tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83331497881588311442024-02-20T16:23:27.389-08:00Stanford FBC: Alumnae NewsThe latest news of our basketball alumnaeBob Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02270634743446567487noreply@blogger.comBlogger737125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-58583361287290224452022-11-28T11:53:00.000-08:002022-11-28T11:53:47.891-08:00Amy Brooks: How to lift women up in our industry <h1 class="text-display-large-bold pt6" dir="ltr" style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 4rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.2; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: var(--font-size-display-large); font-weight: var(--font-weight-bold); line-height: var(--line-height-default); margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); outline: var(--artdeco-reset-base-outline-zero); padding-top: 32px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);"><b style="font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif;"><span style="background: var(--artdeco-reset-base-background-transparent); border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); font-weight: var(--artdeco-reset-typography-font-weight-bold); margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); outline: var(--artdeco-reset-base-outline-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);">Amy Brooks: How to lift women up in our industry</span> </b></h1><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 12pt;">August
2022 - On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, I have been and will
continue to shine a light on 50 women who have been amazing
teachers, thereby affecting my sports career as well as the careers
of other women and men in sport.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Buffy
Fippel, Founder, TeamWorkOnline</span></p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">Precious few
women become team presidents. Rarer still are women who help nurture
their female teammates - women helping women to rise to these top positions. Amy Brooks is one of those special women who excel
while giving others a lift. </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>In
2010 Amy recruited Valerie Camillo, another management consultant,
into TMBO. Val recognized the unique opportunity to work
with Amy and the NBA. Side by side, Amy and Val
crunched numbers and consulted </span><span>with the teams. This laid the
foundation for Val’s meteoric rise. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVm9Pq4nT4S3Orq_DnoxNzMGYDSeb_r6gYkOEh6NRr1enUO7lnP4hoMVjJ0fECOCcfT6fJnGIYhsHMU3uuoupzaoDDI3dRl7a9Pzgr5zIQO_Npap_eDUnQG_HEzlPDDKJ7Hhrrtxr-hdwyixLYqYN6-PA1pUaanEuzmp8nn0-txh4sGWIv7xJ9aFsRKA/s1200/amy-brooks-nba.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVm9Pq4nT4S3Orq_DnoxNzMGYDSeb_r6gYkOEh6NRr1enUO7lnP4hoMVjJ0fECOCcfT6fJnGIYhsHMU3uuoupzaoDDI3dRl7a9Pzgr5zIQO_Npap_eDUnQG_HEzlPDDKJ7Hhrrtxr-hdwyixLYqYN6-PA1pUaanEuzmp8nn0-txh4sGWIv7xJ9aFsRKA/w253-h269/amy-brooks-nba.jpg" width="253" /></span></a></div><p></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>In 2013, with the
movement of Amy’s boss, Chris Granger, to the Sacramento
Kings, Amy herself was rewarded. She became one of the top women
in the NBA League Office, rising to Executive Vice President and heading the
Team Marketing and Business Operations department. In 2015, Forbes
voted her one of the most powerful women in sports. Two years
later, Amy was promoted to be the NBA’s Chief Innovation Officer and
President of TMBO, the first to hold such a role. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>With four years
under Amy’s coaching, Val moved back to DC in 2014 to become Chief Revenue
Officer of the Washington Nationals, one of few women to achieve that role in
the MLB. She followed that to her current role as President of Business
Operations for Comcast Spectacor, which includes the role of President of
Business Operations of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and Wells Fargo
Center. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span>Under Amy’s
influence, there are more women, and men, whose careers are blossoming in the
sports business. Amy is a great coach to the many she
cultivates for senior sports positions. She may not receive the
similar public acclaim of star athletes or legendary college coaches. But
through our work with Amy and the NBA, we have seen her make a positive
difference to more than she knows.</span>Amy and
I met at one of Jessica Gelman and Daryl Morey’s MIT Sloan Sports Data
Analytics Conferences. She was a graduate of Stanford University
where she had played varsity basketball. Some may credit Amy’s
incredible “vision,” “assist,” and subsequent “coaching” skills to her Final
Four playing days for Stanford’s legendary coach, Tara VanDerveer. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>After
graduation, Amy worked in Product Management for Sun Microsystems;
then she got her MBA at Stanford Business School. Amy moved to
Bain & Company, a world-renowned management consulting
firm. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>Without any
previous work experience in the sports business, in 2005 Amy joined
the NBA league office in Global Partnerships. After she had gotten
her feet wet, the NBA moved her into Team Marketing and Business Operations
(TMBO), their internal consulting group helping all NBA, WNBA and G-League
teams’ business operations. With Amy’s background in
consulting, marketing and analytics, she helped enhance the NBA teams’ revenues
through data analytics, making it the model for the other
leagues. TeamWork Online has been a recruiting partner to the NBA
since 2000 in part because of Amy. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>In
2010 Amy recruited Valerie Camillo, another management consultant,
into TMBO. Val recognized the unique opportunity to work
with Amy and the NBA. Side by side, Amy and Val
crunched numbers and consulted with the teams. This laid the
foundation for Val’s meteoric rise. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>In 2013, with the
movement of Amy’s boss, Chris Granger, to the Sacramento
Kings, Amy herself was rewarded. She became one of the top women
in the NBA League Office, rising to Executive Vice President and heading the
Team Marketing and Business Operations department. In 2015, Forbes
voted her one of the most powerful women in sports. Two years
later, Amy was promoted to be the NBA’s Chief Innovation Officer and
President of TMBO, the first to hold such a role. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>With four years
under Amy’s coaching, Val moved back to DC in 2014 to become Chief Revenue
Officer of the Washington Nationals, one of few women to achieve that role in
the MLB. She followed that to her current role as President of Business
Operations for Comcast Spectacor, which includes the role of President of
Business Operations of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and Wells Fargo
Center. </span><span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;">
</p><p class="reader-text-blockparagraph" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span>Under Amy’s
influence, there are more women, and men, whose careers are blossoming in the
sports business. Amy is a great coach to the many she
cultivates for senior sports positions. She may not receive the
similar public acclaim of star athletes or legendary college coaches. But
through our work with Amy and the NBA, we have seen her make a positive
difference to more than she knows.</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)"> </span></span></p></div><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-11162865113837404652022-05-25T10:47:00.001-07:002022-05-25T10:51:06.851-07:00<p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"></span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Raleway; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.05em; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="font-size: medium;">WIGGINS TO LEAD NEW SPIRE WOMEN’S HOOPS ACADEMY </span><span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">5/16/22 Spire Academy</span></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqPQQDNVSY_LKTk_hPh-vUaN_WyAv-M4N6H7DwgjrE7vG5czBpBJtFnFXSbVdbr8NCnBv39ZuxXnMCMjdvrd0Oe-no7K6jUMLkX2SvAFuOiOHZD6UhKfzZrQH4iv3eXjryIPuVzishMRlZYU-YnwYfMFr4TQtxTgl7sLY-SLW9Pnft66l3O987OFxBUQ/s515/Candice-Wigginscropped.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="515" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqPQQDNVSY_LKTk_hPh-vUaN_WyAv-M4N6H7DwgjrE7vG5czBpBJtFnFXSbVdbr8NCnBv39ZuxXnMCMjdvrd0Oe-no7K6jUMLkX2SvAFuOiOHZD6UhKfzZrQH4iv3eXjryIPuVzishMRlZYU-YnwYfMFr4TQtxTgl7sLY-SLW9Pnft66l3O987OFxBUQ/s320/Candice-Wigginscropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Since the announcement earlier this year of a new women’s basketball program coming to the international athletic academy, SPIRE accepted numerous applications for the role of Director and Head Coach to lead the way. One application stood out from the rest; former Stanford Cardinal and WNBA champion, Candice Wiggins. The four-time All-American has joined SPIRE to help build and lead the women’s basketball academy in Geneva. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wiggins is a well-recognized name in women’s basketball, boasting a decorated career on the court in both the college and professional ranks. A prominent scorer, Wiggins’ collegiate basketball experience at Stanford includes being ranked second in career points in school history and third in Pac-12 history. Alongside her impressive collegiate basketball career, she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Stanford.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wiggins went on to play in the WNBA for eight seasons, which included stints with the Tulsa Shock, New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx. In 2008, she was named WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year and won a WNBA championship in 2011 with the Lynx.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">She boasts international professional basketball experience as well, playing in Israel, Greece, Spain and Turkey. Wiggins has worked and coached in AAU and high school basketball since she retired from her professional basketball career.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">What drew her to SPIRE </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">was the opportunity to lead and create a new women’s basketball program that essentially revolutionizes an approach to both training and competition. Wiggins explains, “It is a position that allows me to serve a sport and a community that has given me so much on all levels, both domestically and internationally: high school, college and professionally.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">SPIRE’s Director of Basketball, </span><a href="https://www.spireinstitute.org/about-us/leadership/leadership-jeff-javorek/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1779ba; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Jeff Javorek</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, is looking forward to working with Wiggins. “Candice is a huge addition to the SPIRE family. She has a great vision and strategy to help launch and grow the SPIRE women’s basketball program. The success she has had in her high school, college and professional playing experience will help shape all of the young women that will come through our program.” Javorek adds, “We will be a top destination for young women who want to learn and develop from Candice. She is very passionate, intelligent and hard-working and is excited about giving back to the sport that has done so much for her.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wiggins sees big potential in SPIRE’s women’s basketball, saying, “I see the future of women’s basketball at SPIRE as a destination for women to become the most dynamic versions of themselves as student athletes, with the world class facilities and resources to enable injury prevention and mental health, in my opinion, the two biggest factors relating to player development. I see my program being home to a very healthy, competitive environment, with like-minded individuals who share a common passion for the beloved sport of basketball.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The addition of Wiggins to the SPIRE coaching team is part of their commitment to placing more women in leadership roles within the academy. Along with recently hired Molly McColloch as Assistant Swim Coach and a soon-to-be-named Assistant Track & Field Coach, SPIRE continues to lead the way when it comes to having a diverse and inclusive leadership team. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Noto Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wiggins will host the first women’s basketball camp at SPIRE will be on Thursday, June 23rd, and is open to girls from ages 9 to 17. The clinic will cover the fundamental skills and competition drills that will highlight the teaching and instruction that will be available full-time for those who join the Academy. <a href="http://spireinstitute.org/camps/camps-basketball" rel="noopener" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #1779ba; cursor: pointer; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Click here</a> for more information on the camp.</span></p>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-78853365679126211162021-10-18T10:01:00.000-07:002021-10-18T10:01:42.299-07:00Writing Helped Mikaela Brewer Find Her Voice - Now She's Giving Basketball Another Shot<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="proxima-nova"><b>Writing Helped Mikaela Brewer Find Her Voice - Now She's Giving Basketball Another Shot <span style="font-size: x-small;">Friesen Pres</span></b></span></span></span></h2><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 16px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Trigger warning: This blog post discusses mental health, depression, and suicide. If it's the right time for you, we invite you to read and engage with this story.</em></strong><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul><div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFKwtbvolpjGG-jo6Jlj3NGXj_YVhTYlhAw0_DXYZ_uwmgdNLSXHbgv7D7iDSfgz2j1havCNkPSvw2i1Sk3pLVxZ4YXUgxVrd_XySGv0Gf7-smU9fBejRWhRy1TrrbPVHvVxQV0wIP2SQMqnzLF0z-v-qbyZnd5G7KRmIfrOjQ3JnHRAEc_wQGGXX2CA=s625" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="625" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFKwtbvolpjGG-jo6Jlj3NGXj_YVhTYlhAw0_DXYZ_uwmgdNLSXHbgv7D7iDSfgz2j1havCNkPSvw2i1Sk3pLVxZ4YXUgxVrd_XySGv0Gf7-smU9fBejRWhRy1TrrbPVHvVxQV0wIP2SQMqnzLF0z-v-qbyZnd5G7KRmIfrOjQ3JnHRAEc_wQGGXX2CA=w260-h255" width="260" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Team Canada and Division 1 NCAA basketball player. Stanford class of 2020 human biology graduate. Novelist. Mikaela Brewer is a multi-hyphenate whose bio reads like that of a superhero’s real life alter ego. Only Mikaela Brewer actually <span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">is </span>a hero – though perhaps not for the reasons you might expect.</i></span></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2017, during her freshman year at Stanford, the depression that had dogged Mikaela since childhood spiraled out of control, nearly costing her her life, basketball career, and all that she had worked so hard to achieve.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Today, Mikaela Brewer is a mental health advocate, using her writing abilities to bravely open a destigmatizing conversation about depression. Drawing directly from her personal experiences battling mental illness, she’s sharing stories of progress and hope aimed at helping those who might be struggling like she was in winter of 2017.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The act of writing has been a pivotal element of Mikaela’s recovery, allowing her to find her voice and confidence at a time when both were at low. All her growth has culminated in the publication of <a href="https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000177564442/Mikaela-Brewer-The-Sifting-Project" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Sifting Project</em></span></a>, her debut ‘neuroscience fiction’ novel about two brothers, whose Second World War-era research into memory and the afterlife falls into the wrong hands.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We spoke with Mikaela on September 10th (World Suicide Prevention Day) to learn more about the many inspirations behind <em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Sifting Project</em>, how writing helped her heal, and why she’s now planning a return to competitive basketball.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Where did your debut science fiction novel, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Sifting Project</em>, begin?</strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span face="proxima-nova" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It’s a really interesting story, actually! I've always loved writing and I wrote off and on throughout childhood. And I loved [writing] in high school, too. After basketball kind of took over my life and most of my time, I didn't write as much as I wanted to — until I got to university. I had an opportunity to minor in creative writing alongside my major, which was human biology. Two polar opposite [disciplines], but I knew that I loved writing and I was like, "You know what? Let's try and make this work."</span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I was <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/blog/2021/6/10/how-reading-short-stories-helps-improve-your-writing" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">writing short stories</a> (mostly for the minor) when I came across a class in my senior year that was novel writing intensive. I thought, "How am I going to balance this with basketball and everything else?" But I figured having the guidance of some incredible professors (and some structure too, with it being a class where the only project was to finish a novel), I just dove into it. I actually ended up writing the first draft of <em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Sifting Project</em> my senior fall. The class ran from September to December and was structured around <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/blog/2017/10/28/7-tips-for-surviving-nanowrimo" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">National Novel Writing Month</a> (NaNoWriMo) in November, so my first draft was written in 30 days. I don't know if I ever actually had a moment where I set out to write a book before that class.</span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #121212;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">How did you feel about your first NaNoWriMo experience? </strong><span style="font-size: medium;">It wa</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>s tough and a bit hectic, but it was fun. A lot of writing on airplanes on the way to basketball games. The first draft was right around 50,000 words — relatively short, but [the manuscript] ended up being longer after I wrote more drafts afterwards. </span>I'd never heard of NaNo until taking that class, but I think it's such a cool, fun<span face="proxima-nova" style="color: #777777;"> </span>way to build a novel writing community worldwide.</span></div></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong id="yui_3_17_2_1_1634318818120_810" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Did your major in human biology end up informing the science fiction backdrop for this book?</strong><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;"> </strong><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #121212;">Absolutely. </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">What</span> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ultimately allowed me to</span> <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/blog/2020/10/21/how-to-turn-an-idea-into-a-story" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">shape the story</a><span style="font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: 0px;"> was the fact that I loved both science and art equally. I was trying to figure out how they were connected, and how they could be connected in a story. I started thinking about this act of observation very similar — whether it's in the rigidity of science or the fluidity of art. It's kind of the same process [of observing the world], and that was kind of what ended up shaping the science fiction part of the story, the characters, and the whole idea of memory being passed on generationally. My passion and interest in human biology definitely shaped the story.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Was there any one moment that </b></span></span><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">specifically inspired <em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Sifting Project</em>, aside from concepts and things that you were learning in school? </strong></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"> <span style="font-family: arial;">There was. There's kind of two sides to this — I'm going to give my mom full credit here, who kind of <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/blog/2021/5/20/5-rules-for-creating-an-amazing-book-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">came up with the title</a><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"> one day. She was saying it would be really cool if we could sift through people's memories, or memories of the past. I was like, "Hmm, that's interesting." So I started thinking about that.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The other side of the story, too, is for me personally, as somebody diagnosed with depression, one of the side effects that I sometimes experience is memory loss. I have this embedded fear of forgetting things and not solidifying memories and being able to return to them. So I really liked that idea of being able to go back and sift through memories that you didn't know you had, or memories from other people and other people that have influenced you. That's where the initial idea started to take shape. For some of the more tricky neuroscience-y parts, I definitely drew on biology for that.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">When you rediscovered writing in university, what was that experience like for you? What does writing mean to you now?</span> </strong><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That's a really good question. I think writing has allowed me to use my voice in a different way. One of the running jokes on my basketball team is that I whisper everything I say. I'm pretty quiet on the court and kind of one of those " lead by example" types — as best I can. I'm not very vocal. My confidence is able to come out a bit more in my writing. I've definitely felt that shift back and forth. During the more confident periods of my basketball career, I wrote less. And during the less confident periods of my basketball career, I wrote more.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> write through a lot of the things I experience — whether I publish them or not — and that just helps me figure things out. It also helps me determine what my voice is and what I want to advocate for and speak openly about. Writing is just the medium that fits me really well.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="proxima-nova" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span face="proxima-nova" style="color: #121212; font-size: 18px;">You've been open and have published pieces on Medium about your mental health challenges, and are now a self-described advocate. Why is this cause so important to you?</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></strong><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My own experiences with mental illness have definitely shaped that, specifically with how it impacted what I thought the rest of my life was going to look like.</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Going into university, I had this set plan. I was going to play basketball, and I was maybe going to play professionally, and had all of these goals and plans. It shocked me how much something like depression can just rock your plans. I had some really, really dark experiences and I was in the hospital for a suicide attempt. Reflecting on all of that and how I was able to get through it led me to a point where I thought, "I've got to try and talk about this more, in the event that other people really need to feel like they aren't alone."</span></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">And there's a paradox there: you're not alone, but no two stories are the same, either. I really just wanted to share as much as I could with the writing ability that I have to try to reach people and help them see that they're not alone in those experiences. There's other people out there who are experiencing the same thing.</span></span></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="proxima-nova" style="background-color: white; color: #777777; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="proxima-nova" style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">We’re speaking today on World Suicide Prevention Day. What might you say to someone reading this who may be struggling? </strong><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I would first say, first and foremost: you're not alone. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Second: there's a lot of messaging related to suicide prevention and suicidality that says, "You're needed” and “The world is a better place with you in it." I think both of those statements are true and good to hear and they can mean a lot, for sure. It feels really good to be needed and loved and wanted. But I think there's a flip side of that too, where the world has to be a better place for the person struggling too. The struggling person has to be given what <em style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;">they</em> need — regardless of how much that person is needed [by their loved ones]. </span></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I would say to make sure that you're getting what you need from the world as much as it needs you, and figure out where those gaps are in your life. There's definitely people who love you who can help you figure that out, because you don't have to do it alone. It's hard work, but you don't have to do it alone.</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Here are a few links to some great resources:</span></h3><ul data-rte-list="default" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 1em 0px 24px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; white-space: normal;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.crisistextline.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">Crisis Text Line</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://jack.org/Home" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">Jack.org</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://weareunsinkable.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">Unsinkable & Unsinkable Youth</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://weareneveralone.co/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">Never Alone</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.howareyoureally.org/home" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">How are you really</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.thementalhealthcoalition.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">Mental Health Coalition</span></a></p></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0.5em 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://onemind.