been easy. She misses her close friends and being involved in a team sport. However, Vanek knows she made the right decision for her at the right moment.

She is faster and stronger. It all clicked at the very first meet of the season and it just rolled from there. Now, she is peaking at the right time. In the last two big meets, she’s hit season bests.

Vanek took first place in the Big 12 Track and Field Outdoor Championships (21-4). She added a third place finish at the NCAA West Regional (21-9; second all-time in Arizona history) and next up is the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon from June 10-14.

Arizona assistant coach Dino Dodig said that at Big 12s she had a “championship mentality,” winning on her final jump.

What struck him was how Vanek, who had only competed in a handful of events during the outdoor season, put it all together for a mistake-free jump.

“Not being affected by emotions, by intensity, by crowd, by not being on the first place, going in the last jump, and then really making the best jump, your last one, that just proves that she’s not just the one who has the talent. She also has the mental capacity to handle very stressful situations,” Dodig said.

“And for somebody who just started being fully back in the track and field … (it) just shows that she has natural psychological abilities to compete and to win. Obviously, that is a dream come true for every athlete, and a dream come true for every coach.”

Dodig has only been working with Vanek this season. He has seen in her a want to be the best and a willingness to do anything to win.

Add these into her innate physical attributes (at least 6 feet tall and lanky) – all perfect ingredients for a long jumper. As Dodig said, “She was born to do this sport.”

“That physique with that type of physiological advantages that she has in terms of explosiveness, in terms of the length of the strides, in terms of how she uses it when she moves is a golden combination for an Olympic athlete to have,” Dodig said.

“Any athlete dreams to have that type of balance, in terms of in physique, in terms of being able to run fast, being able to cover a lot of ground with the long strides, being able to have bounds and explosive energy out of those long strides. And then obviously there are things that she will have to work on in the future, which is more coordination, technical aspect of it, and fully understanding the long jump. It’s a God-given talent, she’s willing to put the work in, she has a feel for it, and now it’s really just taking it slowly and gradually, and smart for next couple of years, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Sydnie being the next U.S. long jump star.”

Before the season started, he talked to Vanek about taking this season slow as it was her first only focusing on long jump.

Yes, it was about not getting injured but also about not chasing results. Instead it was all about chasing “to execute, almost like chasing a perfection in terms of technique and fundamentals and allowing the results to come to us,” Dodig said.

It was about having her fully understand everything that goes into being a track and field athlete and really, betting on her future. Sure, she could gain inches this year on her jumps, but Dodig sees so much more for Vanek.

“I want to develop her in a position where, when she gets stronger, when she gets faster and more fundamentally developed, then we will be watching her getting medals at the Olympic Games.”

That’s the big goal.

But for now, it’s one stride at a time. And that means focusing on what’s right ahead of her.

Training, eating, sleeping, lifting the day before the meet and competing.

On the day I talked to Vanek she was still on the go, rushing off to practice. However, this time, two years later, all her energy is now channeled towards one thing. And she’s slowly starting to see the benefits of it.

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Tap Havea’s first three seasons at Arizona were defined by consistent success.

The New Zealander hit personal bests, won or placed in the top three in many shot put and discus events and threw her way into the Arizona record books.

And yet, for Havea, it wasn’t enough.

Heading into her senior year, she knew that there was so much left untapped. And with it being her last dance, she needed to prove to herself that she could do what she had set out to do before she stepped foot on Arizona’s campus.

She knew that wanting it and doing it are two different things.

The question was what did she need to do to make this happen?

“I switched my mindset a lot throughout the winter, because I realized I had so much doubt and so much just worry about, like, ‘Who am I gonna go up against? Who am I like? Who do I need to be?’” Havea said.

“Whereas, no, I need to switch that. I’m throwing with them, but I’m trying to beat myself my previous, personal best. I think having that change of mindset was amazing, because every time I go to competition, I make sure to enjoy (it), have fun. Don’t overthink anything, but soak in every moment that I get to compete.”

She relied on her coaches, her parents, her faith and her community, to help her dig deep and find the right answers.

It all clicked in the first meet of the season as she hit a personal best throw in the shot put (56-6), taking first place.

Havea said that once she had this under her belt, “I had so much confidence in myself, knowing that I can throw far.”

The results the rest of the season followed suit as she won the shot put at both the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships (55-0.75) and the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships (52-10.75). Havea finished in fifth place in the discus at the outdoors with a season best throw of 173-7.

One thing that has never changed is Havea’s demeanor on and off the field, as she is always smiling. This is contagious as she puts a smile on the faces of anyone who is around her.

There is even more going into her performances this year. She’s been with the same coach, Lucais MacKay, all four years. That comfort and familiarity go a long way.

“We’re talking the same language, similar cues for the last three or four years, but she just has a deeper knowledge of them now,” MacKay said. “I can look at her now with one hand moving and she’s aware of what we’re talking about. I just think the communication is deeper, and she has a greater knowledge. … Just probably overall life maturity. I think everyone at this age, if they know this is their last run, there’s probably another 10% that we didn’t get to that they now can be in charge of.”

That extra 10% or so has definitely helped Havea over the last month or so. Her technique was off for some reason. It just could have been one of those things. It could have been breaking her normal Arizona routine for the entire experience competing at the World Indoor Championships in Poland for Team New Zealand at the end of March.

Either way, MacKay and Havea found a solution.

“We agreed to, no matter what, ‘You can still push on the ball as hard as you can, even if it’s off,’” MacKay said.

It’s always about the little things that can give you the slight edge. The most recent tweak came at the Big 12s, “We moved over in the ring like two inches, and it gave her a little different feeling, and then she got that big throw,” MacKay said.

Havea has gone into each practice and event with more intention this season. MacKay noticed it even more after she competed at the World Championships.

This is directly related to representing her country and watching and competing against the elite of the elite. In addition, one of MacKay’s former athletes at Oklahoma State, Chase (Ealey) Jackson, who is a two-time world champion in shot put, was a bit of a mentor.

Havea showed her fingernails with no polish on them before Big 12s. She told him, “They’re all gone. Back to business … I can’t be throwing stuff with nails on.”

“Chase apparently had told her at World Champs, ‘I love them they look great, but they gotta go,’ and she immediately locked in when she needed to,” MacKay said. “She’s making a big final push for the for the last month (of) the senior season.”

