“I love this city!” Wyckoff said. “What’s not to love about Chicago?”
Wyckoff, who joined the Sky after the recent 2005 expansion draft, is now living in Chicago for the first time since she was a child and enjoying all that the city has to offer.
“I really love to shop and go out with friends, and there’s just so much to experience in a city this big,” Wyckoff said.
The 6-foot-1-inch forward’s journey to the Chicago Sky began at age eight, when she joined her first basketball team. One of six children, Wyckoff was born in Lake Forest, Ill., but soon moved to West Chester, Ohio. Her court skills developed quickly, and by the time she was playing for Lakota High School, they had earned her status as a local legend. She was even inducted into the Lakota Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
After being heavily recruited, Wyckoff chose to spend her collegiate years at Florida State University, where she left her mark as one of the ACC’s top players. In addition to receiving first team All-ACC honors in 2001, she was also a two-time member of the ACC All-Defensive team. In her time spent off the court, Wyckoff studied social science education, graduating with her degree in 2001.
After finishing her senior season, she decided to consider playing professionally.
“I hadn’t really planned on it all along,” Wyckoff said. “But I just figured I’d see if I got drafted and then go from there.”
After being drafted 26th overall by the Orlando Miracle—which later became the Connecticut Sun—she made an immediate impact despite her rookie status. By her third season, Wyckoff had become one of the team’s major contributors—ranking among the top five on her team in blocks, steals and three-pointers. Wyckoff also played professionally in Spain during her off-seasons, giving her a chance to experience basketball in a different cultural context and perfect her now-fluent Spanish.
“The culture in Spain was completely different,” Wyckoff said. “The basketball is a little less competitive but very physically demanding. We practiced twice a day, every day.”
While training for the upcoming Sky season, Wyckoff is currently interning at Element 79 Partners, an advertising firm based in Chicago and New York City, and working with their Gatorade Team. “It was a great opportunity, and I’m having a lot of fun with it,” Wyckoff said.
Wyckoff also knows some of the other Sky team members—she is currently sharing an apartment with Stacey Dales-Schuman and is a former teammate of Elaine Powell’s—and is looking forward to developing the kind of team chemistry she’s had with other programs in the past.
“Looking back on my entire career, the memories that really stick with me are the team experiences and the relationships I’ve developed with my teammates,” Wyckoff said. “I’ve been lucky enough to be on teams that were really close and had great chemistry, and that’s what I remember most at the end of the day.”
Wyckoff and the rest of the Sky players will kick off their inaugural season on May 20, taking on the Charlotte Sting in North Carolina.
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