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: underline;">One Mind</span></a></p></li></ul><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">On Medium, you recently wrote that “Writing a fiction book allowed me to go places that a memoir can’t go.” Can you elaborate on that statement? How did your science fiction setting and characters allow you to explore other parts of your own self and psyche? </strong><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It allowed me to bring out some of the things that I have experienced and think about, but in other people — which kind of builds that connectedness [to others]. </span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Suddenly I could <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/blog/2021/8/18/4-expert-ways-to-create-believable-characters" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">create characters</a> that had experienced similar things to myself — mostly internally, since the story's primarily set in the 1940s and 70s. I was able to really dig into that and feel that connection to other people via these fictional characters, and I think that's something that's really interesting and unique to fiction, versus simply telling your own story.</span></div></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In addition to being an author, you’ve played basketball at an incredibly high level for Stanford and Team Canada. Did your hooping career prepare you for this next chapter in any way?</strong><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word;"> </strong><span>Discipline is the first thing that kind of comes to mind, and work ethic. Being an athlete allows you to go places physically that are extremely hard to go to, and I think that I built up confidence knowing that I could really, really challenge myself and that it would be okay. On the court, if you make a mistake, you’ve got to move on. You have to be kind of mentally tough in that way and not get hung up on misstepping. It's very much trusting the process and continuously growing, building, and learning. </span></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">All of those transferable skills definitely float into <a href="https://www.friesenpress.com/how-to-write-a-book" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">writing a book</a>. Especially writing the first draft — making sure that you just get it on paper.</span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong id="yui_3_17_2_1_1634335680294_805" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What are you most proud of regarding this book and the writing journey you’re on? </strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My honesty, and how I've been able to see my confidence building back up. The past five years have been really, really tough, as I've battled through some very dark mental health moments. Feeling myself come into my voice and confidence again, and talking about some of those really hard things — yeah, I’m really proud of that.</span></span></div><div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 18px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What’s next for Mikaela Brewer, bookwise and basketball-wise?</strong><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; overflow-wrap: break-word;"> </strong><span>I'm so grateful because lots of amazing things are happening. With writing, I would love to write a second book. I don't know when that would happen, but definitely in the plans at some point. Right now I'm primarily working on content creation with Time Out, which is a mental health app for athletes. I'm so excited about that and to be able to write some things for them.</span></span></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 24px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> Basketball-wise, I am planning on competing again overseas starting in September 2022. I have a year to get my sorry self back in shape and start playing, and practicing, and training, which I'm about a month into now. I'm really excited to play and try this whole basketball thing again, with a new mindset and some learning and some growth.</span></div></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div><div><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="sqs-block collectionlink-block sqs-block-collectionlink sqs-col-4 span-4 float float-right" data-block-type="12" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1632860717655_31776" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #777777; float: right; font-family: proxima-nova; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 300; height: auto; margin-left: 17px; padding: 12px 17px; position: relative; width: 291.325px; z-index: 10;"><div class="sqs-block-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="collectionlink-thumbnail" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 150px; overflow: hidden;"><br /></div></div></div></strong></div></div>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-48946336950740280342021-07-18T16:34:00.001-07:002021-07-18T16:37:46.647-07:00Joslyn Tinkle joins Montana Lady Griz coaching staff <h1 class="Page-body ArticlePage-headline" data-bsp-plugin="Module5210" itemprop="headline" style="background-color: white; left: 0px; line-height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 35px 0px 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Joslyn Tinkle joins Montana Lady Griz coaching staff </span></h1><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">by Montana Sports</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcVLHdGkZHrJAZJWtlzYCFIERthGfUufHQCCmennyn_webA51uPO-Ajota3DBwwFb-2OKWJWhO7P3ctSgapErSjyzqNidYNL77YCWrOlmvVQxhz9V9Hh1pcLjnpvsd1JwDryBxrq5KKlwT/s275/joslyn+20210624_ladygriz_5161.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcVLHdGkZHrJAZJWtlzYCFIERthGfUufHQCCmennyn_webA51uPO-Ajota3DBwwFb-2OKWJWhO7P3ctSgapErSjyzqNidYNL77YCWrOlmvVQxhz9V9Hh1pcLjnpvsd1JwDryBxrq5KKlwT/s0/joslyn+20210624_ladygriz_5161.jpg" /></a></div><br />The newest Lady Griz assistant, the one who completes first-year coach Brian Holsinger’s staff and hardly needs an introduction, checks all the boxes. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“She has all those things that I look for in people who can impact others, and ultimately this comes down to surrounding the team and this program with people who can give these young women the best experience of their lives, and I know she’ll do that,” said Holsinger.</span></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">And then Joslyn Tinkle just keeps checking off more boxes. She played in three Final Fours during her Stanford career for Tara VanDerveer coached teams that went 137-10 before playing professionally in the WNBA, Hungary, Turkey and Australia.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“She played for one of the best coaches in the history of our game and has played in high-level games. It’s hard to beat that kind of experience,” said Holsinger.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">And then there is the most obvious, the Montana connection. Tinkle grew up around the Lady Griz program and Grizzly athletics in general.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Her mom, <a class="Link" href="https://www.montanasports.com/high-school-sports/girls-basketball/mttop25-no-11-lisa-mcleod-jeanne-mcnulty-starred-on-each-end-of-the-floor-for-montana-lady-griz" style="color: #005687; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Lisa (McLeod) Tinkle</a>, has a spot in the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame, recognition for her distinguished Lady Griz career. Her dad, Wayne, coached the Montana men’s basketball team for eight seasons, taking the Grizzlies to three NCAA tournaments.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">You may have seen him on national television a few months back, <a class="Link" href="https://www.montanasports.com/college-sports/ncaa/collection-feature-articles-on-wayne-tinkle-and-his-family-ahead-of-oregon-states-sweet-16-game" style="color: #005687; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank">coaching his Oregon State team</a> to within a few plays of the Final Four.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">While the sport may have scattered the Tinkles over the years, Missoula has always been the common bond for the five of them, the place that feels like home even when it hasn’t been.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Now Joslyn Tinkle returns to a place that she makes sound like sacred ground.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I came on the plane (on Wednesday), and I was like a kid in a candy store,” said Tinkle, the <a class="Link" href="https://www.montanasports.com/high-school-sports/girls-basketball/mttop25-no-3-joslyn-tinkles-team-success-final-4-trips-unmatched-by-montana-greats" style="color: #005687; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank">2008 and 2009 Gatorade Montana player of the year</a> at Big Sky High School. “It’s still a little surreal because this place means so much to me. It’s a special, special place, and that’s a feeling that’s never left me. This program has always meant an incredible amount to me and Missoula has always held a big place in my heart. To be able to come back, I couldn’t be more excited.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">She completes Holsinger’s staff that started with retaining <a class="Link" href="https://www.montanasports.com/sports/big-sky-conference/montana-grizzlies/jordan-sullivan-to-remain-as-montana-lady-griz-assistant-coach" style="color: #005687; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Jordan Sullivan</a>. Holsinger then added <a class="Link" href="https://www.montanasports.com/sports/big-sky-conference/montana-grizzlies/nate-harris-returns-to-home-state-joins-montana-lady-griz-staff" style="color: #005687; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Nate Harris</a>, now Tinkle, a trio of Montanans who love the state, who want to get the Lady Griz back to a place of prominence.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“There is already a cohesiveness with the three assistants, and that’s really important to me,” said Holsinger. “They know each other really well and will work well together.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I’m excited to give Joslyn her first opportunity in coaching and a chance to learn and grow.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">It’s a hire that will surprise many, mostly because they didn’t know Tinkle had the interest. After her playing days were over, she settled into a sales and marketing job in Portland.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">It was a career, but more than that it gave her proximity to watch her younger brother, Tres, finish out his own collegiate career at Oregon State. She’d missed a lot, of Elle’s days at Gonzaga, of Tres’s as a Beaver. She wanted to soak it all up before time stole it away.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I wanted to make it a priority after missing out on my siblings’ seasons while I was playing abroad,” she said. “I wanted to be present for that.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">That love of family is what her dad has taken into his coaching career, of replicating that feeling within a team, of taking many and making them one. He’s done it so well and so successfully that Oregon State signed him to an extension in April that will keep him in Corvallis through the 2026-27 season.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">That same thing is in his oldest daughter’s blood, and she always knew it.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“It’s something I’ve thought about, back to when I graduated. I love this sport and this game. There was this passion inside me, this fire, that this is what I want to do,” she says. “This is what I was meant to be doing.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">But she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play professionally. And she didn’t want a coaching career getting in the way of enjoying her siblings’ successes.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Finally, the timing was right, to get into coaching, to return to Montana.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I interviewed a ton of people and kept coming back to her for a lot of different reasons,” said Holsinger, who coached at Oregon State himself the last five seasons. “She’s dynamic, and her interpersonal skills and ability to connect with people are elite.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“And she has a connection to this place and knows what this program is about. She made it clear that this is where she wanted to be.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">She’s been around the game her entire life. It’s why she was born in Sweden, during her dad’s 10-year playing career in Europe after he’d wrapped up his time as a Grizzly student-athlete.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">She is a full-time coach for the first time and she admits there is going to be a big learning curve, but she’s been around the profession nearly as long as she’s been around the game, first in her own home growing up, then playing for VanDerveer, who led the Cardinal to the national championship in April.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I was really, really lucky to play for Tara. She was extremely smart and always well prepared. That’s something I’ll take on,” said Tinkle. “I’ve talked to her about coaching every year since I graduated. She’s been a great source of knowledge and advice for me. I’m lucky to have her in my life.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">VanDerveer knows plenty about the Lady Griz program. She interviewed to be Montana’s head coach back in the spring of 1978, but ultimately the job went to a guy named Robin Selvig who did okay over the next 38 years.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">VanDerveer took her third Stanford team, the one that would win her first national championship two years later, to Missoula for the NCAA tournament in March 1988. The Cardinal escaped with a 74-72 overtime win in front of a crowd of 8,709.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">In March 1994, Montana and Stanford met up again, this time on the Cardinal’s home floor. Stanford won 66-62 in a second-round game on its way to the Elite Eight.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I’m really excited for Joslyn,” said VerDerveer this week. “She will be an outstanding addition to the Montana women’s basketball staff and to the Missoula community.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“The Lady Griz have a tradition of excellence, and Joslyn has been part of championship teams and a championship culture, so this is a great fit.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The toughest sell may have been her dad. Wayne Tinkle has made a successful career out of coaching, but he also knows the challenges and the hidden tolls the profession requires be paid in full before it will give up its rewards.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“As a dad, you don’t want to deter your kids from their dreams, but I wanted her to understand that a lot more goes into this than people think,” he said. “But then I reminded myself that she’s well-traveled, very experienced, so she knows all this. Then it turned to encouragement. The thing that sold me was when she said she wanted to make a difference in these young women’s lives. When she said that, it made total sense. She’s going to be awesome.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I’m very excited for her and excited for my alma mater and the Lady Griz program. We’re excited for Brian and his entire staff. It’s a pretty neat deal for our family.”</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">When Holsinger was hired in April, he quickly locked up Sullivan as the first member of his staff. He added Harris soon thereafter.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">He said the third hire would take a while. He wanted to make sure it was just the right fit, with the staff, with the Lady Griz program, with Missoula, with Montana.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">It was worth the wait.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“I couldn’t be happier to be back home and joining what they have here. Brian is the perfect fit for Montana, and I was excited about the staff he already had in place,” Tinkle said. “This is what I want to do. This is what I was meant to be doing.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“Basketball has taken me to a lot of incredible places and given me some incredible opportunities. I want to share all that with these young women and make this the most incredible experience for them.”</p><div class="left-column" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: proxima-nova, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 60px; width: calc(100% - 340px);"><div class="Page-body ArticlePage-articleBody" data-bsp-plugin="Module5210" itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 19px; left: 0px; line-height: 30px; transition: all 0.4s ease 0s;"><div class="RichTextArticleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="RichTextArticleBody-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="sal--wrapper" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="sal--container size--300x250 sal--loaded" data-google-query-id="CPzRmJbg7fECFVjoKAUdEFUKuA" id="MAD_INLINE_2" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; padding: 15px 0px; text-align: center;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/6088/ssp.mtspx/sports/big_sky_conference/montana_grizzlies/detail_3__container__" style="border: 0pt none; box-sizing: border-box;"><iframe allow="conversion-measurement" data-google-container-id="9" data-load-complete="true" frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/6088/ssp.mtspx/sports/big_sky_conference/montana_grizzlies/detail_3" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/6088/ssp.mtspx/sports/big_sky_conference/montana_grizzlies/detail_3" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" scrolling="no" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" title="3rd party ad content" width="300"></iframe></div></div></div><p><br /></p></div></div></div></div><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-76257878240385545102021-05-16T15:31:00.000-07:002021-05-16T15:31:37.153-07:00Up and Running with Morgan Clyburn<h1 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Up & Running with Morgan Clyburn, Managing Director, Highland Circle Innovations<span style="font-weight: 500;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-small; font-weight: 500;">from Medical Alley</span></h1><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlo88ySTpLO-SXZyTlNbDgPcb67wsPGbI_Gzt-BBbBR3QVkbsMLrWySW7jsJRl8HsxEcJjUsVy7Skxm03wCSAQ7pmrLNUge0e1YJdhDkfdgpqJVQhBppWNO4aCECKLTnemmRrGvac55Ae/s300/Morgan-Clyburn-300x300.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlo88ySTpLO-SXZyTlNbDgPcb67wsPGbI_Gzt-BBbBR3QVkbsMLrWySW7jsJRl8HsxEcJjUsVy7Skxm03wCSAQ7pmrLNUge0e1YJdhDkfdgpqJVQhBppWNO4aCECKLTnemmRrGvac55Ae/w222-h258/Morgan-Clyburn-300x300.jpeg" width="222" /></a></div>Morgan Clyburn is an experienced med-tech executive with a background in General Management, M&A, Business Development, R&D, Clinical and Sales. Morgan started her career at Autonomic Technologies Inc., a venture backed neuromodulation start-up, with roles in product development, clinical engineering and sales. She then worked for Medtronic in Corporate Development, focused on supporting mergers and acquisitions, investments, and divestitures. Most recently she has been the Managing Director of Highland Circle Innovations, a medical device incubator focused on developing and commercializing Class II Medical Devices. She holds a BS in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. </span></span></div><div><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></h2><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Give us Highland Circle Innovations’ elevator pitch.</span></span></h2></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">Highland Circle Innovations is a facilitator of new ideas and companies from concept to commercialization. In addition, the firm is a holding company of medical device talent that deploys a tiger team of experts in their respective spaces across a handful of companies with the goal of identifying and launching technology that will improve the lives of patients and providers.</span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As a leader, how has your role changed during COVID-19?</span></span></h2><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;">Prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, our team was already a semi-remote team across the US, thus we already had strong practices for communication and ability to manage through ambiguity. Where I have really had to shift was in the interactions with suppliers and vendors. Previously, it was easy to go on-site to onboard and train our teams (i.e. manufacturing line), but in the new world, I have had to get much tighter in my communications and plan for longer lead times.</span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How have you pivoted your company to address the needs that have risen since the onset of COVID-19?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The main thing that we have had to focus on is the fundraising strategy for our portfolio companies. We’ve had to bootstrap more because there was a lot of uncertainty and unexpected delays, and we felt that in our early conversations with angel investors as well.</span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What are the big milestones to come in the next few years for Highland Circle Innovations?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This year, two portfolio companies will be launching new products—Agitated Solutions will be launching its first technology, and Visura Technologies will be launching its 2<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> generation product. I am also looking forward to continued expansion of our team.</span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you balance leading a startup with your everyday life?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The beauty of running a startup is that you have a lot of flexibility in how you do things. I try to build as much structure as possible, but you always have to be flexible—and I really like that.</p><div id="suggestion-bar" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400;"></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">I am also incredibly fortunate to have such an amazing support system at home. My fiancé, Matt, understands and embraces the craziness that comes from me running a startup and is really flexible and willing to pick up the slack when I have to flex my time.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What’s one thing people get wrong about startup life?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">I think one misconception I had was the source of stress. I always thought that stress mainly came from negative situations, where now I am seeing positive stress more often — stress from fast growth and from working on revolutionary technologies. The stress comes from when you want to get everything done in the fastest and best route possible so that you can provide these solutions to patients and providers as quickly possible. It is an incredible feeling.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What is the best advice you have received in your career? What is the worst?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The best advice that I received is to strive to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. You don’t want “yes-men or women,” but rather people that push you and that you can learn from, and that is the exact philosophy I employ when building out my team. I never want to be the smartest person in the room. The worst advice I ever received was that experience is the main decider of advancement — you need to just put your head down and work more and eventually you will advance. If I had taken that advice, I would not have seen the gap that existed in the market for a firm like HCI, and I would not have taken the leap to build it.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What is one personal goal for the upcoming year?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">A personal goal of mine this year is to finally get married! COVID-19 forced us to reschedule our wedding, as we would have been unable to celebrate with family and friends.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How do you relax / decompress?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">I have played basketball my whole life, and now that I’m older I greatly enjoy coaching basketball. Currently I volunteer with the Minnehaha Academy varsity girls basketball team and am coaching a 6<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> grade girls AAU team. I also enjoy taking boxing classes with my fiancé, and spending time with our two dogs, Todd and Kylo.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What do you enjoy most about the Medical Alley community?</span></span></h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Medical Alley has an incredible community of people that believe that “together, all boats rise.” They recognize that this industry is tough enough, so they provide the selfless support and connections. It is a great community to be a part of — one that embodies this philosophy.</p></span></div></span></div><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-90435858951915306822021-02-24T14:50:00.002-08:002021-02-24T14:50:51.419-08:00<h1 class="fs-headline speakable-headline font-base font-size" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; line-height: 1.22; margin-block: 0px; margin: 16px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">How One Female Basketball Star, Chiney Ogwumike, Pivoted Into A Lucrative Business Career </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jennifer Palumbo, Forbes</span></h1><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Few WNBA athletes can make seven figures, but they typically play year-round and supplement their WNBA salary with overseas salary.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><a aria-label="Chinenye "Chiney" Ogwumike" class="color-link" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/profile/chiney-ogwumike/?sh=649b0bfb279a" href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/chiney-ogwumike/?sh=649b0bfb279a" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self" title="https://www.forbes.com/profile/chiney-ogwumike/?sh=649b0bfb279a">Chinenye "Chiney" Ogwumike</a>, a Nigerian-American professional women's basketball player, came into the WNBA to become an All-Star, which she has accomplished twice. In between, she had two serious injuries in her first two seasons overseas and had to change her game plan.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">That was a blessing in disguise for the current forward for the Los Angeles Sparks. Overcoming adversity on the court was accomplished in parallel with pursuing and creating unique opportunities with her business that has expanded far beyond playing the game.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Fast forward almost seven years from her being the top pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft, and <a aria-label="Chiney has built a diversified business across broadcast" class="color-link" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=41a96ed07032" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=41a96ed07032" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=41a96ed07032">Chiney has built a diversified business across broadcast</a>, WNBA, endorsements, speaking engagements and social advocacy. Her career is quickly turning into an empire, strategically built to empower those that come after her. </p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2_7_AKWdtrHeXvM0z4D1zCrMTH7Au49J3ZSGjCsh6iOCsZnkAtLjAuE4J-ZRzGWcSVAO3ij-M1o5De66zO31ZYSiOJ2PVMtZ91soE0F-7RoPpLXJSkZmkzDF34Qi3wRenif70KX7NhyP/s1180/Chiney+sportscenter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1180" data-original-width="960" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil2_7_AKWdtrHeXvM0z4D1zCrMTH7Au49J3ZSGjCsh6iOCsZnkAtLjAuE4J-ZRzGWcSVAO3ij-M1o5De66zO31ZYSiOJ2PVMtZ91soE0F-7RoPpLXJSkZmkzDF34Qi3wRenif70KX7NhyP/w150-h243/Chiney+sportscenter.