The Bonus

Havea fell in love with throws because of the technical aspect. She is always learning and the focus is on getting better every time out. It’s about “figuring out how to technically throw far, but in the most efficient way.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Twenty-four hours after making history, Trisha Stafford-Odom still hadn’t stopped to soak it all in.

Instead, she focused on other immediate needs like the traveling back to Charlotte from Jacksonville, buying purple sneakers and preparing for the next game.

Things never stop moving when you are a coach.

Stafford-Odom coaches the Charlotte Crown, part of the newly formed professional women’s basketball entry into the market, the Upshot League.

The Crown won the league’s first game on May 15, beating the Jacksonville Waves, 103-95. Stafford-Odom and her team are forever linked to history.

At some point, she will look back at this moment, but for now she’s got more basketball ahead of her.

“I haven’t taken time, in short, to understand the magnitude of what was accomplished,” Stafford-Odom said.

“(It’s) incredible (to get this started). But in my mind (there is) a greater expectation now. … I’m expecting us to be great immediately. I just put it that way, and I don’t know if that’s realistic, but I think I’m aiming for the stars, and my mom would always say ‘Aim for the stars, even though you might hit the top of the tree,’ and that’s what I’ve learned to do.”

Stafford-Odom learned this lesson well. Whether it was as a player or a coach, she accomplished a lot before stepping on the court to lead the Crown.

As a player, she was a state championship at Los Angeles Westchester High School, a two-time All-Pac-10 first teamer at Cal, a two-time bronze medal-winner with Team USA. Stafford-Odom also played professionally in the WNBA, the American Basketball League (ABL), the National Women’s Basketball League (winning a title) and overseas.

She never thought she wanted to coach but now she said she’s in her “element.”

Her first coaching stop was at her high school. In the summers she had an open gym for women’s basketball players. UCLA players like Nikki Blue, Noelle Quinn, Lisa Willis, as well as UConn’s Diana Taurasi would come to play.

Word got back to UCLA coach Kathy Olivier about the sessions and eventually this led to an assistant coach position on staff.

One of Stafford-Odom’s strengths has always been relationships, and this helped her bring in top recruiting classes for UCLA, Duke and North Carolina, as well as Concordia and North Carolina Central. A few of the players she signed who have gone onto play in the WNBA include Chelsea Gray, Diamond DeShields and Allisha Gray.

It’s not just on the court where Stafford-Odom has excelled. She also makes being a mom while coaching look effortless. So much so that other former professional players, coaches or soon-to-be coaches have sought her out for advice.

Two who called were SMU coach Adia Barnes and Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie. Barnes has now gone on to use her platform to share her experiences as a working mom and give advice to others.

For Stafford-Odom, who has two sons and has been married for 27 years, this all has been second nature to her.

“I think (Adia’s) concern and her fear was that she wouldn’t have time to do it all,” Stafford-Odom said. “I was there; I understood that. Lisa Leslie asked me the same question when she ended up coaching Big3. … I think it’s difficult, but for so long I’ve done it that I don’t even imagine what it would be like not having to juggle all these roles. You have to compartmentalize. You have to put me first often, and sometimes that ‘me’ might be like you got to shut everything down for a little while to recapture what you need and replenish. Don’t feel guilty about any of those things. And just express what you need to people. Whether that be ‘I need more time, less time, or just leave me alone time,’ I’m all cool with all those things.”

Ready for her shot

Stafford-Odom was the last coach hired for Upshot. She was intrigued when she got that first call from Taj McWilliams-Franklin, a former opponent in the WNBA and ABL, who is Upshot’s VP of Basketball Operations.

Talking to commissioner and co-founder, Donna Orender (a former president of the WNBA and a Senior VP at the PGA), Stafford-Odom started to realize, “Oh, this is big.”

“To hear Donna, the visionary, and her energy explain what it’s going to be; and she helps you visualize it,” Stafford-Odom said.

This would be her shot to coach professionals and she was ready to get back into coaching after teaching high school for a few years. Stafford-Odom was all in.

This league gives former college players another opportunity to stay in the United States to play professional basketball. Some of the athletes were drafted into the WNBA or invited to training camp but didn’t make a roster. Others have played overseas.

The four teams playing this season are the Crown, Jacksonville Waves, Greensboro Groove and Savannah Steel. The league will expand to Baltimore and Nashville in 2027. The plan is to add teams across the United States over the next few years.

It’s been a sprint from the jump to get everything set, including finding the right players to run Stafford-Odom’s system.

To fill out the Crown’s roster, she was looking for some key attributes. Yes, she’s always looking for the talent that stands out and those who can do something others can’t. And, of course, those who are positive influences on the floor.

But there is so much more that rounds out the right players that she wants to coach.

“I want to be around people that I like, and we can click, and even if I wasn’t coaching you, I wasn’t your coach, we’d be all right. I would enjoy you hanging with my family and stuff like that,” Stafford-Odom said.

“I think personalities matter, but from the business side: can they play? Can they create mismatches? Are they unselfish? Those are the main things I always focus on. I tell them I love basketball players and all that you can do, but I don’t like selfish people. I want somebody that applauds for the success of their teammate, and it’s OK if it is not their night, but they can be happy. I like those things.”

All of this is a reflection of who Stafford-Odom was as a player. Her favorite player growing up in Los Angeles was another Hall of Famer, Magic Johnson, who was smiling all the time.

“I think I permeated like that,” Stafford-Odom said. “I think I would pride myself in having uplifted teammates like that. I enjoyed what I was doing. I had fun. I really, really had fun. So, when I end my (pre-) game speeches, by saying, ‘Look, have fun,’ I mean it.”

The Bonus

The players who made the Crown roster include names that are quickly recognizable from their college days like Deja Kelly (Oregon, North Carolina), Asia Durr (Louisville), LeLe Grissett (South Carolina), Eboni Walker (Ohio State, Arizona State, Syracuse) Reigan Richardson (Duke) and Dazia Lawrence (Kentucky).

Stafford-Odom mentioned all of these players when asked who to keep an eye on. One who she thinks will have a breakout soon is Richardson. She was invited to training camp with the Minnesota Lynx, was cut and was back in Charlotte the next day.

“She wanted to come play,” Stafford-Odom. “Her agent called. I said, ‘I don’t have room.’ She just came and became my practice player for a few days. Well, she was better than a lot of people there. She’s amazing. She’s a three player that can play the two. She’s a slasher, she’s quick, she elevates, she’s unselfish. The kid is a lockdown wing defender. I’m going to be sad when she goes.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Tele Jennings has always embraced who she is on the softball field.

