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Daphanie Kennedy will miss the team's practice. She's got a pretty good excuse. Kennedy will be in Malibu, Calif. to walk as part of graduation ceremonies at Pepperdine University. When her name is called to receiver her degree in Integrated Marketing Communication, Kennedy will become the first person in her family to graduate.
"(Storm Head Coach) 
Brian (Agler) is being such a nice guy, he's actually letting me go back and walk, being that I'm the first person in my family to actually graduate from a four-year university," Kennedy said after Thursday's Storm practice. "He's giving me the opportunity and I thank him a lot for that. Graduation, it means a lot to me, being the first person. I feel grateful that I have that opportunity to do that."
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Graduation will be an important milestone for Kennedy, and one that might not have happened without basketball. She and her sister grew up in a rough neighborhood in West Oakland raised by their single mother. From a young age, basketball and other sports were a good way to keep busy.
"Being where I'm from," Kennedy says, "you either played sports or you were into something that people shouldn't be into."
Her love for the game of basketball and ability on the court eventually presented Kennedy with opportunities. By high school, when her family had moved to San Diego, Kennedy began to think about a future in the game at the college level or even professionally.
At Pepperdine, Kennedy developed into a star player. She started 19 games as a freshman and was the MVP of the West Coast Conference Tournament after leading the Waves to an unexpected championship as a sophomore. By her senior year, Kennedy was Pepperdine's unquestioned leader, averaging 22.0 points per game to lead the WCC and earning all-conference first team honors. That wasn't necessarily enough to earn much attention from the WNBA, as Kennedy wasn't invited to the league's pre-draft camp or selected earlier this month.
"It really wasn't a big deal, to be drafted," she says. "It would have been nice if it happened, but I really wasn't expecting it coming from a small-time school like Pepperdine and not having a good record. It really wasn't heartbreaking or anything like that. It's just a blessing getting invited to training camp."
As the Storm and other teams completed their training-camp rosters, Kennedy got a valuable assist from one of her former coaches, Kate Paye. The one-time Storm guard had coached at Pepperdine during Kennedy's freshman season and stayed in touch even after moving to first San Diego State and now Stanford. Paye called Agler, her coach in Minnesota, and made the case for Kennedy.
"(She) came highly recommended from Kate Paye and some of the people that coached there at Pepperdine," Agler explained earlier in camp, "so we thought we'd bring her in and take a look."
In turn, Paye advised Kennedy to work hard and be confident in the Storm's camp. So far, she has made the most of her opportunity, impressing with her ability to get to the basket and play in traffic. Kennedy's willingness to fight for the ball in the paint belies her small stature, and she has shown an ability to shoot from the perimeter. Agler praised her play after the first two days of camp, and Kennedy also caught the eye of Storm veteran 
Sheryl Swoopes.
"There's something about her that I like," said Swoopes. "She's very hard-nosed, comes out here once we start playing and it doesn't matter who she's guarding, what she's doing offense or defense - she plays hard."
Kennedy was called upon to be a scorer first and foremost at Pepperdine, but at 5-7 she's a stretch as a shooting guard in the WNBA. She's played both guard positions for the Storm during training camp, and showing the versatility to handle the point at this level would be a major plus.
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Though she averaged 3.1 assists per game as a senior, Kennedy estimates she played the point only about 10-15 percent of the time while at Pepperdine. Even then, she said, "it was usually because other people couldn't handle the rock and the ball needed to be in my hand at that point in time." Still, Kennedy has embraced the challenge and is working to keep her teammates involved without sacrificing her own ability to score.
"I'm getting comfortable with it," she said. "I don't mind being a combo guard or even just playing the point. I like to pass too. I'm getting there."
During the first week of camp, Kennedy has been focused on working hard, routinely staying after practice to get extra shots in. That hasn't stopped her from thinking about Saturday's graduation. On Wednesday evening, she chatted with Jim and Judy Zierick, husband and wife Pepperdine fans who established the Daphanie Kennedy Scholarship for the women's basketball team in her name to honor Kennedy's career and support players following her path. The Ziericks will be there on Saturday and they won't be alone.
"Everybody's excited to see my walk," said Kennedy, who anticipates having 20-30 people in attendance, including her immediate family, some other family members who live in Los Angeles as well as friends and fans who have followed her career.
"I'm not really anxious right now," she said, "but I know when I get there it's kind of going to be like, 'Oh man, I'm actually walking across the stage.'"
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Head Coach Brian Agler