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In July 2020, ESPN announced they were adding <a aria-label="Ogwumike as co-host" class="color-link" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=105e68597032" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=105e68597032" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendonkleen/2019/10/18/chiney-ogwumike-new-spotify-podcast-certified-buckets/?sh=105e68597032">Ogwumike as co-host</a> of the <a aria-label="Chiney and Golic Jr" class="color-link" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/29552514" href="http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/29552514" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/29552514"><em data-ga-track="ExternalLink:http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/29552514" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chiney and Golic Jr</em></a><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">. </em>show<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">,</em> with Mike Golic Jr. Ogwumike is the first Black woman and first WNBA player to co-host a national daily ESPN Radio show.</span><p></p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">"Once I was in the door, I loved it," she shared. "It was the closest thing to playing a game. Millions of people are watching. You have to be prepared, and most importantly, you have to be yourself."</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">While many know that Ogwumike is a professionally trained basketball player, few are aware that she is also Stanford educated graduate mentored by Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This prepared her to be an NBA analyst for ESPN and CBA negotiations as a vice-president in the WNBPA.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">She is also expanding her scope by talking about all sports (not just basketball) on various platforms. When she made the tough decision to opt-out of the 2020 WNBA season, she used her ingenuity to put together a plan of action regarding the future of her career.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">"I approached a contact at ESPN Films," Ogwumike said. "And after some discussion, I'm proud to be the executive producer of an upcoming ESPN Films documentary on the 2020 WNBA season."</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">The documentary will explore social justice and cover how some in the WNBA took a stand against Atlanta Dream co-owner and Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was critical of the <a aria-label="Black Lives Matter" class="color-link" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/07/14/what-does-black-lives-matter-mean-how-you-answer-reveals-more-about-you-than-the-movement-itself/?sh=66db2a95487c" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/07/14/what-does-black-lives-matter-mean-how-you-answer-reveals-more-about-you-than-the-movement-itself/?sh=66db2a95487c" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/07/14/what-does-black-lives-matter-mean-how-you-answer-reveals-more-about-you-than-the-movement-itself/?sh=66db2a95487c">Black Lives Matter</a> (BLM) movement. Loeffler owns 49% of the team. Her stance on BLM and her support of Donald Trump prompted players to campaign against their owner openly. <a aria-label="Loeffler went on to lose to Rev. Raphael Warnock." class="color-link" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/06/warnock-leads-loeffler-in-senate-race-i-am-going-to-the-senate-to-work-for-all-of-georgia/?sh=4d58b1899a9e" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/06/warnock-leads-loeffler-in-senate-race-i-am-going-to-the-senate-to-work-for-all-of-georgia/?sh=4d58b1899a9e" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/06/warnock-leads-loeffler-in-senate-race-i-am-going-to-the-senate-to-work-for-all-of-georgia/?sh=4d58b1899a9e">Loeffler went on to lose to Rev. Raphael Warnock.</a></p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Proving you can have transversal skills, Ogwumike shared that certain lessons from playing basketball can be applied to business. "Shoot your shot and keep shooting! Be prepared and take calculated risks," she stated. "This is especially true the first time I was officially was co-hosting <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">His & Hers </em>and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">First Take</em>. I literally shot my shot without any real experience. I controlled what I could control and prepped as much as possible. And it went awesome!"</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">Paving A New Path and Paying it Forward</span></p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">In 2020, a record <a aria-label="37 women were leading Fortune 500 firms," class="color-link" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/the-number-of-women-running-fortune-500-companies-hits-a-new-high.html" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/the-number-of-women-running-fortune-500-companies-hits-a-new-high.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/the-number-of-women-running-fortune-500-companies-hits-a-new-high.html">37 women were leading Fortune 500 firms,</a> increasing from last year's record high of 33. Of these women, just three are women of color, and none are Black or Latina. Of C-suite leaders today, 21% are women, and only 1% are Black women.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Considering this data, I asked what it was like to break new ground with ESPN and change perceptions of women of color in leadership roles. "I was grateful to be given a mic, knowing how much representation matters to young girls, especially Black girls, who dream of doing the same,” Ogwumike answered. “I frequently say, 'You cannot see what you cannot be;' as I continue to attain success and stand in positions that a black woman has not often filled, I know I'm changing the perception for future generations. But at the same time, it was a huge reminder of how much work we still have to do."</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Adding to the problem is, according to U.S. government data, that the country lost 140,000 jobs last month. Per an analysis by the <a aria-label="National Women's Law Center" class="color-link" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/December-Jobs-Day.pdf" href="https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/December-Jobs-Day.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #003891; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/December-Jobs-Day.pdf">National Women's Law Center</a>, all of them belonged to women. I asked what advice Ogwumike would have for women looking to change their careers, similar to how she changed hers.</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">"We have to create our opportunities for each other because we cannot expect that others will," Ogwumike said. "We have to be our own heroes. We also have to think about hiring differently and be more inclusive. My own team includes diversity from my Black woman business manager, Black woman brand strategist, first-generation Mexican-American assistant, Nigerian American makeup artist, and black hairstylist."</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">Ogwumike also makes sure she finds ways to give back. "In every endorsement contract I sign, I make sure a social advocacy or other give-back components,” she said. “It’s also not just about giving money, but more so about showing up and doing work on the ground.”</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">In 2014, she launched a fundraising competition open to participation by girls' middle and high school basketball teams across the country. The competition raised money for UNICEF programs focusing on girls' education and empowerment, such as the Girls' Education Project, which aims to give 1 million girls in Nigeria access to quality learning, provide scholarships for female teachers and establish safe spaces for girls. And in 2020, she took a trip with her dad, Peter Ogwumike, to Lagos, Nigeria, to help give athletic apparel and basketballs to local schools, working with Adidas and other partners to help facilitate the donated goods. </p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">"My goal is to open up doors for others that look like me to pursue in the future," Ogwumike added. "And create direct opportunities for those who look like me."</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;">As we concluded our conversation, Ogwumike shared some final insight. "I have had to play the long game," she said. "Knowing that we have different challenges in showing our value in a male-dominated industry, I chose 'opportunity' over 'compensation' to get in the door. Crush the job and build more significant relationships and authentic brand partnerships. And now, with more teammates than ever before, I am excited for the future and our collective mission to empower each other now—no more waiting!"</p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><br /></p></div><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-35647646949690671412021-01-22T11:22:00.003-08:002021-01-22T13:56:21.666-08:00Vanessa Nygard (1998) - Insights and Perspectives on Coaching<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;">USA Basketball spoke to Vanessa Nygaard to gain her insight and perspective on coaching .</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></span><span style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dec 2020</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;">Currently
entering her ninth season at Windward (2012-13 to present), Nygaard has led
Windward to a striking 210-40 record during her time there.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CNi1eh_-qTObGxPKiUioJQRNTU4PBfq1iiL2YzkrnoETqCHr1UGM-IKzrT378xqxD5ZXgq2_TYDo9s6CKYg0ARpwSNxbzpCAaQ7Jgn9yi3iRu3-oEA2iQfZMf9Y079ac4qIdPWJHVsGV/s1920/Nygaard+Corner+1920png.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CNi1eh_-qTObGxPKiUioJQRNTU4PBfq1iiL2YzkrnoETqCHr1UGM-IKzrT378xqxD5ZXgq2_TYDo9s6CKYg0ARpwSNxbzpCAaQ7Jgn9yi3iRu3-oEA2iQfZMf9Y079ac4qIdPWJHVsGV/s320/Nygaard+Corner+1920png.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c00000; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">As
you embark on a season over maybe the first month or so, what is the focus
during that time?</span></b></em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
So, there are regular years, but not this year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;">This year is really unique. Our
season actually has been moved to start in March. So, our practices will start
in January or February, and I think there are some things to be addressed, some
trauma that everyone has gone through over the break. I think that is going to
be a really important thing. To get into the season and address that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a regular year, I think what
we would look to accomplish at the start of the season as a coaching staff
would be first to build trust. There will be new players, and there will be
returning players. And so, get them to understand where we’re coming from and
start to really understand them, and to set a tone of: we’re together on a
journey. Here's where we're going, and we need you. This is how we get there,
and this is what I need you to do. Being very clear with them and putting in
that time and investment. That means having individual conversations early in
the year with the players to build that trust. The second thing I think would
be to set some standards for the non-negotiables in our program, which is
things that every coach in America knows – show up with a great attitude, have
a great effort, be a great teammate. If you can't do those things, you have to
go home. And occasionally, a kid does sit out of practice or is sent to the
locker room because they can't do one of those. And you just have to do that
once or twice, and I think that that sends that message. That's important early
on. And then I think, especially as a youth coach and a high school coach,
keeping it fun and interesting, because I want them to get a love of the game.
I want them to want to come to practice, and I want them to love basketball. As
a high school coach, you can really build that passion. You have to think about
how you can make it fun every day and how you can keep it interesting. You
can't just do the same drills. It should be lots of playing. They all play
basketball, because they want to play.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c00000; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">You
mentioned in this year, you will need to address some of the trauma from this
past year or so. How will you begin to try and do that?</span></b></em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
I'm fortunate to work at a school where they continue to educate us about these
traumas and things, and we talk about trauma-informed coaching and trying to
help kids deal with it, and the coaches as well. If you haven't dealt with
things, it's hard to help other people around you. But giving them space to
talk about it and acknowledging that it's there, and not pretending like it's
not there. ‘Oh, wow, this is really hard. How did that affect you?’ And giving
them a chance to say, ‘Hey, if they want to do something together, what can we
do together to address this?’ So, it's really great to be working at a school,
because we do have counselors who are constantly giving us new information.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c00000; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">What's
one of the most important characteristics you work to develop in your athletes?</span></b></em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
You hope that they learn a lot of things that are going to help them in life.
But, I would say number one for us is just toughness. I think sometimes people
get caught up in being competitive, but I really want the players to learn to
be tough, both physically and mentally. And to us, I think it means being resilient
and persistent through whatever adversity and challenges come their way. Those
are controllable in a game of basketball, right? You know, you have the
turnovers, things like that, but a lot of things happen in life that are hard
to control, and so having that toughness to stay optimistic through great
challenge. And what a great opportunity to work on that right now. We get to
work on that every single day we wake up during the pandemic. So really, we
want to cultivate toughness. It goes into every single thing that is important
for our program.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c00000; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">What
are some factors in terms of developing relationships with your athletes?</span></b></em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
It's trust, trust, trust, trust, right? You have to establish that with
everyone in your life, especially your players, and I think I have to earn that
and that's with consistency every single day. I have to come with the things
that I ask of them. I have to be consistently positive, and I have to be clear
about expectations and clear about as a team holding everybody accountable. I can't
let one kid slide, because they're talented or something like that. I have to
make sure that those things are consistent. And then, we really emphasize just
communicating. The more that we communicate, the more that we talk, the better
we'll understand. So, the longer I've been a head coach, the more meetings I
have with the players. And it can be exhausting as a coach, but we need it.
Before the season I meet with the players and their parents, and I meet
individually with the players before the season. I meet with the players like
three different times for a sit-down meeting during the season. The more that
we talk, and they can understand what we need from them, and they can express
their frustrations or their challenges. And also, I think it's important to let
them express who on the team needs support, to help us with the team. So, it's
a constant conversation. The other thing I have developed over time is just
real empathy for them as young people and the challenges they have, and then
just curiosity. I used to be mad if a kid was late. And now, I'm like, I wonder
why that kid was late? I think it's more of an approach. So just having real
curiosity about how I can help them. I keep that in the front of my mind. That
helps me to understand them better and their challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c00000; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">In
your coaching career, is there a most important lesson that has really hit home
for you?</span></b></em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
I was a player, and I love basketball. I love going to basketball practice. And
so I thought, what better job than going to basketball practice? I want to win,
like everyone else, and so I thought I'd be a coach. I thought my job would be
coaching basketball, and I think what I've learned is that my real job is not
coaching basketball. My real job is helping people, and solving problems and leading
with intention. I have to set a tone. I try to keep those ideas in my head –
that my real job is to help people, and my real job is to work on problems,
because everyday problems come. I get to solve them. I don't have to solve
them. I get to solve them, and that I have to lead, and I have to set that tone
constantly. And yeah, that can be exhausting, but that's why you're a coach. I
learned that those things are more important than the basketball things. I say
to my players all the time, ‘if you want to improve the team, improve
yourself,’ and that applies to coaches, too. If you want a better team, you got
to be a better coach. You have to just constantly be bought into the idea of
growth. I have to keep getting better. Oh, and you need to rebound. If you
don't rebound, you'll never win.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; margin: 15pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #002b54; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;"></ul>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-38797140357712101162020-10-20T19:43:00.002-07:002020-10-20T19:43:27.526-07:00Milena Flores - How Basketball Taught me to Deal With Failure<span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">Milena Flores (2000)- How Basketball Taught me to Deal With Failure</span><div><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">CeotoCeo</span><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">Milena Flores was shy growing up, so her parents enrolled her into the first sport available that was basketball, hoping that playing in a team sport would help her overcome being shy. That nudge from her parents grew into a love and passion for basketball that led Milena to Stanford University and the recognition of being an All Conference Pac-10 player in her junior and senior seasons. She continued her basketball career after graduating playing professionally for two seasons in the WNBA and then transitioning to playing in Europe.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">This experience presented a number of challenges and opportunities for Milena to succeed and fail. A commitment to a daily routine and striving for continual improvement in these high-pressure environments helped her develop resiliency and a mindset for success.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">As Milena began to wind down her professional career, the opportunity to enter coaching emerged as a way to continue in the sport she loved and continued her on a path to learn about leadership. Just being a great player did not guarantee you would be a great coach.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">Milena’s determination as a player helped her develop the leadership concepts that lead to a very successful college coaching career where she helped guide Princeton to six Ivy League Titles and 7 NCAA Tournament appearances.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">The lessons learned in coaching are transferrable to business today as being a great sales person does not mean you will be a great sales manager. Milena talks about the insights into being an effective leader that she learned through basketball and how these same principals can be applied to inspire high performance.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">As the first person in her family to go to college Milena is passionate about teaching young people how to become resilient and fulfill their dreams. Today, Milena focuses her efforts on counseling students how achieve success academically and chart a path to fulfill the goal of going to college.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;">Watch this inspirational interview with Milena Flores on how sports and coaching successes and failures provided life lessons to become resilient.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HSbY_dky6A" width="320" youtube-src-id="3HSbY_dky6A"></iframe></div><br /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></p></div></div>mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-91784268841104896772020-07-20T19:13:00.001-07:002020-07-28T18:07:45.294-07:00<h1 style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1; margin: 25px 0px 12.5px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Kristen Newlin Vatansever shares the balance of motherhood and pro basketball overseas</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">by Jenn Hatfield, High Post Hoops</span></div>
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Last October, four-time WNBA All-Star <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/players/d/diggisk01w.html?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-" ref="nofollow" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Skylar Diggins-Smith</a> publicly <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/27882225/skylar-diggins-smith-says-played-2018-pregnant-expresses-lack-team-support" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">criticized</a> her team, the Dallas Wings, for what she called “limited resources to help me be successful mentally/physically” during her pregnancy and after her son was born in April 2019.</div>
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“Having no support from your own organization is unfortunate,” she tweeted. “… I played the ENTIRE season pregnant [in 2018]! All star, and led league (top 3-5) in [minutes per game]….didn’t tell a soul.”</div>
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The Wings <a href="https://theathletic.com/1366269/2019/11/11/unpacking-the-tension-between-skylar-diggins-smith-and-the-wings-and-what-her-wnba-future-might-hold/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">disputed</a> Diggins-Smith’s allegations, noting that they had paid her full salary and reserved a roster spot for her in 2019 even though the league’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) at the time did not require either. (The league recently announced <a href="https://highposthoops.com/2020/01/14/money-travel-and-other-highlights-in-the-wnbas-new-cba/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">a new CBA</a> that requires teams to pay players their full salary while they are on pregnancy leave.)</div>
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Halfway around the world, Kristen Newlin Vatansever could relate to Diggins-Smith’s sentiments. “I can certainly understand that,” she told High Post Hoops from Turkey, where she is currently playing. “… [Teams] say they care about the player, but if a player can’t produce on the court, their attitudes change very quickly. … It’s unfortunate because [pregnancy can be] the happiest moment in a player’s life, but we don’t get that reciprocation from what’s supposed to be our family in our teammates and coaches and [general managers].”</div>
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Newlin Vatansever, 34, has played in Turkey since she graduated from Stanford in 2008, including on the Turkish national team for several years as a naturalized citizen. She met and married her husband, Chicago Sky assistant coach Emre Vatansever, while she was playing and he was coaching in Turkey. In November 2018, she gave birth to twins, and thirteen months later, she returned to the court to play for Elazig Il Ozel Idare in the Turkish Women’s Basketball Super League (KBSL).</div>
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Like many couples in professional sports, Newlin Vatansever and her husband had debated when would be the best time to have children, taking into account her basketball career and their schedules, which send the family to Turkey in the winters and Chicago in the summers. She wanted to play professionally for a few more years, and the decision came down to having kids relatively quickly or waiting until retirement. Newlin Vatansever explained her thinking at the time: “Now’s the time where I can try to have a kid and still feel like I’m young enough to come back and play a few more years. If I waited, even a year or two, I would probably feel like I was too old to try to come back.” The couple decided to try to get pregnant at the end of her season in the spring of 2018, and if it did not work out, she would play another season starting in the fall.</div>
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It did work out—“Times two!” Newlin Vatansever said—but Newlin Vatansever had few models for how her career would be affected once she got pregnant. “I know very few teammates [who had children during their playing careers],” she said. “I honestly can think of two at the moment. And one of them was [pregnant] before they were my teammate.” However, those players’ comebacks gave Newlin Vatansever hope that she could follow their paths. “They came back and they were very good still,” she said, “and they were able to have the family and still play and still kind of have it all. So I did have a few examples of that and that’s kind of what we were hoping for.”</div>
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Newlin Vatansever’s pregnancy differed sharply from Diggins-Smith’s in that Newlin Vatansever was a free agent at the time. She had finished a one-year contract with Botaş in April 2018 and did not sign a contract for the 2018-19 season after she became pregnant. In the KBSL, there are no maternity leave policies in players’ contracts; pregnant players are typically cut from their teams (and not paid for any remaining games) when they are too far along to continue playing. “Teams started to put [a severance clause] in [my contract] once I got married,” Newlin Vatansever said. “… Before I was married, there was nothing in there about pregnancy.” She added that if she had gotten pregnant before there was relevant language in her contract, her agent and her team would likely have negotiated the same separation from the team.</div>
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In Newlin Vatansever’s experience, most European teams operate similarly to KBSL teams, and very few players have children during their playing careers in Europe. In her estimation, teams’ views on pregnancy differ from how they regard a player who is similarly unable to play due to injury: “They feel like [injury is] unavoidable, but they feel like [a pregnant] player chose to put themselves in this situation where they’re taken off the court.” One of Newlin Vatansever’s teammates got pregnant a few years ago, and she recalled that when the coach told the players the news, “he just said it as a matter of fact. He didn’t smile and say congratulations; he just said, ‘This player’s leaving.’”</div>