Early on, she was a speedy, lefty slapper.

After a growth spurt when she was a sophomore at Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro, CA, she became a power hitter.

One constant through every adjustment is that Jennings has always focused on being “a hard worker and a great teammate in whatever my role was in that moment.”

And this is exactly what has propelled the Arizona standout from a reserve to a starter hitting in the four spot in her junior season.

That’s no easy feat in a lineup like Arizona’s; one that is full of great hitters.

And it took a while for Jennings to get there.

The outfielder, who spends most of her time in the designated player role, secured the starting spot at the end of March during the Baylor series. Prior to that, she found her way into the lineup for one or two at-bats in 11 games out of the 33 that Arizona had played.

“She continued to put in the work and get better every single day and stay emotionally ready,” Arizona assistant coach Lauren Lappin said about Jennings.

“She was emotionally invested in other people’s at-bats, especially hitters that are similar to her, so that when her opportunity came, she was able to produce the way she was. But that is all Tele. That’s all her; having the right mentality about not getting playing time and knowing that she could just chip away and continue to get better, and that when the opportunity arose, she was she stepped (up) to the challenge. …

“What we are not surprised by is her ability to stay even keeled throughout the entire process. You feel energy in the dugout when a kid’s next to you every game, and you feel how present they are throughout a game. You know that they’re dialed and ready. She hasn’t taken a pitch off all season. Even though she didn’t play the first two-thirds of the season, she was still dialed in, in a competitive mindset, and I think that has allowed her to come in from the way she comes.”

The Arizona coaches knew early on what they were getting in Jennings, a transfer from the University of San Diego. While many players would have gotten discouraged not being in the lineup from the get-go, Jennings just went to work.

She calls this her “little underdog story” going from a reserve to the starting lineup.

When her number was called, she made the most of it. During that three-game matchup with Baylor, Jennings smashed a double to right center field to drive in three runs, leading Arizona to take the series. She was inserted into the lineup in the eighth spot. Two weeks later, she moved up and was batting fourth behind Big 12 Player of the Year and Batting Champ, Sydney Stewart.

It seems like she was always meant to be there.

She landed on the All-Big 12 second team, hitting .352, with a .535 slugging percentage and 19 runs batted in.

“I truly cannot say enough about Tele and the job that she’s been able to do, just the composure that she’s had, just to step in there and be super confident,” Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe said.

“And really, it doesn’t look like she’s hitting behind Stew. It looks like she’s having her own Tele at bats. It’s the at bat she takes in practice every day; not making the moment too big, I think it’s excellent.”

It’s a family thing

Softball runs in Jennings’ family. Her cousin, Keiliani, played softball at UC Santa Barbara. Her sister, Tiare, a four-time All-American, led Oklahoma to four National Championships (2021-24). Tiare Jennings is now playing professionally in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.

While the sisters came into the game as different types of players, Tiare was a righty power hitter, who played in the infield, while Tele was the lefty slapper in the outfield, the one thing that remains constant is the how they were raised by their parents, Maria and Ignacio.

“Our family is very much put our head down and work and don’t expect anything,” Tele Jennings said. “You have to work for it. So go after it, and each day is a new day. So just keep going.”

Besides working hard, what’s changed this season?

Almost everything. Her mindset; her confidence and yes, her stance at the plate has been adjusted.

All of this has unleashed untapped power.

There’s one other important ingredient: rediscovering the love of the game.

“I think coming from San Diego, I hit the sophomore slump pretty hard, so it really took out a lot of the love of for the game for me,” Jennings said. “Coming here, I knew I wanted an environment where everyone had the same mindset and was on the same wavelength. And just falling back in love with softball. All the girls are so amazing. I have nothing but love for them, and we just play with joy and play with freedom. I think you can really see it throughout the way our defense is and our offense is. It’s just so free.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

“Always doing what I can, where I am with what I have.”

That quote from Risa Isard, pretty much sums up her journey.

It was a theme that we circled back on a few times during our conversation.

Isard, the Director, Research and Insights at Parity, a women’s sports marketing consultancy, most likely is a name you haven’t heard.

She’s not an athlete or a coach (although, she did both roles when she was younger). She’s not an owner. She doesn’t work in the front office of a league and isn’t an analyst on TV or a sportswriter.

Isard is the one behind a few of the recent biggest research studies in women’s sports.

When Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers accepted the ESPY award for best female college athlete after her freshman season at UConn, she said:

“Now, with the light that I have now as a white woman who leads a Black-led sport (basketball) and celebrated here, I want to show a light on Black women. They don’t get the media coverage that they deserve. They’ve given so much to the sport and the community and society as a whole, and their value is undeniable. In the WNBA last season the postseason awards, 80% of the winners were Black, but they got half of the coverage as a white athletes. I think it’s time for change. Sports media holds the key to story lines. Sports media and sponsors tell us who is valuable, and you have told the world that I matter today and (to) everyone who voted, thank you. But I think we should use this power together to also celebrate Black women.”

Behind those powerful words was Isard’s work.

Isard’s most recent study at Parity that gained buzz looked at fan interest and perceptions around gender equity on the most recent Olympics and Paralympics.

And, yes, it was “surreal” that Bueckers talked about this work at the ESPYS and yes, Isard’s phone blew up after this.

This is part of Isard’s why.

“The reason to do this research was to see if we could quantify this (racial disparity in media coverage) and if so, how do we use that knowledge to contribute to conversations, to elevate issues and ultimately to create change,” Isard said.

“For Paige to stand up there and not just share at high level the findings from the research, but to do so in the manner which she did, which was about creating change, which was about shining a light on the other incredible athletes who were there with her that evening, which was about honoring the incredible Black women who play in women’s basketball, it was, kind of perfect. I couldn’t have scripted or asked for anything better, and I didn’t know it was going to happen.”

It was meant to be

Isard’s journey to this point, was, as she put it “purposeful and winding.”

Which, to be honest, isn’t that unusual for someone working in women’s sports.

“For a long time, I was working in women’s sports in a piecemeal way, because there weren’t full time jobs really in any kind of scalable way to be had in women’s sports,” Isard said. “I did a lot of these things that I could, to stay involved and contribute and learn and grow.

“I was always hoping that a day like this would come. I was always preparing myself, building the tools, the skills to be ready for this kind of arrival of women’s sports and the jobs that would come with it.”

