School is In

Posted: July 24, 2003

One of the requirements for ladies who wish to play in the WNBA is that they attend college for four years or play overseas for two. The result is that the league is stocked with intelligent, articulate women who fully understand the importance of higher learning.

We asked some of your favorite Mercury players for their opinions on the value of education and some of their personal experiences. And guess what? They all had intelligent and articulate responses.

MERCURY GUARD EDWINA BROWN

“I think the college requirement in the WNBA is a great idea. They don’t make you get your degree because not a lot of people can graduate in four years. I’ve learned a lot just going through the program at the University of Texas. Our coach, Jody Conradt, one of the best coaches in the game, had the philosophy that education came first.

“I graduated from Texas and majored in sports management with a minor in business administration. I want to be a performance trainer, training athletes without the basketball. I’ve got a lot of ideas to help athletes prepare for the season.

“I’ve never failed a class. In high school I had mostly ‘A’s and ‘B’s, maybe that one ‘C’. Then in college, it was same thing. I always wanted to do better and I had a lot of help. I found mentors that showed me different ways of doing things. I fell in love with math for some reason. People hate math, but I loved it to death. On the basketball court, I had things that I needed to improve on, and I always wanted to stay afterwards and work on it. That’s what I wanted to do in the classroom too.

“One thing that boosted me was that nobody in my family had ever graduated college, so that was a big motivation for me. My sister was fortunate to go for three years, but then we didn’t have enough money for her to continue. Money wasn’t an issue with me getting a scholarship, thank God.

“Every day, every year, becoming a college graduate was what I was striving for. My family never let me forget that no one had done it before me. It was an especially big deal for my grandma. She grew up in hard times and she never had much schooling. I’m not even sure if she even finished high school. I wanted to do that for her. She’s the glow in my eyes, my motivation.

“In the types of situations our neighborhoods are in, education is a way out. If you don’t go to school or you choose to do other activities, more often then not, it’s going to be negative rather than positive. It’s going to get you into drugs or early parenthood, disease.

“If you’re in school, you go to class during the day, then you come home and your parents need to look over you. You need that. You don’t want that constant ‘Do this, do that,’ but you really need that. When you’re growing up, you want you them off your case. You get mad at your parents and then you want to go out and do bad things. But you’ve got to believe that everything they do is working for the good. It’s working for the betterment of your life.”

MERCURY GUARD ANNA DeFORGE

“If you’re an American and you want to get to the WNBA, an education is a must. You’re in college to play basketball and see where that takes you, but first and foremost you need your education. I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing. I haven’t used it yet, but when playing basketball is all said and done, and unfortunately it will end, I will fall back on my degree and use what I’ve learned.

“My parents were great about my education. They were always on me about my grades and they kept me very disciplined. If I got a C, I would have to study that subject a little more and put a little more time into it. That discipline and them supporting me and conditioning me to want to excel in school carried over into college and it’s helped me in every aspect of my life. I know in basketball it doesn’t seem like an education would help you skills-wise, but the things that you learn like working hard, putting the time in, and not taking short cuts, carry over into your work ethics.

“At the time, of course, I didn’t like it. I didn’t always think my parents had my best interests at heart. I thought they were very demanding in not letting me have fun, but when I look back on it, they were just doing their job as parents and they did a fine job.

“I use being a professional basketball player as the tool, as the motivator to demonstrate the importance of education to kids today. There’s a long duration of time you’re going to have to put in and it’s not just the four years in high school. It goes well beyond that. If you want to be successful, you’ve got to know and it’s got to be instilled in you, that nothing comes easy. There’s always going to be obstacles and adversities that you’re going to have to battle through. It’s the people who, when they’re knocked down, they get up and fight through and get over it, are going to succeed in the end.

“I’m not sure anything anyone could have said to me while I was I high school would have sunk in. You just have to go through it. Sometimes, when you’re growing up, you just think you know everything. You’re very stubborn and bullheaded, and you think you’re just the smartest person that’s ever walked the face of the earth. I don’t know if it would have been necessarily anything my parents could have said. It would have been someone who I looked up to that I never got to see, like Michael Jordan or Brett Favre.

“That seems weird, but it’s more effective coming from someone whose every word you hang on. If it came from someone like that, then it really would have stuck in my mind. Those are just the people who you look up to and hold in higher regard.

“My responsibility now as a professional athlete is to share what I’ve learned. To not be selfish, and through my camps and speaking engagements, through community relations and visits to schools and hospitals, spread what I’ve learned and what people have passed on to me, then pass that on to the kids and hopefully open their eyes to what there is out there.”

MERCURY FORWARD PLENETTE PIERSON

“Requiring WNBA players go to college for four years is a great standard to have for athletes in general. Throughout their careers, a lot of athletes are labeled as people who aren’t getting an education or doing the things they need to do in order to play basketball, they’re just in college for basketball. I think it’s great that they require you to finish four years of school. For the ones who weren’t the greatest students, they know they have to go to college and that might become a favorite thing for them to do.

“My major at Texas Tech was communication studies with a minor in mass communications. What I really want to do with that is be a color commentator. I would also like to be a motivational speaker and talk to student-athletes on how to deal with adversity throughout their career and throughout their lives.

“You may not like school and studying growing up, but I’ve always told myself that basketball is not always going to be around. Whatever your sport is, it’s not always going to be there for you. You might get injured and may never be able to play again. You’re going to have to find some other foundation to get your income or your happiness in life.

“Some people just love their job. In order to get any job, you’re going to have some type of education. Try to make it fun. Try to find a subject that you enjoy learning about and take that to it’s fullest.”