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By her own admission, Newlin Vatansever’s pregnancy and comeback were more difficult than she had expected. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, without a doubt,” she said. Having twins made her pregnancy more high-risk than a single birth, and she said that she was limited to “floating in a pool” for the last few months and lost a lot of strength. The delivery was also difficult enough that it took several months for her to recover. After she began training again, “I was so sleep deprived and exhausted … [that] I had to adjust to a new way of training, which was training without energy,” she explained. “… It was definitely notwhat I envisioned [for] me trying to get back … it took a while longer than I wanted for me to get in shape enough to play.”</div>
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The process of finding another Turkish team to play for was also more difficult than she had anticipated, despite her track record of performance in Turkey and the added value she has as a Turkish citizen in a league that limits the number of Americans per team. Many teams were surprised that Newlin Vatansever wanted to play again after having children, and they viewed signing her as a risk. “For some reason, they just weren’t convinced that someone can come back from a twin pregnancy and be able to contribute the way I used to,” she said. Turkey’s economic crisis, which devalued the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar and the euro, also shrunk teams’ budgets—and risk tolerance—significantly because many players are paid in dollars or euros. Vatansever spoke to several coaches in the league on his wife’s behalf, and the couple sent teams videos of her workouts and data on her weight to demonstrate that she was in shape. “Finally we landed on a team that … we convinced enough,” Newlin Vatansever said. “… We feel fortunate that we were able to get [a contract], but we also feel that I was deserving of it because I am back [to] where I was pre-pregnancy.”</div>
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Newlin Vatansever has taken a pay cut this season, which she ascribed partly to the financial crisis and partly to her pregnancy. “Pretty much every player” in the league has taken a small pay cut, she said, but even without the crisis, she believed she would have had to take a pay cut because of the perceived risk of signing her. In 2017, then-33-year-old <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/players/b/bassmi01w.html?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-" ref="nofollow" rel="nofollow noopener" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;" target="_blank">Mistie Bass</a> made <a href="https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/19367118/wnba-moms-getting-more-help-ever-face-challenges" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">similar comments</a> to ESPN about the difficulty of convincing overseas teams to sign her.</div>
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After all the work Newlin Vatansever and her husband put in to get back in shape and find a team, they soaked up her return to competition. “It was kind of emotional just because my husband and I are the only ones that knew exactly what I had to come back from,” she explained. “… No matter what happens from here on out, the fact that I could get back in shape enough to play again was just kind of spectacular for both of us.” She is still learning how to balance motherhood and a professional basketball career, trading naps between practices for activities with her twins, but she told High Post Hoops that continuing her career “with my kids by my side … [is] just an awesome feeling.”</div>
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Newlin Vatansever believes that pregnancy is not talked about enough in women’s sports and was eager to be interviewed for this story. “Even when Serena Williams, the best athlete in the world, [was pregnant,] it was just still kind of [a] taboo subject almost,” she pointed out. She added that, with some athletes continuing to play into their 40s, it is not always possible for female athletes to wait until retirement to start a family.</div>
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The WNBA’s new CBA makes progress on this front, <a href="https://highposthoops.com/2020/01/25/wnba-collective-bargaining-agreement-actually-says/" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">providing</a> pregnancy and childcare benefits as well as family planning benefits such as adoption, surrogacy, and fertility/infertility treatments. Specifically, it <a href="https://wnbpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/WNBA-WNBPA-CBA-2020-2027.pdf" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #8162a2; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s;">guarantees</a> a pregnant player who is under contract with a WNBA team “one hundred percent (100%) of [her] Base Salary … for the shorter of: (i) the duration of her inability to perform services as a result of her pregnancy; or (ii) the remaining term of her Standard Player Contract.” A player whose contract ends or is terminated during pregnancy will “continue to receive the medical benefits provided for … until the later of the end of the Season in which such Contract was terminated or three months after the birth of her child.”</div>
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Although these provisions do not directly affect Newlin Vatansever, she called them “a crucial step forward” for the WNBA. “The world’s best league should reflect that in pay and treatment,” she said, and the maternity leave and childcare provisions put the WNBA “at the forefront of providing paid leave and support to its players and their families.” She added, “I think the extra stipend to cover egg freezing, surrogacy, and adoption is commendable. This small part in the CBA is a long time coming and should greatly benefit players and their families.”</div>
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Hopefully, other women’s sports leagues domestically and internationally will follow the WNBA’s lead, allowing women like Newlin Vatansever who decide to have children during their playing careers to have job security, benefits, and support from their teams. Newlin Vatansever’s efforts to return to play are laudable, but the lengths she had to go to convince teams that she—an established player in Turkey at the time—was able to perform indicate that there is significant room for improvement.</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-54040491104232704842020-07-08T15:13:00.000-07:002020-07-08T15:16:53.269-07:00Jennifer Azzi after basketball<h1 class="header-title" itemprop="headline" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-stroke: 0.45px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #222222; font-family: "Tiempos Headline Light", "system serif"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; font-weight: 300; grid-column: 1 / 2; grid-row-start: 2; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 1.23; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After basketball, Jennifer Azzi has career and family at 51</span></h1>
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What’s an extremely rewarding pastime while sheltering at home during a pandemic?Growing tomatoes is a good one. So is cuddling a newborn.</div>
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Jennifer Azzi and her wife, Blair Hardiek, are doing both, though one is decidedly far more profound and important than the budding Brandywines in the newly planted garden below their Mill Valley home.</div>
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Camden Therese Hardiek Azzi was born on the afternoon of April 24, joining 3-year-old brother Macklin in the Hardiek Azzi family. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, it has been a perfect time to relish family bonding.</div>
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“COVID has almost been like a rebirth for us,” Hardiek said, “spending all this time together.”</div>
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It has been that way for many new or growing families. And while bringing a new baby into a world full of uncertainty and anxiety has its challenges, this crisis has also brought a dramatic reassessing of what is truly important in life. And, for most, family has come out on top.</div>
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Azzi, the former Stanford star and University of San Francisco basketball coach, is now associate vice president of development at USF. Hardiek is a global technical director for the NBA Academy women’s program, developing talent around the world and helping young women from other countries land at Division I schools. Between their two jobs, the couple is almost always on the go, traveling the world. But not now. “This is the longest stretch we’ve been without being on a plane that I can remember,” Azzi said.</div>
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Both were busy working from home during the late weeks of Hardiek’s pregnancy, and they brought their work along to Marin General in case labor took a long time. It didn’t. Hardiek, 35, was surprised to see her contractions coming so close together and let the nurses know the baby was on her way. Camden arrived shortly after.</div>
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Azzi and Hardiek have been married for five years. Macklin, a whirling cyclone of boy energy who enlists every visitor to shoot hoops or help repair his toy tractor, was born in February 2017. He’s a proud big brother to “Baby Sister.” He’s so excited that he can barely contain himself,” Hardiek said.</div>
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For many Bay Area sports fans, Azzi will always be the young girl from Tennessee who helped lead Stanford to its first NCAA title, but she is now 51. No one blinks an eye when men become parents in their 50s, but it is definitely more unusual for women.</div>
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“I don’t really think about it,” Azzi said. “But my athletic career was so long — not that time froze but I played professionally for 13 years. I wasn’t doing things that my peers outside of athletics were doing. Once I was out of the athletic world, I started thinking more about career and family.</div>
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“Also, my late start is being with the right person.”</div>
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Azzi made news in 2016 when, while introducing Warriors president Rick Welts for an Anti-Defamation League award, she announced that she was married to Hardiek. “You just get to the point where it’s so stupid to not be honest,” she said at the time. Still, the news was groundbreaking, coming months after the Supreme Court upheld the legality of same-sex marriage and making Azzi the only “out” Division I coach at the time. (She stepped down from coaching in September of 2016.)</div>
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She now works on developing community relationships for USF. One of her main involvements is the Silk Speaker Series. She has interviewed Steve Kerr and Billie Jean King, among others. Recently, she moderated a Juneteenth online discussion between <a data-id="23" data-m="{"i":23,"p":9,"n":"partnerLink","y":24,"o":5}" href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Steph-Curry-and-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-s-speech-15353531.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #126d91; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Stephen Curry and Clarence Jones,</a> the director of USF’s Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice. She and Curry swapped stories about taking their children to Black Lives Matter protests and important lessons for a new generation. </div>
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She and Hardiek also run Azzi basketball camps. Because of the coronavirus, they have held just one camp in Sausalito this summer, limited to small groups, following strict COVID-19 protocols with much of the action taking place on outdoor courts.</div>
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Azzi enjoys seeing parents dropping off their kids and their family interactions at pickup, just as she enjoys getting out of the car with Hardiek, Macklin and Camden in a stroller, ready for a day on the courts. “Our little entourage,” she said. “I’m just glad life didn’t pass me by.”</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-9640377195780973212020-04-27T13:36:00.002-07:002020-04-27T13:36:35.170-07:00Nneka interview - Trevor Noah show; Alanna talks Olympic potponement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Nneka Ogumike: Excellence and Equity</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TnsSlNoy22an_Ny22lbWxJpJVTUkpX7s3Ekn2wUtQ5px6oxnrRYwrEjDwrs376peXzMZtkihco0PknuiILU4OWsZMb-SaCVFX0_io4D7LqWsMLFHEJtj3QEQZc_8JZllJUAN7Wa3baL8/s1600/alanna+korea+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="649" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1TnsSlNoy22an_Ny22lbWxJpJVTUkpX7s3Ekn2wUtQ5px6oxnrRYwrEjDwrs376peXzMZtkihco0PknuiILU4OWsZMb-SaCVFX0_io4D7LqWsMLFHEJtj3QEQZc_8JZllJUAN7Wa3baL8/s320/alanna+korea+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1.2em; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">I think in Australia, because we're pretty isolated from the rest of the world, we were at little behind. We were watching as China and Italy started to report a lot of cases and go into lockdown. And then you guys in the US started to experience a surge. I think that prompted Australia to realize that we needed to make some moves, especially as cases started to pop up. Because there’s not enough materials to test it, we’re making estimates as to how many people have it. You just don’t know, but you know it’s a lot. Nowhere near the same amount as other places, but we’re still actively trying to stop the spread. Social distancing is in effect, and only essential businesses are open. We’re being encouraged to stay indoors. And all of that happened quite fast, maybe in just the past week or two. </span></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">And at what point did you realize the Olympics might be postponed?</strong></div>
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Once travel bans were being put in place, and people were being discouraged from travelling. That was when I thought, Okay, this is an issue. Not just for basketball but for other sports as well, because people need to travel to qualifiers and such. And then just thinking about sports in general, so many of them involve contact. You’re in close proximity with others, which is super high-risk. So yeah, I had doubts early on to be honest, just thinking about the health and the safety of all the athletes as well as the fans. It didn't seem plausible that they could pull it off.
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What did you think of Australia's decision to opt out prior to the official postponement? How did you think the committee handled everything? </strong></div>
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It was the right decision, just in terms of the health and safety of everyone. And I think the Australian Olympic Committee did a really good job of keeping us in the loop. They were sending out emails two to three times a week, telling us where to go for support and such. We weren’t left in the dark. We had a pretty good idea of what was going on. So overall I think they did their best in terms of the situation at hand. Obviously, right now everyone has to take it day by day, week by week. </div>
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But I also know that it was a really, really hard decision to make. You have athletes whose whole lives were dedicated to going to these Olympics. They worked year after year for this moment to be on the world stage, and then to just have it pulled out from under them is really tough. But thankfully, the games aren’t cancelled. They’re still happening, just at a different date.
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What did you think of Australia's decision to opt out prior to the official postponement? How did you think the committee handled everything? </strong></div>
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It was the right decision, just in terms of the health and safety of everyone. And I think the Australian Olympic Committee did a really good job of keeping us in the loop. They were sending out emails two to three times a week, telling us where to go for support and such. We weren’t left in the dark. We had a pretty good idea of what was going on. So overall I think they did their best in terms of the situation at hand. Obviously, right now everyone has to take it day by day, week by week. </div>
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But I also know that it was a really, really hard decision to make. You have athletes whose whole lives were dedicated to going to these Olympics. They worked year after year for this moment to be on the world stage, and then to just have it pulled out from under them is really tough. But thankfully, the games aren’t cancelled. They’re still happening, just at a different date.
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">And how has all of this affected you personally?</strong></div>
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I mean, I don't have a job. I'm out of work. I play a sport for a living, and it's not possible to do that right now. So like many people, I don’t have any income. And because all the gyms are closed, I can't go and work out, I can't lift, I can't go to a basketball court, I can't shoot. I’ve been left to my own devices, and I have to get creative about working out at home. It hasn’t been that bad, to be honest. There's some fun ways to work out at home. I've got a little bit of equipment, so I'm lucky that I can at least do some typical stuff. It’s really more about staying active, so I’ve been trying to figure out ways to do that while also staying inside. </div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Your teammate, Liz Cambage, was in China in December, where she fell ill with what seems like </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-EPyMhJKTy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to right, currentColor 0%, currentColor 0px); background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0px; background-position-y: 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 0px 0px; color: #60109e; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: underline; white-space: initial;"><span style="overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: underline;"><strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">a bad case of COVID-19</strong></span></a><strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">. You all played together afterwards. What was that like? </strong></div>
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When she was telling us about this sickness, we didn't know what it was. And she was 100% fine when we saw her in France. She was fully healthy, she'd gotten the okay from doctors and everything, so we were confident that she was healthy and we were all going to be okay. We didn't really know the full extent of the illness until after France, and then we were like, "Shit." But no Opals have been confirmed positive since, so I think we’re okay. It was a real case of ignorance is bliss, because if we knew then what we know now, there’d have been a lot more stress.
<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Even though you saw postponement coming, I imagine the uncertainty was tough to deal with. Do you feel like you’re going through it all again with the WNBA now? </strong></div>
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It was tough, because you put a lot of emotional energy into preparing for something like the Olympics. Plus it was just so close. And personally, I’m recovering from injury, so I’m rehabbing now and was trying to get my body right for the next few months in order to get back to my peak when the games started. Now I’m aiming for the WNBA season, but that’s up in the air as well. We haven’t been told whether it’s going to go ahead or if it’s going to be delayed. </div>
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You’re in this limbo, honestly, because you’re trying to prepare for the season physically, but you’re also trying to prepare yourself mentally for the chance that it’s either cancelled or delayed. It does mess with your emotions. You have to be pretty tough and just get on with it. Because this stuff is going to happen, and whether you like it or not, you just have to deal with it.
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">And unlike the NBA, you fly coach in the WNBA, which means even if you were playing games without fans, you’d still be exposed to crowds on a regular basis if the season went on. </strong></div>
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Exactly. We’d only have so much control over the environment. We wouldn’t really have the luxury of guaranteed safety, so it’s a whole different thought process behind the WNBA’s decision. We just have to wait and see. </div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What communications have you received from the WNBA regarding a potential delay?</strong></div>
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We receive a lot of emails from the Players’ Associations. Just check-ins, making sure we’re safe, and that if we need anything or have to travel at all, they’re aware of it. They did a really good job of getting people back to their home country who needed to go. It’s similar to what we experienced with the Olympic Committee as well. We get updates pretty often about what’s going on and where people’s thoughts are. But we’re all pretty much waiting week-to-week to see how the situation progresses and to see if the season can still go ahead.
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">What communications have you received from the WNBA regarding a potential delay?</strong></div>
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We receive a lot of emails from the Players’ Associations. Just check-ins, making sure we’re safe, and that if we need anything or have to travel at all, they’re aware of it. They did a really good job of getting people back to their home country who needed to go. It’s similar to what we experienced with the Olympic Committee as well. We get updates pretty often about what’s going on and where people’s thoughts are. But we’re all pretty much waiting week-to-week to see how the situation progresses and to see if the season can still go ahead. </div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In the meantime, are you just going to train as though it’s starting on the intended day? </strong></div>
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At the moment, yes. But like I said, I'm still not sure what decision is going to be made in terms of that. I mean, you look at the NBA, and nobody knows if it’s going to be delayed or if they’ll have to cancel. So I’m just trying to keep fit, and keep relatively active in the hopes that it will go ahead. But you have to be prepared for every outcome, whether you like it or not. </div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-75120692191757550882020-03-13T16:12:00.000-07:002020-03-13T16:15:13.087-07:00Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike helped win the fight for improved terms in US basketball<h1 class="e-headline u-heading-1" data-test="headline" itemprop="headline" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: Austin News Deck Semibold,Georgia,Times,serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.17; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 24px 0px 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The basketball sister act that secured breakthrough women’s deal
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Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike helped win the fight for improved terms in US basketball</b>
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by Molly McElwee<br />
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Sat in the front row of the Good Morning America audience, Chiney Ogwumike was beaming as her sister Nneka took to the stage. Alongside Cathy Engelbert, the Women’s NBA commissioner, and broadcast live to millions across the United States, on Jan 14 Nneka had the pleasure of announcing new league-wide contracts that will change the WNBA, and arguably women’s sport, forever.</div>
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But behind the Ogwumikes’ wide smiles is a steely determination and 18 months of work. Nneka and Chiney, who play for the Los Angeles Sparks, were paramount in securing a monumental <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/basketball/2020/01/14/womens-national-basketball-association-announces-historic-deal/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; color: #04777b; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;">new collective bargaining agreement</a> in their roles as president and vice-president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA). While the sisters understand they were “literally writing history” as Nneka puts it, they are keen to add the caveat that this is merely a starting point.</div>
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“People were calling this agreement ground-breaking, and as I heard it more and more I realised it wasn’t ground-breaking, but ground-establishing,” Chiney says, emphasising the last word.</div>
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Some terms are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/basketball/2019/10/22/us-basketballs-women-players-missing-mental-health-fight/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: inherit; color: #04777b; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;">basic employees’ rights</a>, including better travel conditions and full maternity pay. Others are more innovative and impressive, such as compensation of up to $60,000 (£47,000) in adoption, surrogacy and fertility treatment for veteran players – not to mention improved salaries.</div>
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When they opted out of their previous agreement in September 2018, Nneka said they were “not asking for LeBron money” or equal pay yet. But the total salary of all 144 WNBA players was barely a third of the $37 million NBA superstar LeBron James makes alone. To that end, they wangled a WNBA salary cap increase of 30 per cent. On average players will now earn $130,000 in cash compensation, and up to $500,000. The hope is this new financial incentive will lessen the pressure on players to compete in foreign leagues during the off-season. Overseas teams have previously offered up to 10 times WNBA salaries, which attracted the majority of players to compete all year, risking injury and fatigue.</div>
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“Though you learn a lot about yourself, after five years you’re like, ‘I can’t do this forever’,” Nneka, who has played in Poland and Russia, says. “Players do this, not always because they want to, but because it’s the best financial security,” Chiney, who instead now works as an ESPN pundit in the off-season, says. “It’s not sustainable, we had to start getting real about what players’ experiences were.”</div>
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The Ogwumikes speak with an eloquence and clarity that makes it unsurprising they played a big part in this deal. They are no ordinary sporting siblings: they played college basketball at Stanford University together, both were the No 1 pick at the WNBA draft and both won Rookie of the Year in their first seasons. Chiney, 27, is a two-time All Star; Nneka, 29, a six-time All Star and she was 2016’s Most Valuable Player when she won the league with the Sparks.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "austin news text roman" , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.55; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">They were reunited on the same team in Los Angeles last season and, as on the court, you can imagine them tag-teaming at the negotiating table. Nneka is more softly spoken, but straight-talking; Chiney bounds into our conference call with attention-grabbing energy. A trait they say they share though, is their “relentlessness”, which they picked up during their Texas childhood, as two of four sisters born to Nigerian immigrants. Chiney says their father taught them the importance of male allies, among whom they they counted former LA Laker Kobe Bryant. “Our father was our No 1 example of a male ally. I think similarly in women’s basketball we were just coming to know and appreciate our greatest male ally of all time, and that was Kobe.”</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></div>