Some of ways she stayed connected to women’s sports included working on a project for soccer legend Brandi Chastain and pitching in on ESPNW’s Summits. She found her way to the Aspen Institute, got her PhD at UMass and taught at UConn. Last June, she landed at Parity.

There were many pivotal moments in her life that carried her to this career. The earliest and most formative experience came when she was seven years old: the launching of the WNBA.

Isard was living in Phoenix, AZ and attended Phoenix Mercury games growing up, mainly with her dad.

She learned so many lessons from those games. First the positives, the intricacies of the game and watching elite athletes playing day in and day out. And the negatives, which are the realities that women’s sports still face today. From the disparity between men’s and women’s sports to racial inequities. and more.

“I was at this perfect precipice of an age,” Isard said. “I was old enough to remember going to my first game. I was old enough to remember falling in love with the team. I was old enough to be aware of what was happening … Literally growing up in those stands. Young enough to still have a lot of time to enjoy it, and old enough to have a consciousness about what I was enjoying, and to start paying attention and noticing very early that this thing that I loved more than anything in the whole world was a thing that most people didn’t know about, at best, and at worst, it was a thing that they went out of their way to troll. It was a thing that they went out of their way to bully me for. It was informative. I think early on, I was a girl athlete. I loved the WNBA.”

Isard played soccer and ran cross country. She coached high school cross country while she was getting her PhD.

Isard had quite a few touchpoints with the Mercury from early on. She hosted a toiletry drive in fifth grade that was a competition among classes. A player from the Mercury would visit the winning class. She even worked for the Mercury the season she graduated from high school as a game day assistant.

In between those two experiences, Isard read an early collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players. When Diana Taurasi was the Number 1 pick of the WNBA in 2004, going to the Mercury, Isard was at the draft party with her dad. She found then-GM, Seth Sulka, and had a conversation with him about marketing and signing strategies.

“When I think about pivotal moments in my career, I was just a kid, but he stopped in the middle of his day drafting Diana Taurasi and said hi to me and shared some meaningful thoughts and had a meaningful conversation with me,” Isard said. “Those moments all happened before I was in high school, and they all set this foundation for what I continue to do today. I had been really well aware of Title IX because I was very aware of the inequalities. I was also trying to educate myself around like, ‘Well, how do you make equality happen?’”

Her parents, dad, Dan and mom, Debbie, played a big role in opening up her world and guiding her along the way.

When Isard was in high school and was involved in a nonprofit, she started looking at things differently: from not just doing good from a community service viewpoint but from the lens of social change.

Isard struggled with choosing her path because she loved women’s sports and was intrigued by the business side of it. Yet, she also wanted to leave the world a better place.

She shared this with her mom, who said, “Well, have you thought about how you can use sports to do that?”

That question changed everything for Isard. From that point on, everything was more intentional in finding her way to what truly is her calling.

“All of these different stages in life, I was always trying to do what I could, where I was with what I had,” Isard said. “Over the years, I’ve worked really hard to develop a skill set that gives me more and more tools to do this work. I was a very enthusiastic but largely above average, mediocre athlete myself, but I have always been very successful academically and very intellectually curious and very driven there. I think along the way, I just realized that’s the contribution that I can make.

“(Now at Parity) our mission is to close the gender income and opportunity gap in professional sports. My part is asking the questions, running the data, translating it, and doing all of that in service of putting money in the pockets of women athletes. It’s pretty much a dream. This mission feels like it’s been the through line to my entire life. And then it’s again, doing what I can, where I am with what I have. Where I get to contribute is on the data and research side, which I’ve spent the last 10 years in my career building toward.”

The Bonus

Isard is always thinking about the “stories we can tell about women’s sports writ large, and what are the nuanced stories to tell.”

“What are the research projects about women’s sports writ large, and what are the research studies that can really shine a light on the unique experiences of different women athletes?”

Here are links to the the research studies mentioned in this story:

Paralympic research

Olympic research

Racial disparities in WNBA media coverage

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

Taylor McQuillin is quite busy these days working two jobs: coaching and pitching professionally.

For the former Arizona softball standout, life couldn’t get much better as she’s around the sport she loves.

McQuillin had started thinking about “what would I do if I didn’t have softball in my life?” way back before she graduated from Mission Viejo High School in Southern California.

“For me, getting into college, experiencing what that was like having a good group of coaches around me, coaching me and teaching me as I grew up, I just wanted to be able to pay it back to the game and help grow the game in any way I could,” McQuillin said.

“Part of that is (playing) professionally, but then the other part of that is my other profession: coaching. (I just wanted to) make it bigger for future generations to come, to have more than what I had and more than what the people before me had.”

As a professional softball pitcher, McQuillin had quite a few firsts with Athletes Unlimited. She was part of the inaugural season of Athletes Unlimited in 2020, as well as last season’s new league, AUSL. She will play again this year.

McQuillin also has international experience, playing for two seasons in Japan’s Diamond Softball League on Hitachi Sundiva. She played in the 2020 Olympics for the Mexican National team.

The coaching side of things started when she was a graduate assistant at Arizona after her collegiate playing career ended.

During her time at Arizona (2016-19), the lefty was a two-time All-American and put up these numbers: 842 strikeouts and 82 wins in 716 innings pitched, with a 1.90 career ERA. Opponents only hit .194 off her. She pitched 34 shutouts;15 in 2018, which led the nation.

And in a twist of fate, her first shutout in her first game in a Wildcat uniform came against Southern Utah, the same program where she currently is an associate head coach.

While McQuillin is only a handful of years into her coaching career, she said her style isn’t quite formed yet. Some days it’s a little more relaxed, other days not so much.

One thing that stays constant is that she’s a “straight shooter.”

McQuillin tells her players that they will always get the truth from her “and that we’re going to grow and get better from it.”

“I think I’ve come to realize a lot of women at the collegiate level and at the professional level, they respect honesty, and they’re here for a reason, and they’ve worked hard to be here for a reason,” McQuillin said. “They’ve had some tough conversations, so keep having the tough conversations, but being honest with them and loving them and supporting them through everything.”

The other constant is that McQuillin relies on the lessons she learned from her coaches throughout the years.

There are four coaches who have shaped her: legendary coach Mike Candrea at Arizona; Mike Stith, who coached her travel ball team, OC Batbusters; and former Arizona pitching coaches Stacy Iveson and Taryne Mowatt-McKinney.

McQuillin feels especially connected to Iveson and Mowatt-McKinney (now at Mississippi State), two of the best who pitched in the circle at Hillenbrand and went on to become coaches.