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Like their father, Bryant had four daughters, and his advocacy and mentorship for future and current WNBA stars has been celebrated in the wake of his death in January. The five-time NBA champion often sat courtside at games with 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who also aspired to play professionally but perished in the same helicopter accident as her father, along with seven others.</div>
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“It hit very deeply for the WNBA because we knew what people are right now only just realising – his relationship with his daughters and his impact for women in sports,” Nneka adds.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "austin news text roman" , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.55; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Ogwumikes are keen to credit the rest of the WNBPA executive committee and every player in the league for advancing the game. “Strength in numbers is a real thing, we got all the players [involved],” Nneka says. “It taught me that, if you don’t pull up your seat to the table, you will never know what’s possible.” </span></div>
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Chiney agrees: “As sisters we were never competitive but always collaborative, and I think female athletes are a great example of this. We’re now being collaborative to completely shake the system, whether US women’s soccer, basketball or gymnastics.” Nneka adds: “Because we all need to hit the finish line, it doesn’t matter who gets there first. What matters is that whoever’s in front keeps running and fighting for what we deserve. Because once we stop, that’s what the world will perceive as how far we can go.” </div>
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The new contracts will run until 2027, so the Ogwumikes can focus on basketball until then, beginning with the start of the WNBA season in May and a potential Olympic debut for Nneka with the US.</div>
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After an hour of chat about women’s sport, the sisters exhale in unison, almost relieved, when I ask how happy they are to return exclusively to on-court duties. “That’s a question you know the answer to,” Nneka laughs.</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-39689518822383135942020-02-20T14:40:00.002-08:002020-02-20T14:40:28.962-08:00Martha Richards ('91)<div class="STND-STND BodyText DropCap" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #221e20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Martha Richards ('91) Aspen High Athletic Director</span></div>
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Martha Richards didn’t have to go far to find a qualified coach for the Aspen High School girls golf team this spring. A former LPGA pro and collegiate coach, the current AHS athletic director felt confident she could juggle both roles and step in to lead the Skiers on the golf course.</div>
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“It’s not an unusual thing to have an AD coach,” Richards said, “and I think girls golf is one of the sports that will probably have the least impact in terms of my ability to be available for all the other sports too.”</div>
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Richards takes over for Don Buchholz, a certified PGA professional who recently moved to Florida after a long stint in the Aspen area. On top of being the head girls coach, Buchholz had been an assistant for the boys, including this past fall when they won their first state championship.</div>
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For Richards, getting back to her roots as a coach was an exciting prospect.</div>
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“It will be really energizing to get back into coaching. That is definitely something I miss a little bit, working with kids a little bit more,” Richards said. “My goal for this is we have a lot of fun doing it and they learn how to stretch themselves and that they get better.”</div>
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From a resume standpoint, Richards wasn’t going to find anyone much better. A Wisconsin native, Richards went to Stanford to play basketball, where she helped the Cardinal win a national championship. She then transitioned over to golf, where she was named an all-American before a brief stint on the LPGA Tour.</div>
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Richards jumped head first into coaching when she took over the Boise State program in 1998. She was only there a year before becoming an assistant, a rare position in women’s golf, at the University of Texas. In 2000, she became the head coach at Vanderbilt, where she rebuilt the program. She was twice named SEC coach of the year and was the 2004 Golfweek national coach of the year.</div>
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Richards returned to Texas as the head coach in 2007, where she remained before stepping away from coaching in 2014. After that, she helped start a golf software company called BirdieFire before becoming the AHS athletic director ahead of the 2017-18 school year.</div>
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“There will be a big difference. I was coaching kids who were all-Americans and going on the LPGA Tour,” Richards said of transitioning to coaching high schoolers. “Part of my job as a coach is to grow the game of golf, and especially on the women’s side of things. We want to help them improve their skills and want to make sure they really like golf.”</div>
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Girls golf has always been a challenge in the mountains. The team usually only gets to swing a club on a real course during competitions, which are held predominantly near Grand Junction this early in the spring. Otherwise, the team spends most of its time training indoors or at the Aspen Golf Club simulator until the snow melts closer to home.</div>
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This will provide a hurdle or two, but Richards feels her background coaching high-level players will help in finding creative ways to overcome a lack of course time.</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-46600895146500435852020-01-21T15:45:00.000-08:002020-01-21T15:45:04.051-08:00Kiran Lakhian, 2016<br />
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">HEY THERE, I'M KIRAN!</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kiran Lakhian ('16) played
basketball as a freshman walk-on at Stanford in 2012-13, left the program for
two years, then returned in 2015-16 her senior year. She was to play basketball
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at SMU as a graduate transfer, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but had a season ending knee injury prior to
the 1<sup>st</sup> game.</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gtPeQXLlwIc0kLHdZ-hXul1o7m_XG3OUa-3EO5e3JEypg0cYAkxEU3gKvIK6TYA_etCmJvjRWMXzXagmzSR05Ry8nKGxwoE_x701Gvn_elyqAGLLLh8-mRb5xNodTZGAgBxL__vkcyL_/s1600/kiran+l+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="293" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gtPeQXLlwIc0kLHdZ-hXul1o7m_XG3OUa-3EO5e3JEypg0cYAkxEU3gKvIK6TYA_etCmJvjRWMXzXagmzSR05Ry8nKGxwoE_x701Gvn_elyqAGLLLh8-mRb5xNodTZGAgBxL__vkcyL_/s200/kiran+l+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">I recently graduated from SMU with a Master's in Design and
Innovation. I chose to focus on Human-Centered Design (HCD) because it
is a great problem-solving framework for navigating complex social-impact problems. By maintaining a
focus on the <i>human</i>, HCD gets to the heart of underlying
issues, promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration, and
sparks innovative solutions through creative thinking. My goal is to one
day combine my design skills with my passion for health equity and
re-design the healthcare system.</span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">Aside from design, I am an aspiring avid hiker, mediocre yogi,
extreme-weather enthusiast, and enjoy trying new activities! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">MY
PROCESS</span></b></h2>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; padding: 0in;">Human-Centered Design</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">UNDERSTAND</span></b></h3>
<div style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">The HCD process I use begins by
defining the question and building context. Initially, I ground
myself in a preliminary phase of secondary research before going into the field
for primary research. With the goal of understanding the user's deepest needs,
empathy is a central component of this stage. Methods I've used include field
immersion, analogous inspiration, in-depth interviews, card sort, artifact
analysis, AEIOU observation, journey </span><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">mapping, and surveys.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
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<br />
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">IDEATE</span></b></h3>
<div style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">Based on the information
collected, I pull themes and insights (through affinity
diagramming) and identify opportunities for design. From here, I
move to brainstorming possible solutions using a number of creative frameworks.</span></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">
<h3 style="line-height: 16.9pt; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">PROTOTYPE</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h3>
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</div>
<div style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">Following ideation, things
begin to come to life. The goal is to make quick,
low-budget prototypes (ranging from tangible "things" to
experiences) in order to test hypotheses as I narrow
in on design solutions. This is an iterative process. My prototyping
experience has involved power tools, laser cutter, Rhino 3D
printing software, InDesign, Illustrator, and hosting experiences.</span><br />
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">SHARE</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h3>
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</div>
<div style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">After all is said and done,
sharing the learnings is just as important as the process of learning
itself. Effective communication involves understanding the
audience, compelling storytelling, visual cues, and clear and
organized sense-making.</span></div>
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<b><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt; padding: 0in; text-transform: uppercase;">PROJECTS</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"></span></h2>
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</div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">As part of my Master's of
Arts in Design and Innovation (MADI) program, I took two semester-long,
project-based “Studio” classes. Each semester, students were grouped
and assigned a client whom the students work alongside-with the goal
of applying Human-Centered Design to deliver design recommendations.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in;">THE HAROLD SIMMONS PARK</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h3>
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</div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">The Fall 2018 MADI Studio client
was the Trinity Park Conservancy — a non-profit with plans to build a large
urban park in Dallas. Our team set out to answer the question: “How might we
create opportunities for connection between West Dallas and the Harold Simmons
Park?”</span><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">This problem was particularly
"wicked" because the goal was to promote connection between a
place that does not yet exist and a longstanding,
historically-neglected community facing gentrification. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiophKv1OnXMOwbe0qcrnl9xQDsZPniwpTYyzlWDl4hHB0ySNGjiGZxNkJCNxpyheh2YHmGT9snx35H-jWjbeeshL1J3GYKoA0vJrK7h1SPwRTwbT9j-7vD73Jd8z2XVyPgVxsa99kEE7zr/s1600/harold+simmons+park2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiophKv1OnXMOwbe0qcrnl9xQDsZPniwpTYyzlWDl4hHB0ySNGjiGZxNkJCNxpyheh2YHmGT9snx35H-jWjbeeshL1J3GYKoA0vJrK7h1SPwRTwbT9j-7vD73Jd8z2XVyPgVxsa99kEE7zr/s320/harold+simmons+park2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; padding: 0in;">THE FOREST THEATER</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h3>
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</div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">The Spring 2019 MADI Studio
client was CitySquare, a non-profit with plans to rebuild the Forest Theater in
South Dallas. Our team set out to answer the question: “How might we make the
Forest Theater an asset to the community and to the city of Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex?”</span><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">This project was about more
than just renovating a theater. The Forest Theater was once the heart of a
bumping, thriving African American community. Now deemed a historic landmark,
much sits at stake with hopes that this project serve as a beacon of hope for
the surrounding community. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvqoikTHdJ7czGACzEtvVI8OUHrTwVAtWFowQAl1HlhVc5GOINKbMPRPx413A4YlNeNh20__4XCSkPYZIfrwdPGhJpec7IfyVDPyvHqI23Z-p6AI-R0DNozW0oUUKVtF9_rk1d26picBc/s1600/forest+theatre+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="375" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLvqoikTHdJ7czGACzEtvVI8OUHrTwVAtWFowQAl1HlhVc5GOINKbMPRPx413A4YlNeNh20__4XCSkPYZIfrwdPGhJpec7IfyVDPyvHqI23Z-p6AI-R0DNozW0oUUKVtF9_rk1d26picBc/s320/forest+theatre+2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 22.45pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
Forest Theatre 1950s</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-45343814496683879042019-12-09T12:39:00.001-08:002019-12-09T13:06:25.621-08:00Amy Brooks ('96) - Leading NBA's Innovation Push<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span style="color: #0a1529; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">Agent
of Change: Amy Brooks (’96) Is Leading the NBA's Innovation Push</span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #0a1529; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">The NBA has become
known as the league most willing to innovate—and top exec Amy Brooks is leading
the charge.<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"> Jamie Lisanti, NBA, Nov 2019</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">If the NFL has developed a
reputation for stodgy traditionalism, the NBA has done the exact opposite,
innovating—and yes, Tweeting, 'gramming and TikToking—its way to status as the
fast-changing league of the future. Chief innovation officer Amy Brooks' job is
to lead that push, whether that means changing the shot clock, tweaking the
playoff format or, yes, finding new ways to make the NBA and its partners even
more money.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">"If you're watching a
game and you see a player's shoe, why can't you put up your phone and scan a QR
code and buy that sneaker instantly?" says Brooks, 45, whose title also
includes president of team marketing and business operations.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiQn69kt352o5APe-gHowhyPXuJ707ynWIyYy2YKlYBIZuUP4iHg3KjnqiKRLKItlHIGJEYTJxA_yTpDyiGcZJXcG4wI-EBlZ0ubNJbCRqwsHMzNO8iuHLRNSvUQ78w3meOi8XothHSxT/s1600/Amy-Brooks-with-NBA-Legend-Kobe-Bryant-1024x741.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="1024" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiQn69kt352o5APe-gHowhyPXuJ707ynWIyYy2YKlYBIZuUP4iHg3KjnqiKRLKItlHIGJEYTJxA_yTpDyiGcZJXcG4wI-EBlZ0ubNJbCRqwsHMzNO8iuHLRNSvUQ78w3meOi8XothHSxT/s320/Amy-Brooks-with-NBA-Legend-Kobe-Bryant-1024x741.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Amy Brooks with Kobe Bryant</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">Her job has two parts:
advising teams on ways to innovate and then driving change at the league level.
As for part one, she leads an internal consulting group of about 40 people that
helps the 93 teams of the NBA, WNBA, G-League and the e-sports NBA 2K League
pump up revenue and popularity and develop new ideas. When the former Stanford
guard (and Stanford M.B.A.) was promoted to the job in 2017, after 12 years of
working in the league office, one of her first tasks was to spearhead the
league's new jersey patch ad program.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">That particular innovation may have been
better loved by owners than fans, but Brooks says that to do her job right, she
has to serve the league's faithful first: "Growing the business starts
with our buildings being full, but it's also about how we deliver the game to
our fans globally, because only 1% of our fans will ever attend a live game.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Which brings up the second part of her job:
leading a 10-person, league-focused global strategy and innovation group. The
NBA's embrace of, in Brooks' words, its young, diverse and global fan base has
allowed her to tinker with tradition and explore novel approaches—as opposed
to, say, the NFL, which has limited appeal beyond the U.S. and has been slower
to embrace social media.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">Chief among those efforts is
the NBA 2K League, which was launched 18 months ago, making it the only U.S.
pro sports operation to own and operate an e-sports league. Next year the
23-team league will add a franchise in Shanghai, continuing the NBA's
(increasingly complicated) push into China. Brooks's group is also aiding the
March 2020 launch of the NBA's new Basketball Africa League (BAL), which will
feature 12 clubs competing in Egypt, Senegal, Nigeria, Angola, Morocco and
Tunisia.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">Brooks's team is involved in
everything from the schedule changes that reduced the amount of back-to-back
games on consecutive days to teams' advanced mobile apps that power the
in-arena experience. In Sacramento, fans can crowd-source the temperature in
their seating areas to adjust the A/C or heat, while in Milwaukee, jersey patch
sponsor Harley-Davidson added a vroom sound within the app for fans to hold up
during games.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">"Innovation happens
everywhere at the NBA—that is the secret to our success," Brooks says.
"Our group is trying to inspire and pull it all together."</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">Perhaps the biggest indicator
of the NBA's openness to change is Brooks herself. The Sacramento native is one
of the highest-ranking female executives in <span style="background: white;">American
sports and, according to the University of Central Florida's 2019 NBA Racial
and Gender Report Card, NBA franchises have seven women serving in the role of
either chief executive or team president, more than in all other U.S. pro
leagues combined.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;">"I see
myself as an example, but my goal is to help others," Brooks says. "It's
only a matter of time before we see a female head coach in the NBA."</span><span style="color: #0a1529; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span></div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-25528043529524523782019-11-10T15:56:00.003-08:002019-11-11T08:47:14.829-08:00Samuelsons: Karlie ('17) EuroCup POW; Bonnie ('15) Focusing on Studies<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Karlie Samuelson (2017) shoots he<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">r way to Top Performer status after downtown deluge</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="direction: ltr; display: inline; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="direction: ltr; display: inline; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Karlie Samuelson has been awarded EuroCup Top Performer honors for last week after lighting it up from long distance in spectacular fashion for Perfumerias Avenida. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The Great Britain national team competitor and WNBA player showed her devastating offensive capabilities as Avenida soared past Olivais FC by 106-45. Samuelson went off and finished 12-of-14 from the field including 8-of-10 from beyond the perimeter. As well as 33 points, she also had 6 boards, 3 assists and 3 steals.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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Season highlights</div>
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-small;">……………………………………………………………………………………………………..</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 500; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bonnie Samuelson (2015), SCCO, ’20: Keeping Her Eye on the Ball and Her Studies </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">by Pam Martineau, NBKU</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #001000; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When she is not throwing 3 pointers on the basketball court, Bonnie Samuelson is hitting the books and treating patients as she pursues her dream of becoming an optometrist</span><span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="direction: ltr; display: inline; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="direction: ltr; display: inline; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Raised in a Basketball Family</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Raised in Huntington Beach, Samuelson is the eldest of three sisters, all of whom were raised to excel at basketball by their basketball-playing parents. Both parents played ball professionally, but it was Bonnie’s father who regularly took his daughters to the basketball court to teach them to shoot, dribble and shoot again. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“My dad would take us every day to shoot,” says Samuelson. “He said if you want to get good at basketball, you have to practice.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">His tutelage paid off. Bonnie would go on to play basketball all four years at Stanford University as an undergraduate, where she specialized in three-pointers. Her middle sister plays professional basketball in Belgium and her younger sister plays in the WNBA.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Shadowed an Optometrist</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">
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<span style="font-family: "hinted-geomanist-medium" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #005000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; direction: ltr; display: inline !important; float: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As an undergraduate at Stanford, Bonnie was interested in going into a medical profession, because she “really wanted to help people.” She wasn’t sure, however, which medical profession to pursue. She shadowed various medical practitioners and was drawn to optometry after watching an optometrist interact with his patients. </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“He seemed to have a blast working with patients,” she says. “It seemed like something I wanted to do.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Samuelson fell in love with SCCO (Southern California College of Optometry) after visiting the campus. Being a “Southern California girl” also helped her make her choice, she adds. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“The school was beautiful,” she says, adding that professors, staff and students are “so welcoming.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In her free time, Samuelson loves reading, or going to the movies or beach with her boyfriend, also an SCCO student. She also loves walking her two black Labrador retrievers, Molly and Lucy. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And she offers a word of advice to new students at SCCO. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">“It’s going to be hard work, but so worth it,” she says.</span></div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-88608565401631858762019-10-10T14:36:00.003-07:002019-10-10T14:36:42.752-07:00Mikaela Ruef, Alanna Smith (19') Moving on From Injuries<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.05em; line-height: 1.2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Former UC Capitals player Mikaela Ruef (14') back for the 2019-20 season</span> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-830US-kZkauTGiduqq4trb-RW5DKM6MHeBJA3TaIa5EkBzjuZ1NbfmGnsSLj8PjcLoEhMSdlP8zFMQsqK8Iqzt253ng-g7EGY7En0kwvi1yQEDZ9BjsB5vtyUOIzfEckN3Cq4XvGiU2/s1600/ruef.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk-830US-kZkauTGiduqq4trb-RW5DKM6MHeBJA3TaIa5EkBzjuZ1NbfmGnsSLj8PjcLoEhMSdlP8zFMQsqK8Iqzt253ng-g7EGY7En0kwvi1yQEDZ9BjsB5vtyUOIzfEckN3Cq4XvGiU2/s320/ruef.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Forward Mikaela Ruef has signed with the University of Canberra Capitals for the upcoming WNBL season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Ruef, 191cm tall and 28 years old, played for the UC Capitals during the 2016/17 UC Capitals season before joining Toulouse in France where she unfortunately tore her ACL in the finals. After a year of rehabbing, Ruef recently played for Logan in the QBL where she won the league’s MVP title. “I’ve just finished up my first season back from injury at Logan where I was able to regain confidence in my game and in my knee,” said Ruef.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">She is now already in Canberra training and will play a big part in the UC Capitals <a href="http://wnbl.basketball/uc-capitals/news/uc-capitals-pre-season-games-announced/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #b18f4f; text-decoration: none;">pre-season games.</a></span></div>
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“I wanted to come back to Canberra because it’s the best club I’ve been a part of in the WNBL, not to mention they won a championship last year and I want to be a part of helping the team win another. “As a team, my expectation for the season is to go back to back and win another WNBL Championship. “As for my personal expectations, I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win, whether that be rebounding, setting good screens and diving on the floor.</div>
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“I’m excited to play with Tolo again, she’s one of my favourite teammates ever, and Kelsey because I’ve heard so many great things about her, plus she’s an amazing player. I hope that I can just fit into the team seamlessly and make everyone better,” said Ruef. </div>
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Ruef, who is a US citizen, is currently awaiting Australian permanent residency and will not be able to play until then. WNBL rules state that each team may only suit up two international players, which the UC Capitals have in Kia Nurse and Olivia Epoupa.</div>
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“I’ve signed with the Caps contingent on getting permanent residency in Australia. I’ve lodged my application, but it’s a long process that has lots of requirements. I’m waiting on one final police check from Ohio to come back, then I will have everything I need and hopefully it will get approved before the start of the season,” said Ruef.</div>
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Head Coach Paul Goriss said that he is pleased to welcome Ruef back as she’s one of the hardest working players in the game. “The last time Ruef played for us in 2016/17, she led the team in rebounds and formed a strong front court combination with Tolo. “Ruef is always working hard to get better and add to her game. She brings toughness, competitiveness and WNBL experience to our team. “Her work ethic and skillset will fit perfectly with our team chemistry and was a fan favourite because of her energy and relentlessness on court,” said Goriss.</div>
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When Ruef played for the UC Capitals, the team was still playing out of the Tuggeranong Basketball Stadium. “I’m most looking forward to playing in front of the amazing crowd in Canberra. I saw so many pictures and videos from the Grand Final last season and the number of fans in the stands was incredible. There’s nothing more exciting as a player than playing in front of a sold-out stadium of fans cheering you on,” said Ruef.</div>
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The UC Capitals are now one player away from completing the 2019-20 roster as the team starts to prepare for the season opener at the AIS Arena on October 13.</div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Alanna Smith on the road to recovery and the WKBL</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "gordita" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>from The Pick and Roll, by Chris Sermeno</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i></i><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br /></span></b>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">There is a growing
list of names that come to mind when asked who’s leading the way for the next
generation of budding Australian female basketball stars. Alanna Smith, who has
made waves in her collegiate, professional and international career, is just
one of those players rising to the occasion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">The former Stanford
alumni played in her maiden WNBA season with the Phoenix Mercury and would also
be drafted at pick number 2 for the Incheon Shinhan Bank S-Birds in the
upcoming WKBL in South Korea. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://pickandroll.com.au/alanna-smith-surgery-successful-expected-to-miss-remaining-wnba-season/"><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #fa8220; padding: 0in;">Despite an ankle injury cutting short her first WNBA season</span></a><span style="color: #333333;">, Smith is adamant that it has been a timely step for her
individual development and career progression. The 23-year-old explained that
she was privileged to have trained and played alongside world class talent, and
she has no doubts that she has fully grasped the incredible opportunity the
WNBA represents.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">“It’s been such a huge
experience, it really is a dream turned into reality, said Smith in speaking
with The Pick and Roll. “I was lucky to have been drafted into a team with a
great bunch of women, I learned so much and when you become part of that kind
of setup you want to make an impact.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKJQLvu7wb6CTxzW6bccXQczKFMZIODLxzbq5x6322izXxFpueleypZHihcRF2WxX_kP0JgqrCA7GL04ucpHYn74Ud_PJ3UneF2w9KCudZxCIHrNMOkD56IrExGrQyT8qwNEjOMUJSIpT4/s1600/Alanna_Smith_%252848019226412%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1425" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKJQLvu7wb6CTxzW6bccXQczKFMZIODLxzbq5x6322izXxFpueleypZHihcRF2WxX_kP0JgqrCA7GL04ucpHYn74Ud_PJ3UneF2w9KCudZxCIHrNMOkD56IrExGrQyT8qwNEjOMUJSIpT4/s200/Alanna_Smith_%252848019226412%2529.jpg" width="168" /></span></a></div>
</span><span style="font-family: "gordita" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">“I got injured about
three-quarters of the way through the season, but I’m very excited to play with
the team again. I’m still growing and learning but I’m always hungry for more.” </span></span><span style="font-family: "gordita" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">While the leap from
collegiate level to professional basketball may be a challenge for some, it was
exactly what Smith craved for in her personal journey. Having played under
Mercury coach Sandy Brondello during her time in winning a World Cup silver
medal in 2018 with the Opals, Smith heaped praise on her mentor for a smooth
transition into the professional life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“After I finished my
time in college, I was ready for a change and a big challenge, and I embraced
every part of it. Having Sandy worked to my advantage as she knows my game very
well and does similar things with the Mercury to the Opals, and having her and
Leilani [Mitchell] around was like a little slice of home.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This past season has
provided Smith with insights as to what it takes to be a force in the top
echelon of basketball, highlighted by her time off the court with Diana
Taurasi. Initially star struck by the 3-time WNBA champion, Smith described
Taurasi’s focus, determination and attitude as a class above, and thoroughly
admired drawing from her experience.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“She’s a winner! She’s
got a non-stop, killer mentality that’s always pushing forward, and that is
absolutely necessary to make it in a league like this. I think I might’ve
annoyed her a little with all my questions, but I loved picking apart her brain
on plays, drills and learning everything she has to offer. “Once I got over
being star struck, I came to realize she’s super easy to talk to, she’s
absolutely hilarious and she had me laughing all season.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although she’s
extraordinarily grateful for her time in the United States, she fully
appreciates the extended time she is spending with family while she nurses her
ankle back to full health. “Around the same time last year, I was able to spend
some time back home, but it wasn’t very long. This is the longest time we’ve
spent together in years. My younger sister is 10 and it’s been really good to
see her and be around my family so much more this time.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">While she is spending
extended time in Australia, Smith’s journey in the basketball world will take
her to South Korea for the 2019/20 season. The lure of exploring the basketball
landscape proved to be more than enough to tempt her away from the Australian
WNBL for the immediate future. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Personally, being away has been the most
challenging but most rewarding experience of my life and I want to make the
most of playing overseas while I can. “Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love
Australia, it’ll always be home and I’d love to play WNBL one day. But Korea
has a great reputation as a tough league and I’m really excited to see what the
season holds.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Following her
successful surgery five weeks ago, Smith started walking within the past week
and is sticking to her strict rehab regime as she looks to return to top shape
ahead of the WKBL season opener on November 24. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Rehab is a strict
process. I’m taking things slowly and training lightly on things like
stationary shooting, one footed shooting and upper body work, but I’m
definitely happy to be moving again.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Undeterred by her
draft pick status in the US and Korea, Smith insisted her own expectations of
herself are high, yet crucial for developing her own game. Having fought hard
for the opportunities she has enjoyed to</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "&quot" , serif; font-size: 15.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">date, Smith doesn’t take things lightly as she
continues to grind hard, play hard and be a shining example for younger
basketballers. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I’ll always be hungry
for success. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and my expectations can be a
blessing and a curse. Falling short can be heartbreaking, but it’s important to
have those expectations and both the positive and negative experiences that
come with it. I’m going to continue fighting because it’s got me to where I am
today.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You don’t have to look
far to see that Australian basketball is on an upward trajectory. With athletes
like Alanna Smith leading the way, the future success of Australian women’s
basketball on the world stage is set to continue. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></span><br />
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-23981631501168843192019-09-18T14:28:00.002-07:002019-09-18T14:28:18.670-07:00NNeka Ogwumike, Madame President<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How Nneka Ogwumike Became Madame President, the Face of WNBA Players</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Sean Hurd from The Undefeated</span></i><br />
<i></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="color: red;"></span><i></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
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<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: &quot; font-size: 17.93px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; overflow: visible; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: none; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span>It doesn’t help that her game isn’t flashy — it’s all about efficiency. Of the 144 players in the WNBA, Ogwumike ranks second behind Elena Delle Donne in career player efficiency rating (25.83). And she ranks fifth all-time in WNBA history. But the Los Angeles Sparks forward offers another explanation for her lack of mentions: It’s hard to talk about someone if you can’t pronounce her name.</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 29.92px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; orphans: 2; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: none; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "espn acta" , "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 17.93px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 29.92px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: none; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">“My name is not easy to say,” Ogwumike, 29, said. “A lot of people recognize that it’s not an easy name or it’s maybe a name from a different place. I think I have an easily stereotypical name. That’s fine, I really don’t care.” </span>Nnemkadi “Nneka” Ogwumike (pronounced NEH-kuh Oh-gwoo-MIH-kay) doesn’t roll off American tongues with the same ease as, say, Sue Bird, Maya Moore or Tina Charles. Perhaps it’s why the names of big-time talents such as <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/bucks-giannis-antetokounmpo-greek-freak-wants-to-go-back-to-his-nigerian-roots/" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">Giannis Antetokounmpo</a> and <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/hakeem-olajuwons-most-impressive-ramadan-performances/" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">Hakeem Olajuwon</a> are often interchanged with monikers such as “The Greek Freak” and “Hakeem the Dream.”</div>
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She wasn’t the kid who dribbled a basketball in the halls. She didn’t grow up watching the game, although she went to Houston Comets games growing up when her mom, who is an educator, received tickets through the school. And she didn’t attend a collegiate program rife with NCAA championships. She reps Stanford’s “Nerd Nation” with pride.</div>
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The idea of being overlooked is not a new concept for Ogwumike. It’s something she said she got a taste of in high school but truly recognized while playing at Stanford. “There were times when I would perform better than other players that were playing college basketball and nothing would be said,” she recalled. “It didn’t matter to me, but I heard it enough to realize I’m just one of those players where I just have to work hard no matter what.”</div>
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While she may not receive the level of recognition her resume warrants, her hard work is certainly paying off in the WNBA: She will lead the Sparks into the WNBA playoffs as the No. 3 seed on Sunday. Then, as president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), Ogwumike and her executive committee will represent all 144 players as they, along with WNBPA director of operations Terri Jackson, negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the league after the season.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtH2cuSVkm0RcuTx1ffpHUL5soHajMsAPspj4nNYwtZy51LKVQmBvZZRniKi6xK3f3j0yEBjWwVA-syZAzrLcpqay83oE8PO4HJgy-uf5IzCyn_a_QZ9l1uVPpUxnyFW0_UQdPUGX2rQin/s1600/nneka-stanford-GettyImages-137251510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="700" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtH2cuSVkm0RcuTx1ffpHUL5soHajMsAPspj4nNYwtZy51LKVQmBvZZRniKi6xK3f3j0yEBjWwVA-syZAzrLcpqay83oE8PO4HJgy-uf5IzCyn_a_QZ9l1uVPpUxnyFW0_UQdPUGX2rQin/s320/nneka-stanford-GettyImages-137251510.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The agreement is undoubtedly one of the WNBA’s most important steppingstones in its 23-year history, the next chapter in the fight for pay equity in women’s sports. And Ogwumike is the person the players have chosen to be the face of the fight.</div>
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Watch. Learn. Lead.</div>
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That’s the formula Ogwumike has used to topple obstacles, according to her sister and Sparks teammate Chiney Ogwumike. It’s the blueprint she has leaned on during her playing career dating to her days at Stanford.</div>
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When Ogwumike arrived on “The Farm” as a freshman, she entered the Cardinal program as one of the top recruits in the country. But when she stepped on the floor at Maples Pavilion, adjusting to the style of collegiate play didn’t come naturally. Ogwumike relied on her athleticism in high school against inferior competition. Against college-level players, though, athleticism alone wouldn’t be enough.</div>
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“At the beginning, working with her in practice, I’d be like, ‘Nneka, what’s your go-to move?’ ” said Stanford assistant coach Kate Paye, who recruited Ogwumike to Palo Alto. “And she’d say, ‘I don’t know, they would throw it up to me and I just put it in the basket.’ ” Whether it was adjusting to a new system, new teammates or the rigor of a Stanford education, Ogwumike struggled.</div>
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As her freshman season continued, Ogwumike began asking questions — a lot of questions. Her raised index finger became a frequent sight on the Stanford practice floor, so much so that Ogwumike earned the nickname “Question Queen.” Ogwumike wasn’t satisfied with understanding only what she was doing on the floor, she wanted to know <em style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; vertical-align: baseline;">why</em> she was doing it. “Nneka was not the first Stanford player to ask a lot of questions, but she might have asked the most. It was pretty funny,” said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, who coached Ogwumike from 2008 to 2012. “They were always good questions.”</div>
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Ogwumike would finish her Stanford career as a three-time All-American and the second all-time leading scorer in program history. In 2012, the Sparks drafted her with the No. 1 overall pick.</div>
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“Nneka has always been a learner,” Chiney Ogwumike said. “When she is involved with the game, she wants to know everything about it. That’s how it’s always been since she fell in love with the game. That’s just the type of thinker that she is.”</div>
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It’s no wonder, then, that the players of the WNBA turned to the “league <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2AEaTnF9GV/" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">nerd</a>” to lead them into the future.</div>
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In recent years, the WNBA has watched as other female pro sports have commanded the pay equity conversation. The U.S. women’s national hockey team and, more recently, the women’s national soccer team have both <a href="https://www.espn.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/27175927/us-women-soccer-equal-pay-fight-latest-next" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">challenged</a> their respective governing bodies as they fight for pay equality.</div>
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WNBA players have been unafraid to shine a light on the conditions they face while playing in the league, setting the tone for these upcoming negotiations. Ogwumike, however, didn’t exactly plan to be in this spot as the face of the league at its most integral inflection point to date. “To be very honest, I wasn’t really going for [president],” Ogwumike said.</div>
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In 2016, as a vice president of the executive committee, Ogwumike said she was still learning about unions and their impact. She credits WNBA legend Tamika Catchings, who led the negotiation of the 2016 CBA as president of the WNBPA, for persuading her to run for the position.</div>
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“Tamika pulled me aside and said that I should,” said Ogwumike, who was the only remaining active player on the executive committee at the time. “It was befitting of me to step into that role.”</div>
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She began to do research, gather different perspectives, learn about negotiations from other sports leagues as well as further her knowledge of the WNBA’s business model, all the while looking to Jackson, whom Ogwumike described as the Players Association’s “eyes and ears, everything.” “That’s the Stanford student in her. She does her homework,” Chiney Ogwumike said. “Even at practice now, everyone calls her ‘Madam President’ because she is that efficient in what she does.”<br />
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Ogwumike has advocated for increased participation in the months leading up to negotiations. As the executive committee begins preparing proposals and counterproposals, she is encouraging all players to read the current CBA to better inform themselves about the changes they want to see. “[Nneka] definitely offers a lot of information: perspectives, talking points, viewpoints,” said Chelsea Gray, Ogwumike’s teammate and a player rep on the WNBPA. “It’s kind of like a one band, one sound type of deal. She really plays into that and really speaks to us.”<br />
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“We’re really trying to get player engagement as much as we can, because obviously it involves us,” Ogwumike said. “It affects us. Everyone wants to see great change that will lead to the progression of the league.”</div>
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The primary issue taken up with players is increased pay. In the WNBA, the maximum base salary is $117,500. “Obviously, we want to get paid our value, and that starts with looking to increase the salary now,” Ogwumike said.</div>
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“It’s a structural issue,” she added. “I think that’s something that can easily be resolved by both attending to the mechanisms of the league and then also the suggestions and the contributions of the players. No matter how great the product is, if you don’t have an appropriate business model, the product is never going to thrive as much as you want it to.”</div>
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Across the table from Ogwumike in negotiation will sit recently appointed WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Engelbert, who assumed the league’s top post in July, is the former CEO of Deloitte and was a college basketball player at Lehigh. Ogwumike and the executive committee met with Engelbert at All-Star Weekend, a meeting Ogwumike described as positive.</div>
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Ogwumike and the executive committee have outlined three priorities as they approach the beginning of their negotiation. Besides salary compensation, there is also player experience (i.e., travel and accommodations), and health and safety. Within those priorities lie a handful of line items ranging from domestic violence policies to player marketing.</div>
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There is always the possibility that both sides won’t come to an agreement before the start of the next season. Players such as seven-time All-Star Tina Charles said <a href="https://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/liberty/wnba-players-strike-cba-negotiations-1.35353661" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">they’d consider sitting out</a> should the sides fail to reach an agreement. Last July, Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi said players <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com/2018/7/13/17570366/wnba-phoenix-mercury-diana-taurasi-interview-pay-inequality" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: linear-gradient(to top, transparent, transparent 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 1px, rgb(252, 33, 75) 2px, transparent 2px); background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-size: 17.93px; line-height: 29.92px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff, -1px 1px 0px #fff, 1px 1px 0px #fff; touch-action: manipulation; transition-delay: 0s; transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-property: color; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.25, 0.1, 0.25, 1); vertical-align: baseline;">wouldn’t be able to achieve pay equity without a strike</a>.</div>
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While Ogwumike acknowledged the possibility of a player strike as being a “reality to some degree,” it is not something she, or the executive committee, is hoping for or expecting. “We want to play,” Ogwumike said.</div>
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The reality for Ogwumike is, despite the improvements she hopes to help shepherd into the league, she and many other league vets may not be able to experience the full fruits of their advocacy in the long term. Despite that, the gravity of what’s at stake for future generations of both women’s basketball and women’s sports at large is not lost on her.</div>
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“I think about it impacting all sports, all women in sports,” Ogwumike said. “Not only are we hoping that it inspires other women, we’re hoping that it inspires other people to invest in women’s sports.”</div>
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If there’s any doubt about Ogwumike’s ability to tackle a challenge, her track record speaks for itself. “She’s watched, she’s learned from Tamika Catchings, who was the president before, and now she’s the leader,” Chiney Ogwumike said. “Look at her on the floor. She’s watched, she’s learned, and now she’s an MVP and a champion. That’s just her M.O. She attacks everything to the best of her ability. …</div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-32900726112707144922019-09-06T16:00:00.001-07:002019-09-06T17:34:42.923-07:00Alanna Smith successful surgery<h2>
Alanna Smith surgery successful, expected to miss remaining WNBA season<span style="font-size: x-small;"> from The Pick and Roll</span></h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PSHx_bzSYK4gCEg1IEhJB7myY0itDg8YJE-zw5Ikiu7sAmsRbbN_wxaHOIqjKBiphjulbUGirq9B5U-NInHOKap2FnrkdCvDlq563LAW5jgrWSe0awKVqOJZnk0fY43vqvyhPSyrutX2/s1600/alanna_smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PSHx_bzSYK4gCEg1IEhJB7myY0itDg8YJE-zw5Ikiu7sAmsRbbN_wxaHOIqjKBiphjulbUGirq9B5U-NInHOKap2FnrkdCvDlq563LAW5jgrWSe0awKVqOJZnk0fY43vqvyhPSyrutX2/s200/alanna_smith.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
The Phoenix Mercury released an announcement on Alanna Smith on Sunday, confirming that the forward had undergone surgery on her ankle, and that the operation was successful. There was no explanation detailing the extent of the injury.<br />
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Smith, who was drafted 8th in the 2019 WNBA draft, had been sidelined with the ankle injury since the beginning of August. She is expected to take three months post-surgery to recover, which will see her miss the remainder of the WNBA season. The 6'4" forward played 18 games for the Mercury this season, averaging 1.1 points, 1.9 rebounds, 7.5 minutes of play, and a season high 7 points scored in a loss against the Minnesota Lynx in early June.<br />
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She will miss the FIBA Asian championship with the Opals, the Australian women's national team. Also, according to her agent Alanna was drafted 2nd in the WKBL (South Korea) and was epected to play for the Shanhan Bank S-Birds. That league gets underway in November.<br />
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-90307019028401874182019-08-19T13:09:00.001-07:002019-08-19T13:09:24.481-07:00Susan (King) Borchardt (2005): The Star who Once gave Lindsey Whalen Fits<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16pt; margin: 0px;">Susan (King) Borchardt (2005): The Star who Once gave
Lindsey Whalen Fits</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; margin: 0px;">By Sloan Martin – The Athletic</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">In the late ‘90s, Lindsay Whalen wasn’t
the only Minnesota girls’ basketball player drawing attention from major
colleges.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">So when the first-year University of
Minnesota women’s basketball head coach was asked who from her past she loved
competing against, she chose the guard who beat her out for the Miss Basketball
award their senior year in 2000.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“For sure Susan King,” Whalen said. “She
was awesome. I loved that matchup because she was so good. She was so good in
high school. She was good in college.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">The two have reconnected over the years
since high school because both have found their own successful paths in
basketball. Whalen went on to win the most games in WNBA history and four
championships; Susan King Borchardt is a strength and conditioning coach —
officially a sports performance consultant — who works with multiple elite WNBA
athletes including Sue Bird, who’s playing at a high level at age 38. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">The point guards battled in the
now-defunct Missota Conference for five years. Borchardt joined the Academy of
Holy Angels varsity team as a</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16pt; margin: 0px;">
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">seventh grader. Whalen
played for the Hutchinson Tigers starting in eighth grade. They even competed
on the tennis court, but never directly because Borchardt recalls she played
singles and Whalen doubles.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Basketball started for Borchardt when
she would tag along with her father, Gary King, who played at Nebraska-Kearney,
to open gyms. She started officially playing in third grade and joined a travel
team.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“Really a lot of my basketball playing
came from playing with my brothers and going to their practices,” she said.