“Stacy was really great at being that coach you could count on,” McQuillin said. “(She was) that motherly figure (with) the coach’s perspective, who would sit down and have the conversations with you. Maybe not as head on but just being able to allow you to talk through scenarios. I think (I have) a little bit of that, just allowing my players to come talk to me, talk things out and work things out.

“Taryne reshaped the way that I thought about pitching from a different lens. I’ve taken a lot of that and use that for myself (when pitching) but also try to (give) that to our pitchers on my staff now. I think something that Taryne did really well is continuously learning, continuously growing, and that’s what she brought to the table. (That is something) I love about coaching.”

If you know anything about McQuillin, you know she’s always looking to grow; always looking for an edge. This approach has helped her evolve and continue to be successful as a pitcher.

It also carries over to her coaching. McQuillin said that still playing has made her a better coach. She brings back what she is learning from both a player and a coaching perspective. From her coaches, she gains so much, including observing how they communicate the same information in multiple ways, as each player processes things differently.

Back home

In another twist of fate, Southern Utah started this season …. at the same Hillenbrand Stadium that McQuillin calls home.

The Thunderbirds dropped both games to the Wildcats 8-0 in five innings.

McQuillin continues to spend a lot of time at Hillenbrand in her off seasons training. She also gets a chance to throw batting practice for the Wildcats during that time and even before postseason in the spring when she’s done coaching.

Still, this experience was completely new for McQuillin. Sitting in the opposite dugout and coaching against her alma mater.

“Home is great; home is where the heart is,” McQuillin said. “Being able to be home and experience it this way, in this light as a coach now on the field instead of the athlete on the field, I think it hit me a little bit with the nostalgia and the surrealness when I walked in. That kind of gave me the emotions that I wasn’t really expecting.

“You show up to someplace every day and you think it’s your home, and it is, and then you look at it from an outside perspective. You’re like, ‘Wow this place is really special, and this is the place that raised me.’ I’m really grateful that I got a 360 moment and getting to come back here and coach at this field for the first time.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

PHOENIX -- The moment I heard that Phoenix was hosting the Women’s Final Four, I knew I would be going.

It’s only an hour-and-a-half drive from Tucson to Phoenix.

I wanted to experience a Final Four that was completely open and not limited because of the pandemic. Fewer fans were in attendance at the 2021 NCAA Tournament, and all the interviews with coaches and athletes were done either on Zoom or phone calls.

I spent the majority of the 2021 NCAA Tournament from the Elite Eight in my hotel room (pacing, interviewing and writing) as I covered Arizona’s magical run to the National Championship game in 2021.

Although, I wouldn’t trade that for anything. As they say, you never forget your first.

That run could be made into a movie. It was a team that believed but others didn’t have on their radar. (Heck, even the NCAA didn’t include them in the photos of the Final Four teams)

It was a team that captured the imagination of the country. Fans loved watching Aari McDonald and company (Sam Thomas, Trinity Baptiste, Bendu Yeaney, Cate Reese, Helena Pueyo, Shaina Pellington, etc.). They also saw Adia Barnes, not only as a coach who loved on her team, but also as a mother navigating life in a bubble (we were still in the midst of the pandemic) with two small children, one a six-month-old, Capri, who she was nursing.

San Antonio was special.

Phoenix also delivered in so many ways.

To be in the room again interviewing coaches and athletes in person was amazing. It’s the seemingly little things behind the scenes that make all the difference.

This time, I wasn’t a beat reporter. However, with UCLA there is a deep connection.

This year’s UCLA squad won the title with a nod to the old-Pac-12. The senior/graduate class of Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gianna Kneepkens and Angela Dugalić, all started out in the Pac-12.

I’ve followed their careers and written about each one. (Here’s what I wrote on Leger-Walker for opening day of this season.)

Then, there is coach Cori Close. We talk every year. We’ve talked about everything growing the game, coaching in the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, as well as what’s going on with the Bruins in that moment.

Last fall, when I interviewed Close for this publication, I asked her about the weekend retreat the team took. She had been posting about it online for days. Not just once or twice, but multiple times.

As I went back and listened to our conversation, you could hear the seeds of what turned out to be a championship run.

Everything we heard this past weekend from wanting to keep playing together for another day, loving their teammates, putting team over self, was right there.

“They have a love of the game. They have a love of excellence. They have a high work ethic. They enjoy each other’s company. They want to have relationships with us as a staff,” Close said. “I always tell our team that the relationship I have with you on the court, I get to decide, but the relationship you have with us as a staff, or me specifically, off the court, you get to decide. They really want to be in relationship with us, in an appropriate way, of course. They want to know what we think. They want to have conversations, and they want us to be involved in their experience. All of that combination is just really fun, and I don’t really have to motivate them, or coach their work ethic, or coach how hard they play for the most part. It frees me up to be more tactical and to think more globally, and also just to enjoy their company.”

After the Bruins won the title on Sunday, there were a lot of questions around last year’s Final Four disappointment and using that as motivation for this season. There was one question for Close, specifically on how she would evaluate herself as a leader this year.

She responded, “I hope I’m a leader that chose to grow.”

Close was being modest. This is a coach who is all about growth. She’s always sharing what she’s learning or leaning into that week or even that day on videos on Instagram.

In our conversation, Close said that she was talking to Nebraska football coach Matt Ruhle at a conference last May (held by Jon Gordon, a speaker/author who has worked with Close’s program in the past) about one of those little things that made all the difference. Ruhle has his coaches put away their phones when sitting at the training tables for an hour each day to “just interact; just take an interest in the guys. Be a good listener. Just build relationships.”

Close brought that back to her program.

“We eat outside 95% of the days right after practice, and we all put our phones away, and we just sit and connect and build relationships with our kids,” Close said. “Again, we’re not trying to get their deepest fears or have this big … whatever. It’s not a counseling session. It’s just, ‘hey, we just want to take an interest in you and as a human being, and we just want to learn about you and be available to you and laugh with you.’

“I just am determined that we are going to stay mission-minded and relationship-based, even though there’s a lot of things pulling at that philosophy. And so bottom line is, it’s just made it so fun. Our staff feels invested in both directions. I think they’re energized by the relationships and by the spirit of this team.

“One of our coaches has been through a really rough time in their personal life, just has had some tragedy, and they just keep telling me that this is the safe place. This is the fun place. This is where their cup gets refilled. I just think we’re really lucky staff that we get to be around this great team.”