“That was a lot of it growing up was playing with the boys and that made me
tough and that made me strong in a way, and I think that really benefitted me
as I moved on.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Borchardt loved to score — her go-to a
pull-up jump shot — but she cherished defense and was often guarding the
opposing team’s best player. She dedicated herself to the sport, shooting
baskets before school every day since eighth grade. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“To this day I think, ‘You’re not going
to outwork me,’” she said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Borchardt says Whalen missing a chunk of
her senior season with an ankle injury played a role in her winning Miss
Basketball, but Borchardt had a phenomenal high school career: 35 points per
game her senior year, named a 2000 First Team All-American by both the Women’s
Basketball Coaches Association and USA Today, USA Today Minnesota Player of the
Year and the <em>Star Tribune</em> Player of the Year as a senior, and she won
a bronze medal with the 1998 USA Junior National Team at the World Youth Games
in Moscow.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Borchardt also ranks in the top 20 in
Minnesota girls high school basketball history in free-throw percentage (80.5),
points (3,037), steals (626), field-goal percentage (44.0), and she’s one of
three dozen girls all-time to score at least 50 points in a game, which she did
as a senior. It was so apparent what talent she was going to turn out to be,
Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer started recruiting her as an eighth grader.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Whalen earned quite a few accolades
herself, and certainly drew attention at Hutchinson as her career advanced, but
Borchardt, because of her statistics and playing in the Metro night after
night, had more eyes on her in high school. She knew back then, though, how
special of a player Whalen was.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“People didn’t quite know about her and
I’m not sure exactly why, but I feel like when you’re a player and you like to
defend people, you know who the real challenges are,” Borchardt said.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“She was the one, you always knew when
you played against her that you were really going to have to work hard and get
after it, not to stop her but just try to contain her. I guarded her every game
we played. I was always her defender but it was always a huge challenge, but a
fun one. All the way up you look forward to playing against the players who are
good and who push you. She was definitely that person in that conference.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Borchardt remembers how gyms were packed
to see them their senior year. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“Our last year, all of our games, there
was a bunch of people,” Borchardt said. “I was like, this is really awesome,
not just for us but for the little girls sitting in the front row. How cool to
see this.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Those matchups helped prepare Borchardt
for continuing her career at Stanford (she graduated fifth in her class at Holy
Angels with a 4.18 GPA) under VanDerveer. She had a cup of coffee in the WNBA,
signing a free-agent contract with the Minnesota Lynx and playing three games
in 2005 before getting waived, but injuries ultimately derailed her playing
career.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Her freshman year she was starting for
the Cardinal and remembers the excitement of playing against Tennessee and head
coach Pat Summitt in December 2000. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“It was going exactly how your dream
freshman year would start, and that’s how it started for me,” she said.</span>T<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">hen she tore the ACL in her right knee,
rehabbed for nine months and returned. Just five games after she started playing
again, the cadaver graft of a deceased person’s Achilles that doctors had
inserted into her knee failed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“It doesn’t take in one out of 100,000
people or something like that but I happened to be that one and, so then I had
to do that all again,” she said. “Basically I went from starting to not playing
basketball for two-plus years.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Borchardt was able to put together a
solid final two years at Stanford and her 46.9 percent 3-point shooting in her
senior season ranks fourth in Cardinal single-season history. But she ended up
going through nine surgeries on that right knee.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">By the time she was wrapping up her
college career in Palo Alto, she married Curtis Borchardt, a fellow Stanford
basketball player and a 7-foot center who was selected No. 18 in the 2002 NBA
draft. At one point they were each playing in the NBA and WNBA simultaneously,
he for the Jazz and her for the Lynx.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">For seven years the couple lived
overseas in Spain and France for Curtis’s career. It was there that Borchardt
started getting experience on the training side after getting her Stanford
degree in psychology.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“I started training for the team my
husband was playing for,” she said. “So I got started with men and loved it. It
was a natural fit I think because I grew up around my brothers and my brothers’
teams and I loved it.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">After a stop at her alma mater, Susan
took a job with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, allowing her to forge relationships
in the league. Meanwhile, Curtis transitioned to his second career, wrapping up
his doctorate in physical therapy last spring. The family of six now lives in
Portland, Oregon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Both Borchardts dealt with injuries in
their playing careers — “We met in the training room at Stanford, which is very
appropriate,” she says — and have found a way to extend their basketball
careers in a different way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“The whole sports performance thing,
even as a player that was my niche,” she said. “I’m only 5-foot-6 but I always
felt like ‘I’m going to be in great shape so I can pressure you all game and I
can go longer than you.’ That was my niche. I felt like I had an interest in
that area. I thought, let’s try this. I went back and got my certifications and
got my master’s and … it’s been a really good fit for me.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Besides Bird, Borchardt’s training
clientele includes WNBA MVPs Nneka Ogwumike and Breanna Stewart. Working as a
consultant instead of for a team helps her balance family life and work.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“The game, I love it, it’s been a part
of my life from early on,” she said. “Even if I’m not playing, it still feels
like I’m a part of some of these elite players’ journeys and that’s a really
cool and special thing.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Both Borchardt and Whalen, once teen
basketball “rivals” who are following their love of the sport to long,
fulfilling careers, were genuinely excited for the other’s journeys in
interviews. Borchardt doesn’t live in Minnesota anymore, but she remains
appreciative of the roots the women share.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“It’s so cool to see someone take what
they’ve got and run with it and it’s not just the fact that it’s her and the
university she played for, it’s the whole state,” Borchardt said. “It’s
unbelievable that she’s back (at the U of M).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">“Bottom line: it’s so cool to see her
doing all these amazing things and I’m so proud of her and excited for the
state.”</span></div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-29720480243419358832019-07-30T13:17:00.001-07:002019-07-30T13:17:30.126-07:00Mikaela ('15) Returns to Court<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Mikaela Ruef ('15) Returns to Court</span><br />
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"> from the "Pick and Roll"; author unknown</span></em><br />
<br />
IT IS 4pm on a Saturday night at the Cornubia Park Sports Centre, Queensland. Mikaela Ruef stands in the middle of the court in her brand new Logan Thunder kit, ready to work. The 6’3 American comes into the huddle with her new teammates, focused on the task at hand. And then, emotions strike her like a burst of adrenaline, and she struggles to hold it in. For 28 year old Ruef, the journey has been a long one, filled with tears, struggles and hard work; one she refers to as the longest and darkest year of her life. For Mikaela Ruef, this shot is a second chance – a case of good things coming to those that wait.<br />
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The buzzer sounds, and the first ball goes up in front of the faithful home crowd as this group of women take on the Mackay Meteorettes in a clash that means more than just a possible win. <br />
This game marks her return from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that had taken the sport she loves away for the twelve months prior, an injury that is plaguing players across the sport. Ruef reflected on this as we sat in a quiet suburban café in Springwood, Queensland.<br />
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“To be honest, I was super nervous heading into that first game,” Ruef said. “My biggest worry was that I could go out there and land funny or come down from a layup and redo that injury. Even throughout that game I was really nervous to roll into the paint, because I didn’t want to run into somebody or get blindsided.”<br />
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For her, this is putting everything on the line to prove she still has so much to offer the sport she loves. Ruef has risen from the ashes, like a phoenix reborn on the burning path of recovery, but the memory of that injury still vividly haunts her. “I was landing and running down the court on a fast break when the point guard threw it to me in traffic, so I tried to stop and go up for a layup. As soon as my foot hit the floor, my knee just caved in as my body crumbled to the ground,” she said. “I felt it pop back into place. I thought at that point that it may have been nothing but I couldn’t walk so I knew what had happened.”<br />
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Ruef was playing in Toulouse, southwest of France back then, and opted to have surgery locally, before heading home for recovery in Dayton, Ohio, where the famous Wright brothers pioneered aviation. Just like the famous duo, Ruef was preparing herself to take flight once more.<br />
Despite a career that has included experience in top tier leagues, including three seasons with three WNBL teams – Sydney Uni Flames, Adelaide Lightning and the Canberra Capitals – along with time in Launceston and France, Ruef knows she has much to prove with this return.<br />
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“The recovery process is never a straightforward path. It has major setbacks but when you get back, it is like ‘wow, I did all that work’ and you feel great about it. It made me a better person and really made me cherish basketball so much more being out for that long,” she added. “I just want to show everybody what I can do when I am fully healthy and my body is feeling this great.” For Ruef, this shot in the Queensland Basketball League has been an audition for a WNBL spot – a return to the highest tier women’s league in Australia. The determination in her eyes was clear, as the focus grows like a wildfire from this chance she has been given.<br />
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Ruef now leads the state league in average rebounds (19.44) as well as total season rebounds (331). It’s a skill she is proud of having stamped herself as a dominant leader in. She has been player of the week on 2 occasions.<br />
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Note: The Queensland Basketball League is the state’s premier semi-professional basketball competition, running from May to September each year. Since its beginnings in 1986 as the State Basketball League, the QBL has seen some of the country’s top basketball athletes move through its ranks in both the women’s and men’s competitions. Highly regarded in the country as one of the best state league competitions, each year the QBL attracts a number of elite players to the competition, including Australian representative athletes, NBL and WNBL players, and players from US colleges and other international competitions.<br />
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-33139946257480801252019-07-18T09:14:00.000-07:002019-07-18T09:14:30.037-07:00Rosalyn Gold Onwude ('10) - Women Making Black History<span class="title-text"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Rosalyn Gold-Onwude ('10) Is Going Places — and She's Taking Women of Color With Her</span></strong></span><br />
from POPSUGAR by Britt Stephens<br />
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Rosalyn Gold-Onwude had a pretty eventful year in 2018. The 31-year-old basketball analyst landed <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/01/warriors-reporter-rosalyn-gold-onwude-moving-to-turner-sports/">an international deal with Turner Sports</a> after spending three seasons as the Golden State Warriors' sideline reporter for NBC Bay Area. On Jan. 15, 2018, just two days before we spoke on the phone, she stood outside the Los Angeles Clippers' locker room, <a href="http://www.nba.com/article/2018/01/16/rockets-clippers-emotions-run-high-postgame-skirmish#/">reporting on a disturbance</a> between members of the Clippers and the Houston Rockets. Despite the tension, her on-camera report for <strong>Inside the NBA</strong> resulted in <a href="https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/953159884064854016">a hilarious moment between commentators Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal</a> that soon went viral. <br /><br /> "After I did that report, I got a call from a number I didn't know," she told me. "Turns out it's Charles Barkley saying how funny the whole thing was and thanking me for my work."<br /><br />Phone calls from basketball legends are just one of the perks of being a worldwide sports journalist, but Ros — as she is affectionately known — remains humble. "It's been very cool," she said of the new gig, which she says has given her "a chance to learn the league and the game at a higher level." <br /><br /> The level at which Gold-Onwude knows the game is hardly low. Born in Queens, NY, to a Nigerian father and a Russian-Jewish mother, she began playing basketball when she was just 4 years old. She went on to accept a sports scholarship to Stanford University, where she <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120106132828/http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/goldonwude_rosalyn00.html">made three consecutive trips to the Final Four</a> and was honored as the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. </ul>
<ul style="margin-left: 10px; padding-left: 20px;">After graduating from Stanford with a bachelor's degree in communications and a master's in sociology in 2010, she took a job with Tesla Motors — but her heart was always with the game. She chased broadcasting jobs on the side and worked for Pac-12 Networks, the WNBA, and the NBA Development League before joining the Warriors as a sideline reporter.<br /><br />"It was like a rocket ship," Gold-Onwude says of the team's meteoric rise to greatness. As Golden State went on to compete in three straight NBA Finals (and take home <a href="http://www.nba.com/warriors/championship/2017">two championship titles</a>), her fame skyrocketed, too. Ask anyone: Gold-Onwude is basically a Bay Area treasure.<br /><br />The energy, passion, and confidence that she brings to her job have made her a beloved figure among NBA fans. While she recognizes the importance that her role plays in the representation of women of color in white male-dominated spaces, Gold-Onwude is quick to credit other high-profile black journalists like Cari Champion, Sage Steele, Jemele Hill, and Stephanie Ready as inspiring women who have "trailblazed ahead" of her. "I'm thankful that there's already a path paved," she said. "I'm just trying to make my moves and find my own voice within this world." <br /><br /> She's also hoping to help those less fortunate find a voice, too. Recently, Gold-Onwude <a href="https://www.qubededucation.com/">partnered with Qubed Education</a> to launch a $1 million scholarship program in her name for disadvantaged youth who want to pursue careers in sports. It's something incredibly important to her; she espouses the values that sports have given her, like overcoming adversity, developing confidence, and being part of a team. Sports not only gave Gold-Onwude a college education and a career, but they've also been a beacon of light during some especially dark days. <br />
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On screen with TNT and NBA TV, Gold-Onwude is unabashedly herself — relatable, funny, and down to earth — and as someone who comes from a family of basketball fanatics but can't do a layup to save my life, I was thrilled to talk to her. Though it's hard not to be intimidated by her success (she <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Postcard-from-Rio-Gold-Onwude-s-Olympic-moment-9171823.php">covered men's basketball at the 2016 Olympics in Rio</a> and <a href="http://www.nba.com/warriors/news/warriors-win-three-northern-california-emmyr-awards">has an Emmy</a>, for God's sake), her friendly and easygoing demeanor put me right at ease, and her words of wisdom gave me chills. Here, we talk about playing the game, growing up without giving up, and finding balance when "ball is life." <br />
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<strong>Britt Stephens: I first want to say congratulations on everything that's happening for you. I'm sure it's been a crazy few months as you've gone from covering one team to now covering the NBA as a whole. What has been the most exciting thing about the change?</strong> <br /><br /><strong>Rosalyn Gold-Onwude</strong>: I enjoy the stories and, having been a player, I enjoy the athletes [and] their journeys. So I've been enjoying getting to know new players that I only saw from a distance and getting to cover the league as a whole. Every day at work, I'm literally surrounded by legends of the game and of broadcasting. I also enjoy the interactions I'm having. I've been pleasantly surprised [at] just how many guys have paid attention. Either they have said, "Hey, I remember you from when you played in college," or, "Hey, congratulations. I'm happy for you." There's a lot of support and encouragement within the league, and I've been really touched by that. <br /><br /><strong>BS: Sports broadcasting seems like such a natural transition for athletes across all sports; what inspired you to make that move, and how has it informed your life as a former athlete?</strong> <br /><br /><strong>RGO</strong>: I was really fortunate that I was given the game of basketball at the age of 4 by my mom. She introduced me to the game. And knowingly or not, it's really become a vehicle in my life. When people say, "Ball is life," I chuckle, but it's true: basketball has been my whole life. It has continued to give to me. Basketball provided me an athletic scholarship to college. It's given me great teammates and great experiences on the court. It's given me a career that I love. It's given me many of my closest friends. [Making] the shift from playing to broadcasting was a way to stay close to the game that I love. Not everybody is going to continue on to be a pro athlete, but you can still have a career close to the game you're passionate about. I think it's important for young people to understand that you can still have your passions and be close to them in other creative job fields.<br /><br /><strong>BS: You started broadcasting as a side hustle while you were at Tesla, and you turned it into a full-fledged career. Tell me about how you did that and what challenges you may have faced.</strong> <br /><br /><strong>RGO</strong>: Well, broadcasting is the entertainment industry, right? It's a really competitive business. You don't just say, "I want to be a broadcaster" and get a full-time job. You don't even get a part-time job, for the most part. I played basketball at a high level. However, I'm not one of the <a href="http://www.wnba.com/player/maya-moore/">Maya Moores</a> or <a href="http://www.wnba.com/player/cynthia-cooper/">Cynthia Coopers</a> of the game. My first role in broadcasting started in the analyst and color-commentator role, and it's probably the best thing that's happened for me because I [could] really talk about and break down the game. That was more helpful than I even knew. <br />
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<strong>BS: You started broadcasting as a side hustle while you were at Tesla, and you turned it into a full-fledged career. Tell me about how you did that and what challenges you may have faced.</strong> <br /><br /><strong>RGO</strong>: Well, broadcasting is the entertainment industry, right? It's a really competitive business. You don't just say, "I want to be a broadcaster" and get a full-time job. You don't even get a part-time job, for the most part. I played basketball at a high level. However, I'm not one of the <a href="http://www.wnba.com/player/maya-moore/">Maya Moores</a> or <a href="http://www.wnba.com/player/cynthia-cooper/">Cynthia Coopers</a> of the game. My first role in broadcasting started in the analyst and color-commentator role, and it's probably the best thing that's happened for me because I [could] really talk about and break down the game. That was more helpful than I even knew. <br /><br /> I had five gigs with ESPN around women's college basketball. I think you're paid less than $1,000 for each gig, so I needed a full-time job. I got both my bachelor's and my master's at Stanford, and Tesla was recruiting from Stanford. I had an opportunity to work for them and moonlight with the broadcasting gigs that I had. I told [Tesla] that I was still in this "figuring it out" space, so they were very flexible with me. <br />
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<strong>BS: That new graduate life is not always the easiest.</strong> <br /><br /><strong>RGO</strong>: I'll share something I haven't shared before: that first year out of school was actually the worst year of my life. I left the comfort of having a basketball team caring [for me], and my long-term relationship ended — suddenly [I was] trying to figure out who I was alone. I didn't necessarily know which way I wanted to go with my career: should I play ball, should I do broadcasting, should I get a corporate job? At home, my mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and dementia; she had lost her job, and we lost our apartment. My sister was going through her own problems and had to find her own path, [and] my dad had just moved to Nigeria, so he was across the world setting up his life there. It was a really hard time in my life, and it all happened at the same time. But I think what happened was a blessing in some ways. It made me tough in a way I never had to be tough. <br /><br />I didn't have any other options if things didn't get figured out in my professional life. There was a lot of anxiety, ambiguity, and uncertainty. So I took the Tesla job and chased other odd jobs in broadcasting: I was writing for the Stanford football recruiting website, teaching a public speaking course, and coaching my landlord's daughter's basketball team so that I could get half off the rent! Eventually, I was able to piece enough odd jobs together that I was <em>almost</em> able to call it a very low salary. I left Tesla and chased this broadcasting dream full-time. It was very humbling, sometimes embarrassing. I felt I was being selfish by pursuing my dream, especially given how much pressure there was at home. I definitely thought about giving up broadcasting.<br />
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I think a real crossroads in my career was <strong>The Pink Room</strong>, which was a digital show I created with a friend — we called it that because we filmed it out of my bedroom. We covered women's basketball, and we did a couple episodes and then pitched it to the <a href="http://pac-12.com/">Pac-12 Conference</a>, which I played in while at Stanford. They said, "This is cool. Can you do this for the conference for all 12 teams? We can't pay you this year, but it can help you get your foot in the door." So we did it: we pulled all-nighters, drove two hours to get there and come back and put this thing together, and we did it each week for 12 teams. <br /><br />The next year, Pac-12 Networks started, and I got a contract from them. That was the first time I could definitively say, "I have a salary, and I'm a full-time broadcaster." From there, I was able to continue to build into not only women's college, but men's college too — then WNBA, then NBA Development League, and then, finally, into the NBA with the Warriors.<br />
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<strong>BS: Something that really resonated with me was when you said you felt a level of selfishness about following your dreams. When you have some hard stuff going on at home, you always kind of feel that battle: do I live my own life or do the "responsible thing" and <strong>serve the needs of my family?</strong></strong><br />
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<strong>It seems like at some point the light bulb goes off, and you decide, "I'm going to take this road because this is what's going to make me happy." I know how stressful that can be, but how ultimately freeing it is after you come to that agreement with yourself. I think so many people — especially those in creative fields — have that galvanizing moment in their lives.</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Exactly. I think for me it was a really quick shift from being a girl in college with a support system to having all of my support systems pulled right from under me — the comfort of a college basketball team, and the comfort of a relationship (my boyfriend was older than me and kind of led the way), and the comfort of having a home to go to and [my] mom being the mother figure — and suddenly realizing, "I'm the person who's in charge." I didn't have money or any real-world experience, [so] I had to learn quick. I was thrust into a position where I had to figure out lawyers, social work, and places my mom could go. Literally, we were homeless. I had to find shelters; I had to find communities for women in need — and eventually, as we figured out her diagnosis, places that could help those with dementia. <br />
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Even while pursuing what I wanted to, I was always shouldering a responsibility. I'm not going to try to act like I'm some superhero; I definitely think that at my lowest point is where I found a fire and said, "Come on. We're going to double the effort." And if it didn't work out, I might have ended up in something else a little bit more "responsible." There's a Martin Luther King Jr. quote that my dad had on our wall — he really loved MLK — and it's like, "The ultimate measure of a man is <a href="http://www.thekingcenter.org/blog/mlk-quote-week-times-challenge-and-controversy">not where he stands in moments of comfort</a> . . ." </div>
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<strong>BS: </strong><strong>". . . But where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." </strong><strong>I think that quote is basically considered a black spiritual. It came up in my house a lot growing up as well.</strong><strong>RGO</strong>: Thank you! You know what the meaning is. It is such an important quote to live by. If I were to give advice to anyone that wants to be in broadcasting, but also to any young black women, it's that. There will be a lot of rejection, especially in the entertainment business or a creative space. And in those moments, what helped me was responding with resilience and being resourceful — telling myself, "Let's find a new way to try to get there, all right?" Networking and staying with it and continuing to hustle and work hard. Once doors start to open, they often continue to. It's just getting over that initial hump. It's like a four-minute mile: once you break it, you can really do it. </div>
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<strong>BS: You've been able to open all these doors and carve out a path for yourself, and something I admire about you is that you seem to be very much yourself on camera. But the field that you're in is <em>very</em> white male-dominated, and those kinds of workplaces can often be frustrating for women of color. As a black woman in sports journalism, have you felt pressure to change your hair, your style, or the way you speak?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: One of the things we're burdened with [as black women] is having to prove to people what we're not or [showing] people we belong or that we're good enough. These are things that our male or white counterparts likely aren't having to think about; they can just come in and deliver and expect to be accepted and know that their contribution is valuable. What we have to overcome are those moments of low confidence, and especially as women — you can see it over and over through the fight for equal pay or even the #MeToo movement — not being sure of what our value is. The system has taught us that it would cause trouble to demand more.<br />
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I know who I am. I know where I'm from. Whenever I take a step forward, I understand I'm representing just by being there. I hope people are looking at the subtleties, because it's all intentional. When I wear an outfit that has Ankara fabric or is from Nigeria, or when I put my hair in cornrows, it's definitely to show we're accepted here, and unapologetically so. Not only are black women doing it; we're going to do it at a fashionable, fabulous high level, and it's going to be popping [laughter]. I'm just being me and sharing the journey with everyone else. </div>
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I always think, "Who am I representing? What am I representing?" and try to deliver my own personal style. I try to be myself in a few ways: it's always been important to me not to have "reporter voice." I want to talk the way I really talk to my friends. I hope when you listen to me, you hear someone that sounds relatable. I hope you're hearing the joy and the energy that I carry when I talk about the game. I try to dress with color and vibrance and patterns that represent my culture and who I am as a person — and not just as a black woman, but as a mixed-race African woman. There's not just one acceptable hairstyle for professionalism. You can have braids; you can have <a href="https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/Protective-Style-Ideas-Natural-Hair-35906242">protective styles</a>; you can have twists; you can change it up. <br />
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I think playing sports helped me. I think all people should play sports; it's especially helpful for minority groups. Let's not even talk about becoming a pro; let's not even talk about going to college on a scholarship — there are so many valuable lessons in life that you take from it. You deal with overcoming adversity, teamwork, and developing confidence. Because of that, I've already pushed myself at a young age to get outside of my comfort zone; I've already dealt with eating humble pie, I've already dealt with having to buy into something bigger than myself, and I've already dealt with things not going my way. I come to work prepared, and I know what I'm talking about, and I think that the athletes and coaches respect that. I'm thankful to have worked for great networks — NBC Sports, Pac-12 Networks, and now Turner — that very much support people being themselves. I've worked within organizations that have allowed that. </div>
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<strong>BS: Well, I have chills right now. It's really cool to hear that it's intentional and that you are aware of the black women and little black girls watching you. There is a lack of black female representation in a lot of industries — and while there are some shifts happening, I think that black women are looking to those in the spotlight to be champions for the rest of us. It sounds like you feel a sense of responsibility to do that in your job.</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: There are many people that want to do [my] job and plenty that would do it for free. That's why every day I come to work, I do not allow myself a bad day or a bad attitude. I try to remind myself how blessed I am to have this opportunity: to come in and study basketball, study strategy, and study stories, and then share them with the public. I try to remind myself that my job is about helping people relax and have joy or have fun around a sporting event. And I try to remember the human aspect of it — the humans that are watching it, and also the very human people that are playing it. <br />
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I've always been taught that I'm representing something bigger than myself. It was always important to my father how we represented our home and our family. Many Nigerian kids can speak to the fact that their Nigerian parents always wanted them to do well. Academics were also very important to my mother, and she was the one really pushing basketball [on me]. From there, [Stanford Hall of Fame Coach] Tara VanDerveer constantly reminded us, "You don't just represent yourself. You represent the name on the jersey. You're representing a whole university." <br />
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Now, as a professional with more experience and maturity, it's no longer "Don't mess this up" or "Don't be a knucklehead," it's "Let's grab this by the horns and walk with a purpose so that you can leave a trail others can follow." I feel like I'm just beginning. </div>
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<strong>BS: I want to talk about the scholarship program that you're working on, because I think it's so important. How did you get involved, and how do you hope to provide </strong> </div>
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Chris Strachan started Kick'n It For a Cause, which is a nonprofit that <a href="http://blacksportsonline.com/home/2016/04/bso-talks-to-kicknit-about-sneaker-culture-hip-hop-video/">utilizes sneaker culture as a vehicle to break down social barriers</a>. I got to know Chris because he's really cool with [Warriors point guard] Stephen Curry; when I was covering the Warriors, Chris would be around building his program and the community and also doing his sneaker blogging. He saw how my profile was growing from the local to the national level, and he approached me with an opportunity to become a part of a scholarship program with Columbia University, <a href="https://www.qubededucation.com/">Qubed Education</a>, and Kick'n It For a Cause. <br />
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The program helps underserved youth pursue careers in the sports industry and is giving up to $1 million in scholarship money, and some of it will be under my name. My scholarship will be focusing on finding young women who love sports — especially in minority groups — and empowering them and giving them the resources to learn and pursue what they care about. I also want to be very much hands-on — giving them the opportunity to speak with me, shadow me, learn from my experiences, and gain their own resources. In addition to the scholarship money, students will receive an Ivy League completion certificate [from Columbia] and get an insider view of what this industry is about. We want a hands-on experience where they can also come away with something practical, and we're targeting those that need it most. I'm excited about it! </div>
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<strong>BS: When it comes to all of the things you've accomplished so far, what are you most proud of right now?</strong> <strong>RGO</strong>: I think the highlight of my career so far has been working at the Rio Olympics. I was covering the Olympics on the international level for NBC, which was the biggest stage for men's basketball. That is really rare, especially for a 29-year-old black woman, to do. It was a huge deal for me, and I think it also changed the seriousness with which I was taken in this industry. I was also able to build relationships with the top players and coaches, and it's still helping me today in my current job. It really was a very beneficial experience. I'd say that's the highlight. <br />
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<strong>BS: I'd agree that's something to be proud of. Is there anything else?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Covering the Warriors' surge to greatness — I feel proud that I was able to improve fast enough to keep up with them! I feel that I gave it my best shot and covered it with the grace that it deserved, and I was very fortunate, very lucky, and very blessed to be a fly on the wall for all of that. In general, I would say that I'm proud of the fact that I've never had to compromise myself or take shortcuts; I worked hard, and I'm proud that I didn't give up. In those moments when I was embarrassed and scared and had no money, I'm glad that I decided in that moment to give it a shot again, to stay with it. I very much believe it's possible to be successful without playing dirty or trying to cut other people down so you can get higher. I didn't give up my flavor or any of the things that make Ros, Ros. </div>
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<strong>BS: I love that. Your job obviously requires so much travel and networking, and just a lot of general hustle and bustle. What do you do to stay sane amid all the craziness?</strong> <strong>RGO</strong>: Well, I've always been pretty good at balance. People often look at my Instagram, and they're like, "Girl, how are you doing this?" [Laughter.] But something that I've learned through all of this is that if you don't make time for the things that are important to you, you will not do them. And while I am pursuing a career, I've never wanted to be the woman that looks up and suddenly realizes she didn't have any of the other things. I want a family. I want to have a social life. I want to have friends. And I think time management and good prioritization help me be able to do that. There are times when I have less sleep than others, but I make sure to mix in dinners with friends or time for family or a vacation or "Hey, let's get that Groupon for a massage." <br />
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You can't work so hard that you put yourself into the ground. A healthy mind, body, and spirit is very important, and I put a real emphasis on holistic success. I don't only think I'm successful if my career is going well. I've had to stop and reassess my workouts and how I'm eating and how healthy I'm being with food and exercise, especially with all the travel. I've had to check myself, like, "Hey, I've been on the road a lot. I've been working a lot. Have I been on a date? Am I being healthy in my love life?" I do those check-ins regularly. I pray regularly. I think balance is very key, and that's something I've been good at: balance. </div>
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<strong>BS: It's good to hear that you're doing those check-ins. So, speaking of balance, I have a few rapid-fire questions.</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: All right! <br />
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<strong>BS: Twitter or Instagram?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Oh, that's so hard [laughter] . . . Twitter. It's so entertaining sometimes, oh my God. And shout-out to NBA Twitter too, because it has been fantastic as of late. <br />
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<strong>BS: I might already know the answer to this, but East Coast or West Coast?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: I'm always the East Coast gal. I'm from New York, but the West Coast is very important to me, too. <br />
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<strong>BS: Fair. OK . . . ideal vacation?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Anywhere with a beach. I am a beach baby. I could start at the beach at 8 a.m. and stay until the sun goes down. You could find me on the beach, sleeping on a blanket. <br />
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<strong>BS: Last TV show you've binge-watched?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: <strong>American Horror Story</strong>, every season. That was really good. Also, before that, probably <strong>Stranger Things</strong>. I watched it in a day. I have watched <strong>The Office</strong>, <strong>Atlanta</strong>, and, of course, <strong>Insecure</strong>. I'm going backwards. The most recent was <strong>American Horror Story</strong>. I just have to say, I have watched every single season of <strong>The Office</strong>, like, 10 times. I watch the whole thing from start to finish, and as soon as it gets to the last episode of the last season, I just start it over again. <strong>The Office</strong> is my happy place. It's just such a funny, happy, sweet, smart, great comedy, and I love it.<br />
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<strong>BS: I feel like everyone should have a happy-place show — even if you have it on in the background while you're doing other stuff, you just feel better with it being on.</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: Yes! I know every line, I know exactly what they're going to say [laughter]. What's yours? <br />
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<strong>BS: Sex and the City and Scrubs. I know the lines back and forth for both. Sometimes I'm only half paying attention, but I'm just like, "This is making me so happy right now." OK, last one: what song gets you hyped every time you hear it?</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: I've been on a real Sabrina Claudio kick recently. "Unravel Me" and "Belong to You" are on repeat in my house, but that's a recent thing. SZA is on repeat as well, and Wizkid. All time, who I always rock with? I'm a Kanye stan, and of course I love Beyoncé. <br />
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<strong>BS: We're on the same page. It was such a joy to talk to you, and it's really great to see where you are and how far you've come. As a black woman in her 30s, it is very inspiring to see you doing what you're doing and representing. So just keep going for all of us.</strong> <br />
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<strong>RGO</strong>: You too, girl! We're in this together. </div>
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-16379828184776388422019-06-24T19:56:00.002-07:002019-06-24T19:56:29.640-07:00J.J. Hones (2010), Morgan Clyburn (2009), Karlie S. (2017) updates<span style="font-size: smaller; font-style: italic;"></span><br />
<em><strong> J.J.Hones (B.A. 2010, Masters 2011)</strong></em><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqzgND4JAPZHW6xVAfJIZZP3M6_O5K9PjXgRpwspYgEbRSlEb6J0bFP6X6t_16Mk4pvMFxRC1UhOC0ufITuutDHgtYRk0RUhsw_hh07MhXZs1f3GqSd9j0uhVU6f-D1Rgr5ohYiIav2BM/s1600/jj+hones.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqzgND4JAPZHW6xVAfJIZZP3M6_O5K9PjXgRpwspYgEbRSlEb6J0bFP6X6t_16Mk4pvMFxRC1UhOC0ufITuutDHgtYRk0RUhsw_hh07MhXZs1f3GqSd9j0uhVU6f-D1Rgr5ohYiIav2BM/s200/jj+hones.png" style="cursor: move;" unselectable="on" width="200" /></a>Jennifer (J.J.) Hones has rejoined Milestone in Portland, Oregon as the Western Region Key Account Manager. She was at Milestone from 2010-2015, then moved to Vicon as National Distribution Manager and National Account Manager, and on to Dahua as Enterprise Business Development Manager. In her new Milestone role, she assists partners in the management and growth of principal end user accounts, establishing Milestone in A&E firms focused on Fortune 500 companies and strategic vertical markets, and key community partner relationships. Jennifer is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in International Relations and an MA in Sociology. She was a starting guard for the Stanford women’s basketball team, playing in two NCAA national title games. Her competitiveness, experience, organization, and the relationships she has within the organization and industry are a winning combination!<br />
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JJ also serves as the 2019 Webmaster and Security Liaison for ASIS International - Columbia River Chapter. ASIS International is the world's largest membership organization for security management professionals.<br />
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<strong><em>Morgan Clyburn (2009)</em></strong><br />
Morgan Clyburn is now a Managing Partner at MD Ignite, headquartered in the Minneapolis area. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0NcLbc1ZaeB5_EHKiSA1bbkjdr9Hv0-7-k1Z_vUjXoaEBJ7TKDX4TdePj4t0S4QwyR2Gl_qVq7v6fDzzRgMz5B3rdl-FDFpZ8jK-XVLbcklifbR5-BPrZp67uyQUcD4WKS2i7pTysptEn/s1600/Morgan%2540600x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0NcLbc1ZaeB5_EHKiSA1bbkjdr9Hv0-7-k1Z_vUjXoaEBJ7TKDX4TdePj4t0S4QwyR2Gl_qVq7v6fDzzRgMz5B3rdl-FDFpZ8jK-XVLbcklifbR5-BPrZp67uyQUcD4WKS2i7pTysptEn/s200/Morgan%2540600x600.jpg" width="200" /></a>MD Ignite is a Minneapolis, MN-based healthcare firm. They discover and bring to market novel healthcare technologies with a specialization in Funding, Technology & Development, Business Development & Strategy, and Marketing & Commercialization. MD Ignite partners with an extensive network of individual contributors with medical device expertise in regulatory, quality, reimbursement, legal, intellectual property, technology and engineering.<br />
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Morgan Clyburn holds a B.S. in biomechanical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg focusing on Health Enterprise Management, Finance and Marketing. She worked in engineering, clinical, and commercialization for a neuromodulation start-up and in Corporate Development at Medtronic focused on strategy, investments, acquisitions, and divestitures.<br />
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<strong><em>Karlie Samuelson with Great Britain's team</em></strong><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q6zAm10_AapD4gflOIOC7Ko3Ag1aHOT_HqvSHJAZqFNvJVXKFhgcWpfM_2NUzfqQzQksu9-x0e6tw_BDC0gG2fljlTqGU0IiNzw2osYxyzISyjEO_XYqeZ5irXUrIHFq1_TwzUqGemuf/s1600/Karlie-cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="659" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q6zAm10_AapD4gflOIOC7Ko3Ag1aHOT_HqvSHJAZqFNvJVXKFhgcWpfM_2NUzfqQzQksu9-x0e6tw_BDC0gG2fljlTqGU0IiNzw2osYxyzISyjEO_XYqeZ5irXUrIHFq1_TwzUqGemuf/s200/Karlie-cropped.jpg" width="200" /></a>A 19-6 run by GB in the game’s final 4:33 made all the difference in a low scoring contest as Coach Buceta’s side pulled away to a comfortable 67-53 victory against #5 ranked Canada in Manchester. Talented guard Karlie Samuelson was integral to that late burst as she scored five of her 16 points in the game's final quarter, with Jo Leedham adding five more down the stretch.<br />
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Samuelson (16 points, three rebounds, three steals) was also able to help GB grab an early advantage, but not before a slow start to the game with little scoring from either team in the opening four minutes. Temi Fagbenle (10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals) was key in restricting the visitors to just seven points in that opening frame, displaying a high motor from the outset to fight for loose balls and contest everything that came her way. That defensive pressure allowed Samuelson, Cheridene Green and Chantelle Handy to push GB to a 19-7 lead after one.<br />
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<em>Karlie Interview</em><br />
GB face Sweden this evening in the penultimate warm up game before travelling to Latvia next week for the start of FIBA Women’s EuroBasket. Ahead of this weekend’s double-header, GB spoke with Karlie Samuelson to get her thoughts on mood in the camp, Sweden and Spain and her first experience of EuroBasket.<br />
<strong>How’s the mood in camp after the back to back wins v Canada?</strong><br />
“It’s good! Now we’ve travelled to Spain and I’m excited to play some teams that are actually in EuroBasket and see the difference. I know that the team played Sweden a couple of weeks ago and we’ll get a good look at Spain who are in our group so yeah, I’m excited.”<br />
<strong>Looking ahead to these last two warm up games, what are you expecting from Sweden and Spain?</strong><br />
“Obviously they’re both really good teams. I know Sweden pressured the ball that last game and I think I just want to get a good feel of the pace of the game. I know Spain’s a really good team so I think it’s a good step to get ready for EuroBasket and see what we can do.”<br />
<strong>Do you think at this stage the squad is well prepared for EuroBasket?</strong><br />
“yeah, I think so. We’ll use these games to help for sure but I think just playing together more and more wit the full squad will really help us get ready in these final two games.”<br />
<strong>This is your first EuroBasket, what are you looking forward to the most?</strong><br />
“I’m excited to see the atmosphere. I know how big a tournament this is but for me spending a lot of time in the States I haven’t really followed a EuroBasket that closely before so I am excited to be part of it and I’m also excited to travel to new places that I haven’t been to before!”<br />
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-28819899643374231192019-06-05T19:47:00.001-07:002019-06-05T19:47:45.779-07:00<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-style: italic;"><strong>Val Whiting </strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Val Whiting is currently the Director of Business Development for DiscNW, the largest regional Ultimate Frisbee organization in the country. In addition, she runs the Val Whiting Hoop Academy, which is an after school basketball program that uses sports to teach life. The story follows below.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">It’s been a couple of years since Val has been on campus. She was supposed to get back to Stanford over spring break, with her children, to see the Hall of Champions, but she <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ruptured <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> her </span>achilles tendon. So maybe next year you will have a chance to see her on campus.</span></span></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Bullied as a Child, Former Pro Helps Girls</span></strong> <strong><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Gain Self Esteem Through Basketball</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Val Whiting has cold memories of a cruel adolescence. Growing up in Delaware, the former WNBA player was taunted in middle school. It got so bad that she switched schools looking for relief.<br />
“I had low self-esteem,” Whiting said. “I didn’t feel accepted. I felt ugly. I was teased for being tall, for being shy, for being smart and for being a nerd. I just wanted to be accepted.” Now at the age of 46, she’s giving back. Whiting runs after school girls-only basketball programs in the Northshore and Lake Washington school districts. </span></span></span></div>
She’s got the pedigree. Whiting was a two-time National Champion at Stanford. She was a two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year. After college, she played in the WNBA for the Minnesota Lynx and the Detroit Shock then in the ABL with the Seattle Reign.<br />
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But her life wasn’t earmarked for success. Not by a long shot. By age 11, Whiting stood six feet tall. It marked her as a target for taunts. She tried out for the cheerleading squad, with hopes of gaining popularity and acceptance. But she got cut. A math teacher suggested she try out for basketball. By her own admission, Whiting was “horrible.” In a moment of epic embarrassment, she even got confused and scored a basket for the other team. <br />
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But even as she struggled, the team provided her a place where she felt like she belonged. She began working on her game. Her dad woke her up on weekends 6 a.m. to go practice. “I said I was going to show these bullies, these people who said that I wasn’t good enough, that I was good enough,” Whiting said. “Basketball empowered me. It gave me leadership skills. Sports showed me what hard work can do.” It all amounted to a stellar collegiate and pro career. <br />
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In 2011, Whiting and her then-husband moved to Woodinville. Last year, she had a moment where she asked herself, What am I doing to make a difference? She reached out to elementary schools in the Northshore, Lake Washington and Monroe areas. Her first after-school classes were at Redmond Elementary and Wellington Elementary. Both sold out. She added a boys session, and that too sold out. “I’m not easy on them, that’s the thing,” Whiting said. “I’m not like `Heeeeeeey, let’s just have fun!’ We’re going to work, but we’re going to have fun while doing it. And they love it. Kids respond to structure, discipline and competition.” <br />
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While teaching the kids, Whiting thinks back to her own playing days. “Some of the best days were the journey,” she said. “Working hard every day at practice with my teammates. Being so exhausted we couldn’t walk. But knowing that we were sowing the seeds for what we’d see down the road as success. That’s what I try to pass along to the kids.” <br />
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Whiting described one of her recent success stories. “There was a young lady, a nine year old girl,” Whiting said. “I could tell she didn’t want to be there. Every five minutes she’d ask what time it was going to be over. Her body language made it clear she wasn’t comfortable. Every time there was a water break she’d go open up a Harry Potter book.” Whiting was shocked when the girl signed up for the next session.<br />
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“I talked to the girl’s mom,” Whiting said. “I asked `are you sure you want to sign up for the next session?’ The mom said that her daughter considered herself the worst player and not very good. Her confidence and self-esteem were very low.” “She felt self-conscious about being out there. I said, `First of all, everybody at that age is bad. She’s doing a good job. She’s always sprinting. Always hustling.’ “I think the mother communicated the message to her,” Whiting said. “Because the next day there was a complete turnaround. She had enthusiasm and was smiling more. It was almost like I had given her permission to not have to be perfect. I let her know she was just fine.<br />
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“It was okay to not be the best as long as you’re giving your best.”<br />
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mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8333149788158831144.post-52210799697004455652019-05-22T19:20:00.001-07:002019-05-22T20:30:16.655-07:00Chiney - Details behind Sun's departure; Becoming More - Episode 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tiempos"; font-size: 28.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Connecticut
Sun preview: Details behind Chiney Ogwumike’s departure</span></strong> - </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">The unraveling of a five-year love affair began, of all times, over Valentine’s Day weekend.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333;"> </span><span style="color: #333333;">Chiney Ogwumike — the face of the Connecticut Sun and 2014 WNBA Rookie of the Year — had a wandering eye and ESPN looked good. She had begun working at ESPN in 2017 and signed a multi-year contract with the network in 2018. But, the Sun’s leading scorer last season (14.4 points per game) and only All-Star, Ogwumike wanted to broadcast through the NBA playoffs this summer.</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #333333;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">“We realized the NBA playoffs went through June 16 and, then, in order for her to get in basketball shape, we were having the discussion that we wouldn’t have her back until July,” said Miller, Sun coach and general manager. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Missing about a third of the season was problematic, though not a dealbreaker. But a month later, Ogwumike brought more angst to the Sun’s management: She wanted out and was willing to walk away from the WNBA altogether to pursue broadcasting full-time. She would reconsider if she could play with her sister, Nneka, and the Los Angeles Sparks.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>"By March, we realized the likelihood of Chiney ever playing another game in Connecticut was very small,” Miller said. “So, we decided to start discussions with Los Angeles, which certainly weren’t easy because they had all the leverage and certainly the very public conversations with Liz Cambage’s desire to be in L.A., also.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The split became official April
27. The Sun announced they had traded Ogwumike to the Sparks for L.A.’s 2020
first-round pick. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">The seemingly out-of-nowhere
breakup shocked and confused fans. Why would the team get rid of its most
recognizable star for what would likely be a late-round draft pick? <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">“We felt like our fans deserved
to understand what is probably perceived as not enough for an All-Star,” Sun
vice president Amber Cox said. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cox said Ogwumike was either
going to retire and the Sun would get nothing, or they could make a trade.
“Those became our only options,” she said.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Post-trade transparency is not
common in professional sports, but the Sun players and brass have talked openly
about it. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">“All of us were pretty
surprised,” forward Alyssa Thomas said. “She has always wanted to play with her
sister, so not too surprised at that, but for it to happen now? We were pretty
surprised.” <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">“If we really think about it, the
year before we made the playoffs without her, so we’ve been in this situation
before. This gives other people opportunities and more minutes for them,” she
added. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Sun’s depth, transparency and
focus have them feeling nothing like a jilted lover. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jonquel Jones, who started 16
games in 2018, will be the team’s fifth starter in Ogwumike’s place. <span style="color: #333333; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">“For J.J. to step into that
(starting) spot is pretty seamless. It’s not like you’re asking someone who is
technically a bench player to step into a bigger role and she is prepared,”
veteran guard Layshia Clarendon said. “I’m close to Chiney and I’m sad to see her
go, but the depth of this team is ready to step into the role.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before Chiney Ogwumike was on her way to Los Angeles to be reunited with her sister Nneka Ogwumike as a member of the Sparks, she mastered the balancing act of working at ESPN as an NBA basketball analyst while simultaneously playing for the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA. The second episode in the BECOMING MORE series details how Chiney's career goes above and beyond what she does on the court -- and gives fans a glimpse at the grueling schedule and tireless work ethic that makes it possible </span></div>
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<span id="goog_1532957132"></span><span id="goog_1532957133"></span><br />mbredhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18029992258971525338noreply@blogger.com0