This is what we saw throughout the season, the Final Four and the celebration of winning the title.

These Bruins were having fun and played for the love of the game and each other. They were determined to not only be playing on the last day of the season, but to win.

A true team loaded with great players. No pressure for one or two to carry the full load as they each just did what they do best. It showed in that final game.

This has all the makings of another movie.

The Bonus

Here are some photos I took from the Final Fours in Phoenix and San Antonio.

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

PHOENIX – My dad always said, there is a reason you play the games. Anything can happen on any given night.

That certainly was true on Friday. Both games were low scoring, physical and defensive. After South Carolina, UCLA, UConn and Texas had their way with the rest of the field in the NCAA Tournament, it was a little jarring.

Afterwards, UCLA coach Cori Close apologized to the fans for what she called the “rugby match.”

Going beyond that, one thing that really struck me after both games was the raw emotion on display. And just how vulnerable athletes and coaches were after the two semifinal games.

Sure, I’ve been in plenty of press conferences when it’s the final game of a player’s collegiate career and there is lots of crying.

This time it was different.

I thought about this all night and into Saturday morning.

There were definitely moments I will carry with me long after the National Champion is crowned. (I must acknowledge that my observations do not include a certain coach who made his own news by diverting attention to himself. I am focusing on more positive thoughts that shouldn’t be missed.)

First up, Texas junior forward Madison Booker. She is all-everything: an All-American, SEC Player of the Year, Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year, just to name a few accolades.

As I was running between the UCLA locker room and the mixed zone to interview players, I saw a number of folks standing outside the Texas locker room waiting for it to open, including legendary Longhorns’ coach Jody Conradt.

A little further down, Booker was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall in the hallway. She was devastated. She sat there for a long time. Next time I looked, teammate Rori Harmon came out of the locker room to try to console her.

That image will stay with me.

Booker, one of the top players in the nation, was averaging 19.3 points per game heading into the Final Four matchup against UCLA. In the semifinal game, she was held to six points, going 3 for 23 from the field and 0 for 4 from long distance.

In the interview room as Booker tried to answer a question about having a tough shooting night, the tears started flowing. Harmon spoke up.

“You got to realize, she’s human,” Harmon said. “She’s a basketball player. We want her to take those shots. There is another player on the other team that is 6-7. All eyes go to Madison Booker. Obviously, UCLA, they got their win tonight. I truly told Maddie, I don’t care. I don’t care what your statistics look like. There (were) plenty of other things that caused us to lose the game, not just because Madison missed her money midrange, ‘cause I promise you we’ll continue to go back to her. We’ll continue to look for her. We’ll continue to tell her to take her shot.

“She’s going to sit here and be like, ‘This is on me.’ No, it’s not. It’s just not, so... Please give her a break. Thank you.”

And then, Booker acknowledged she didn’t answer the question and said: “Yeah, it did surprise me when I couldn’t get out of my funk. It felt like every shot I put up, it felt like it was going to be money. But no, I think my teammates did a great job today at just making sure my spirits were high, my confidence was still high. Every shot, I shot it with confidence.

“I wished a few more fell in, not just for me but for my teammates, too. But yeah, it did feel kind of weird.”

Lasting impressions: Two strong young women, who are thoughtful, mature and selfless leaders. Both are great teammates. Neither had to share any of that and yet they did.

While basketball players are human, coaches are, too.

That’s what I kept thinking about when South Carolina coach Dawn Staley was interviewed after the win over UConn Friday night.

She used a word, haunted, to describe her feeling about the loss to Iowa in the 2023 Final Four.

“I’m haunted by 2023,” Staley said. “I’m haunted by that particular Final Four because of the players that we had and the season that we were having. It got upended. I never got a chance to coach the freshies anymore. We won it the following year, but that particular group was pretty special. I’m still haunted by it.

“For me, if we ever get the opportunity to be in that position again, which we were today, we’re going to lay it on the line, OK? We’re going to lay it on the line. Figure out ways in which to win the game. I thought our kids locked into that. But anytime you get here, you want to give your best shot at winning and advancing.”

That South Carolina squad was dominant. They were led by senior forward Aliyah Boston. They were undefeated (36-0) when they ran into a Caitlin Clark-led Iowa team and lost by four points. Clark scored 41 points.

It isn’t lost on me that the scenario is eerily similar to this year’s semifinal game. UConn was undefeated and ran into a South Carolina team that was ready for the moment. While South Carolina doesn’t have one superstar this season, they have players who know their role with any one of them stepping up on a given night.

Let’s come back to that word choice: haunted.

I’ve never heard a coach using that word to describe a big game that got away from them.

When I heard another coach use the same word, it stood out even more.

Here is Texas coach Vic Schaefer’s opening statement to the media after his loss to UCLA.

“I think we feel like in our locker room we let one get away. I think this one will haunt me as the coach for probably till the day I die,” Schaefer said.

He added that they missed shots and it was a concern of his heading into the game.

“That’s been my fear the last three days watching film, was just offensively making sure we had a good understanding of how they were going to guard us, what we needed to do to attack that,” he said.

“This isn’t the place to air out our laundry, but we had more than one occasion where we might have a play called, whether it’s coming out of a timeout or even out on the floor, we weren’t in the right place. Had people out of position, not in the right place. Sometimes those things happen on this stage. It’s not anybody’s fault. For me, I wear the responsibility. It’s my job to make sure they know what they’re doing and how to do it.”

I wonder if coaches ever let go of losing the big ones.

Lasting impressions: Two coaches: one is playing for the National Championship, one isn’t. Both being vulnerable with what might be the most difficult game moment of their coaching careers. In the same breath, being accountable for the loss. Neither had to share any of that and yet they did.

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

PHOENIX – A coach once told me that the hardest game to win in the NCAA Tournament was the Elite Eight game.

This year, the four teams that are still standing: UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina are running it back. They were there last year and while they retooled their rosters, each knew what it would take to be in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Each team is treating this as a business trip.

Usually, teams want to stay in close proximity to the arena. South Carolina’s Dawn Staley is going against the trend and staying 20 minutes away. In Tampa last year, UConn, the National Champs, were 30 minutes away. Hmmm … maybe there is something to that.

Last season, UCLA went out for a meal and subsequently lost to UConn in the semifinals. This year, UCLA is staying in the hotel and having meals brought to them.

Texas and UCLA recommitted themselves last summer after not making it to the finals. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s Raven Johnson won’t say they have a chip on their shoulders after losing to UConn in the title game, as it’s a new team.

However, she did say, “They’re in our way of getting to the National Championship. I think that’s how we’re thinking of it. It wouldn’t matter if they were UConn, if they were Benedict. It (doesn’t) matter. They’re in our way.”

As the players and coaches talked to the media on Thursday, they all seemed loose and having fun. There might be butterflies, but they will probably come as they are waiting to get on the floor for warmups ahead of their games.

Speaking of having fun … UCLA has had a blast this season. The viral moments of Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez and Charlisse Leger-Walker dancing with the cheer squad and recreating the dance after big wins stand out the most. There were plenty of others. They have found joy in the game while still being serious about their craft.

We learned a lot about these athletes and their coaches on Thursday.

Johnson, the 5-foot-9-inch senior guard, never saw herself as a leader. Why?

“Because I am a goofy person.”

And yet the SEC defensive player of the year found a way to stay true to herself and “make others feel comfortable with who they who they are, because I’m definitely comfortable who I am.”

Staley added: “Raven was just really, and still is, un-serious, right? When it’s time to elevate, in regard to winning, she takes on this just, I mean, like narrow-mindedness of only seeing things that will help winning.

“She did it. I watched her from afar, take each and every player. I think I said this in Sacramento, Joyce (Edwards) was shooting on the rims. They seemed tight. She had a negative comment about the rims. Raven is like, she tapped her. That’s what Raven does. Tilted her head. She was like, ‘The rims are great. You got to think positive, just say positive things about it.’ It was a very small interaction, I was on the sideline, I watched it.”

UConn coach Geno Auriemma understands what it’s like for the UConn greats to close out their careers. Azzi Fudd’s time is here.

“I think the hardest part is being a senior at Connecticut and knowing what that means and what the expectation for you is, and carrying that around with you, ‘this is my last time,’” Auriemma said. “So many of our players have ended their careers cutting down nets in the national championship game. You desperately want to be one of those people, you know?

“If we win (Friday) and if we win Sunday, Azzi will be crowned one of the greatest of all time. If we don’t win tomorrow and we don’t even get a chance to play on Sunday, she’s going to feel like this was a disappointing year for her.

“I try to make it that it’s November, don’t think about January. Hey, it’s January, don’t think about March. Let’s just enjoy what we’ve got right now. Once we won, once we beat Notre Dame to get here, to me Azzi’s job was done. What happens here the next game, that’s all just bonus, ‘cause getting here is the hard part, you know? We’ll talk about hopefully on Monday, that’s when it hits them really hard.”

UCLA’s Jaquez and Betts grew up playing other sports, which is a bit of a throwback. It’s quite unusual to see this in these days of specialization as most athletes settle on one sport and play year-round.

“I grew up playing softball a lot,” Jaquez said. “I definitely appreciate the opportunity that I got to play with the UCLA softball team, their World Series run. That was a lot of fun. Playing softball helped me a lot. I grew up playing soccer as well, I did a little bit of dance. I tried volleyball. I did a little bit of track.

“It’s just important that young kids try multiple sports. It doesn’t need to be so serious so quick. You’re only a little kid for a little bit. … When I started to play basketball, I just really fell in love with it. I love the pace. I love that they gave full-ride scholarships. I just really fell in love with it. I’m really glad I chose to play basketball in college.”

Betts played soccer and also swam competitively growing up.

“I loved it, but it was really tough waking up at like 4 a.m. for meets, then going to play three AAU games back-to-back,” Betts said. “My dad was like, ‘You should probably play basketball.’ I started doing workouts with him. I love it. I’ve made so many friends through basketball. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

One big topic that came up all day was the rule that U.S. athletes need to be 22 years old to be eligible for the WNBA draft. The consensus among athletes was that they needed to stay in college for many reasons like development, relationships and education.

Texas coach Vic Schaefer spelled out what it meant to his fifth-year guard Rori Harmon to stay in school.

“She’s developed relationships, contacts, that when the ball stops, she’s going to have a great life,” Schaefer said. “And to me, that’s part of the value of college athletics. I think when you talk to some of these pros that are guys, when the ball stops bouncing, for them, what do they got? And so, for us, I think it’s really valuable.”

There is also the impact on the athletes being involved in the community. Schaefer also added that the athletes would miss out on just being kids and having fun.

“We’ve lost sight of what are we supposed to be doing here,” Schaefer said. “This is college basketball. This is being a college kid. Like my kids, you see them on the sideline being kids. They’re the pure joy of being a kid. Jordan Lee, Madison Booker, they enjoy watching Sarah Graves and anybody else out there off the bench score as much as those kids celebrate when they’re on the floor. That’s what makes my team unique. That’s what makes this team as special as any team I’ve ever had. They celebrate the pure joy of being around each other. Man, I’d hate to take that away from them or their life at this time.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

PHOENIX -- Morgan Valley has been here before.

The UConn assistant has been a part of numerous Final Fours both as a player and a coach. This is her fifth as a coach (four with UConn, one with Washington). She’s won a total of four national championships. All with UConn: three as a player and last year as an assistant coach.

However, none of this means that this week it’s business as usual.

Far from it.

“(Each time it’s) different,” Valley said. “Flights are different; hotels are different. Last year, shoot, it took us 30 minutes to get to the gym every time we had to come. This year, we’re just up the street. All those things, everything is just different. We’re here, but it’s still different. And it’s just having an appreciation for all those differences, for the accomplishments these young women have had all year. Being grateful to be around them every day and try to make it as long as we can.”

What makes this year stand out is the close bond the team has formed. Valley said that it may sound cliché but “they love each other.”

Despite pressure from the outside to win back-to-back championships, as well as to continue the 54-game winning streak that dates back to last year’s NCAA Tournament, the Huskies are having fun. Whether it’s singing Happy Birthday to a staff member or being goofy before a film session, they are staying present and not letting the moment get too big.

After Sunday’s 70-52 win over Notre Dame in the Elite Eight, the coaches talked, then Valley turned to watching film and preparing the scout for the semifinal matchup against South Carolina. She also spent time thinking about other ways to do things based on UConn’s strengths.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Valley said. “But I don’t mind it. I’d rather be doing that than anything else right now.”

This is the life that Valley signed up for as a coach.

That and moments like the one with sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckle on Thursday. As Heckle walked out onto the court at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, she “gave me a hug and was like, ‘This is awesome,” Valley said.

“Just that, right there, makes it all worthwhile,” Valley said.

A mom and a coach

The part that few speak about is being a mom and a coach. Valley holds down both roles. Most days, it’s not easy, but Valley wouldn’t want it any other way.

A few months ago, Valley and her wife, Lauren, added a new member to their family: baby boy, Will. Now they are a family of four, with older brother, Jack.

It’s been a lot more for Valley to navigate these past few months.

“Having a baby in the middle of the season is really rough,” Valley said. “But my wife and I just said, ‘Hey, we got two months. We can do this. Let’s just put our heads down and work together and be there for each other. We’ll figure it out, and we’ll get through it. And then when the season’s over, we’ll reconvene and be a little bit more normal.’”

They are still in the midst of the non-normal stuff. From the Sweet Sixteen on, Valley and the Huskies have been on the road. First in Fort Worth, now in Phoenix. During that eight or nine-day stretch, her family was at home.

“I just try to be present when I’m present, and when I’m away, I work, and when I’m home, I’m their mom,” Valley said. “That’s about it. That’s all I can do. … It’s definitely a blessing. I’m very grateful that I have someone who is as amazing as Lauren is to be able to put up with all this for seven, eight months out of the year.”

The Bonus

Valley said that UConn head coach Geno Auriemma hasn’t changed a bit. What has changed is her perspective now that she’s a coach.

“I think it’s given me an even greater appreciation for how amazing he is at this,” Valley said. “It’s not just the basketball, it’s how much he cares about his players, the things he wants for his players. He and CD (associate head coach Chris Dailey) have done everything you can do, and they’re still doing this so that a lot of these young guys can feel this.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the women who came before us.

The ones, we’re talking about when we say, “We stand on their shoulders.”

These women fought for the chance to compete, as well as equality in so many big and small ways. Every. Single. Day.

The fight is still going on, yet we have seen so much progress.

And yes, I’m most likely thinking about the pioneers and trailblazers because it’s March and we are watching great players, coaches and teams across all sports. Whether it’s in the NCAA for basketball, the Frozen Four for hockey (shoutout to the Wisconsin Badgers for winning back-to-back titles!), softball and so much more.

Maybe it’s the WNBA’s latest collective bargaining agreement. It is significant. One that moves the needle so far forward for these athletes and yet acknowledges those that came before them. One detail stood out: paying the retired players for their time of service. That’s more than talk. That’s true recognition.

All of this leads me to many conversations I’ve had over the last few months with one of those women whose presence helped pave the way for everyone who played, coached or were somehow tangentially related to sports.

Bobbi Palma may or may not be a familiar name. If you were in upstate New York (Ithaca, Rotterdam and Albany), Arizona (Phoenix and Tucson) or even part of AAU and USA Track and Field, no doubt you’ve heard of Palma.

She coached basketball, track and field, as well as softball (and probably a few other sports!). She started programs prior to Title IX, which was passed in 1972. Her involvement in local, state, national and international track and field is deep. From officiating to being the first elected chair of the National AAU Women’s long distance running committee, coordinator of the first Team USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984 to being on staff for numerous international meets and so much more.

Her influence goes farther than most people realize.

If you were coached by the legendary Tara VanDerveer at Stanford, you may have experienced some of the techniques Palma deployed. Palma coached VanDerveer for one season at the University of Albany. The relationship actually started when VanDerveer was in the seventh grade at Milne School. While there were no sports teams for the girls, Palma taught everything and planned the infamous “play days” where girls were allowed to participate in sports.

At the time, coaching was not considered a viable job option for VanDerveer or any woman.

“I never really thought that I was going to go into coaching, because that didn’t exist,” VanDerveer said. “I planned to go to law school. I majored in sociology. I always loved sports, but it wasn’t like you could think that that would be a career, because it just wasn’t a career.”

VanDerveer went on to say that a few of Palma’s coaching techniques were something that she always carried with her.

“It wasn’t a roll the ball out there was a purpose,” VanDerveer said. “I think that that’s how I always tried to coach, was to have our teams play with a purpose, and not just random shots and running around. You knew what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

“Her teaching and coaching were consistent to when I’ve been around really great coaches. They have a vision for what they want to see and how they want to do it.”

How it all started

Palma was the athlete in her family but really didn’t have many opportunities.

She turned to coaching and started these programs – clubs and teams – because she wanted to open doors for the next generation of athletes and give them what she didn’t have: the opportunity to compete.

“I knew how they felt: I wanted to compete,” Palma said. “I had the ability but there was no opportunity. (I thought) let’s give these kids an opportunity. At first, we had to raise our own money. A lot of things came out of my pocket, but it was worthwhile.”

To this day, she keeps in touch with the athletes. They have get-togethers every once in a while. A few went on to become coaches.

Even before Palma could get to the coaching side of things, there was so much to do. One of her biggest challenges was getting support from the administration. She had to figure out how to get uniforms, shoes and even transportation to games. A lot of that involved selling candy and cookies.

When she could get things donated through her connections at Nike like shorts and t shirts, the administration wasn’t happy. Yet, the men got everything they needed to compete.

She also took on writing a weekly Women in Sport column in the local newspaper to ensure the stories and performances of the athletes were told and shared.

On the track side of things, Palma played a key role in getting long distance running on the calendar for international events. She was there for the first marathon in Tokyo in 1979 and was there for the first women’s marathon at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She was overwhelmed with emotion when American Joan Benoit crossed the finish line to win the gold medal.

Palma is very unassuming. I met her around 10 years ago as she was part of a group of women, many of whom watched Adia Barnes as a player, then came to support her when she took over as head coach of the program.

I had known Palma for years before I knew just a little of what she had accomplished and how she blazed a trail for all of us.

She only shares stories when asked and even then, it’s about the mountains that others moved and her small part in it.

Palma admits that “it was a struggle,” and even with the evolution of women’s sports, especially in basketball, with coaches and athletes being paid, she freely says that “We’ve taken strides; we are still not on equal level.”

With that, each generation has their own challenges. And despite the real progress that has been made, Palma still wouldn’t want to coach today.

“We thought that was tough, but right now, the things that any coach is confronting. I wouldn’t want to be there,” Palma said. “Besides having to do everything to get your team ready, I think the transfer portal and NIL (name, image and likeness, as well as revenue sharing) have really made a mess of sports. … There are too many factors that are interfering with actually having the coach in control of her team. Everybody else has got a hand there.”

Thanks to my founding sponsor, Elevated Sports Group, and to all my subscribers for the support.